Lifelong foes Adams and Paisley to meet at Stormont

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams will come face to face at a meeting in Stormont today.

It is a tentative but possibly significant step towards the restoration of power-sharing in the North.

The men are expected to lead their respective delegations to the meeting of the Preparation for Government Committee, at which the two parties will discuss issues that would arise were devolution to occur. It is unclear, however, whether Mr Paisley and Mr Adams, bitter enemies for more than three decades, will address each other directly.

Under the timeline announced by the two governments at St Andrew’s last week, the parties have until November 10 to indicate whether they will accept the latest plan to restore power-sharing.

If they do, Mr Paisley and Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness will be nominated as First Minister and Deputy First Minister respectively on November 24.

Provided Sinn Féin has endorsed the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and the DUP has shown willingness to share power with the party, devolution will be restored on March 26.

However, the two governments have made clear that the deal would require the approval of the electorate before then.

That could be done by way of new elections for the Northern Assembly in early March, or a cross-border referendum similar to the one that ratified the Good Friday Agreement.

However, Fine Gael and Labour have made clear their concerns over a referendum in the Republic to endorse the plan.

The Good Friday Agreement needed the endorsement of the electorate in the Republic because it required that the Constitution be amended. The Government is currently seeking advice from Attorney General Rory Brady on whether the new plan similarly affects the Constitution. If so, another referendum would be held.

But Fine Gael and Labour fear such a referendum could hand Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Government a massive publicity boost ahead of next summer’s general election.

A Fine Gael spokesman said party leader Enda Kenny would seek a full briefing on the matter from the Government. But the spokesman stressed that if the new plan involved only minor changes to what was previously agreed, a referendum would not be required. “If a political imprimatur is required, then the unified vote of the Dáil and Seanad should be sufficient, and Fine Gael would see no need for a constitutional referendum,” he said.

A Labour spokesman said: “It’s our view that unless it’s absolutely clear that a referendum is required for constitutional purposes, then there is no case for holding a referendum at all.

“Clearly we are concerned ... that any attempt would be made to use the St Andrew’s agreement as a tool to boost the Government’s electoral prospects.”

A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach said she did not know why the opposition parties were suspicious. “The Taoiseach has never looked at Northern Ireland as [having] any electoral benefit to himself, and I’m sure it won’t be any different on this occasion.”