Assembly resumes amid party squabbles

THE peace process lurched forward again yesterday as the Stormont assembly resumed for a last-ditch effort to make power-sharing work.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern praised Northern politicians for managing to gather in the same room, but the brief opening session was beset by bitterness and point-scoring.

DUP leader Ian Paisley said it was not impossible for his party to work with Sinn Féin, but it would take the destruction of the IRA to make it happen.

“If I could get the last drop of blood from the republican stone, then I would do it,” he said.

“They have still kept some of their guns, that is quite evident. They have not only done that, they are still engaged in crime,” he added.

Mr Paisley also expressed outrage that an assembly member aligned with a loyalist terror group had joined the ranks of the UUP bloc — entitling the UUP to the same number of cabinet seats as the DUP if a cross-community administration is formed.

The first meeting of the assembly since its suspension in October 2002 began with a minute’s silence in memory of Ballymena teenager Michael McIlveen, murdered in a sectarian attack last week.

Eileen Bell, of the cross-community Alliance Party, took the speaker’s chair and read a statement from Northern Secretary Peter Hain.

“Now is the time for Northern Ireland politicians to shoulder the responsibility for their people’s future as they have been elected to do so,” the statement said.

The assembly will sit for six weeks with the aim of forming a cross-community executive.

If, as seems likely, that fails, a further 12-week session will be held in the autumn with a final cut-off deadline of November 24.

If a powersharing deal fails to materialise, the two governments will revert to “Plan B”, which will see the Republic given much more influence over the North.

The assembly would also be mothballed, with salaries and allowances for its members stopped.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said: “We are very, very focused. This will not be a talking shop.”

SF chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said that “behind the scenes” talks would now begin in earnest to try and cut a deal.

The Taoiseach welcomed the assembly’s return.

“It’s good to see elected politicians sitting down in the same room again.

“The politicians have the power to form a new government, and they should use that power as soon as possible,” he said.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said his party was determined to see the full restoration of the assembly.

The SDLP will take part in debates to test if the British Government listens to the views of the assembly members even though they are not allowed to vote on policy.