No budging on Good Friday Agreement, says Ahern

THE Good Friday Agreement has already been reviewed and must not be re-negotiated again, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

Mr Ahern rejected comments by the Democratic Unionist Party that the 1998 accord was now dead and that a new beginning was needed.

Mr Ahern said the agreement was reviewed for most of 2004 with political parties in Northern Ireland and was accepted by the DUP and other political parties in Northern Ireland before the aborted power-sharing deal last December.

“We’ve had the review and the review is finished,” Mr Ahern said after attending the seventh British-Irish Council summit on the Isle of Man yesterday.

“We respect the good relationships we have built up with unionism. But the basis for moving forward is with the Good Friday Agreement.”

He said altering the agreement now was “not a possibility.”

DUP leader Ian Paisley said after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday that a new beginning was needed because the 1998 accord was now dead.

“I think it should be given a reasonable burial,” he added.

But Mr Ahern said the matter was briefly discussed at the Douglas summit and representatives from the eight member countries, including British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, agreed with his view.

Mr Ahern noted that the integral consultation process was continuing within the IRA and he awaited its outcome.

Government representatives at the BIC summit, including Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, supported the implementation of the agreement and the speedy resolution of the power-sharing executive.

An agreed communique said: “The council recognised the ongoing commitment of the two governments to the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and noted, following the recent Westminster elections, the re-engagement with the political parties in Northern Ireland with a view to moving the process decisively forward.

“The council looked forward to the restoration of the devolved institutions, established under the agreement, as soon as possible.”

Following talks with Mr Blair on Thursday evening, Mr Paisley declared the Good Friday Agreement dead.

He told reporters: “It never had the support from the unionist community it ought to have had to make it stick.

“The Prime Minister agreed with us it must be a new beginning.

“You just cannot go back and do the same thing over and over again.”

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said after separate discussions with Mr Blair that the agreement still stood and was “not negotiable.”