Cowen insists on elections to break deadlock

Foreign Minister Cowen insisted today that Northern Ireland Assembly elections must take place to break the political deadlock.

Speaking in Dublin during a round of talks between party leaders, Brian Cowen said this had been the Government’s view since the day the institutions were suspended.

His comments came after Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness warned that no elections this year could spell the end of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Cowen said: “We just simply have to have elections.

“That is the Irish Government’s position from the first day it was suggested to us they were going to be suspended. It was the day they were suspended.

“We have never agreed with that position. We have constantly argued for their reinstatement, for dates so that people can actually recognise them, that the responsibilities they can take up have every prospect of being adjudicated on by people.

“That is what democracy is about.”

He said this was not the consistent position of the Government and that he would be communicating this to the British Secretary of State Paul Murphy this afternoon.