Northern leaders must stop 'brinkmanship'

Leaders in Northern Ireland must stop using "brinkmanship" politics if peace is to be brought to the province, Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen said tonight.

Addressing the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, Mr Cowen said the time for "game playing" was over and statesmanship should prevail.

His comments came as the North faces a renewed crisis, with Unionists promising to pull out of the Stormont Assembly and Sinn Fein refusing to sit on the board for police reform.

He lashed out at UUP leader David Trimble saying: "Partnership government is not there at the whim or favour of the Unionist party leadership."

But he reserved criticism for Sinn Fein saying: "It is necessary also to state that it is not right for Republicans to opt out of their responsibilities and participate in the process of change that police reform now envisages."

Decommissioning of IRA weapons remains an "indispensable part" of bringing peace to the north, he said at the conference of Ireland’s main governing party in west Dublin.

And, the day after Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid declared the ceasefires of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and Loyalist Volunteer Forces to be over, he said: "The gun has no place in Irish politics."

"The truth is that the days of the men of violence are over. The people of Ireland are entitled to live in peace and harmony.

"Every shade of opinion has to respect the rights of others to be persuaded by the force of argument rather than the force of arms.

"No part of the community, not least in the Loyalist areas, can have their concerns and grievances properly addressed by a reversal to paramilitary violence.

"Three years of real political involvement has already begun to overturn 30 wasted years of violence. Politics works."

He added: "The game playing on all sides must end. We have seen quite enough brinkmanship and not enough statesmanship in the peace process."

Mr Cowen, who is chairing meetings of the UN Security Council throughout October, also supported the stance of the US against international terrorism.

But he said he would use Ireland’s top role in the Security Council to bring humanitarian aid to Afghanistan - "a nation subjected to one of the harshest and most ruthless regimes in the world."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will quadruple the amount of taxpayers’ money given to the world’s poorest nations by 2007, he added.

Earlier in the day delegates passed a motion saying Fianna Fail should stand for elections in the North for the first time in the party’s 75 year history.

They called on the party to "organise and contest elections on a 32 county basis" although party sources privately admit that such a move is unlikely to be passed as policy by the National Executive Council.

They also carried a vote claiming the party is the "voice of Irish Republicanism".

Delegate Malcolm Byrne, from Wexford, attacked "pseudo-Republicans", saying no true Republican would seek to undermine the Gardai, fail to condemn punishment beatings or have links with terrorist organisations abroad, apparently referring to Sinn Fein.

Issues across the whole spectrum of policy and the public services were also raised throughout the day.

Delegates called on health minister Michael Martin to end the "two-tier" health service which separates private patients from state ’medical card’ patients.

Tourism minister James McDaid warned that tough times lay ahead for the Irish tourist industry following the terrorist attacks on America.

He said businesses would have to be patient and wait for the return of millions of visitors from the USA.

And Enterprise and Employment Minister Tom Kitt said the "smooth transition" of the implementation of the Euro on January 1 was a "key priority" for the government.

He called on shoppers to punish traders who try to cash in on the Euro changeover by taking their business elsewhere.