Ahern to meet Blair in bid to revive Assembly

The Taoiseach was today due to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Rome following calls on them to redraw their plans for reviving the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The two leaders were due to review efforts to restore devolution following the Ulster Unionist executive’s rejection of the two governments’ joint declaration for implementing the Good Friday Agreement.

The Ulster Unionists said after their meeting in Belfast yesterday that the joint declaration did not “provide a satisfactory basis for progress” in the peace process.

And they also called for “radical change” to the two governments’ plans.

Following the meeting of the 110-member UUP executive, the party welcomed the setting up of an independent monitoring body scrutinising paramilitary activity and also the power given to the government to impose sanctions on those groups who fail to honour their commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.

The UUP also insisted that there had to be “effective acts of completion by republicans before Sinn Féin can participate in a future Northern Ireland Executive”.

But the party expressed grave concern about proposals to scale down the army presence in Northern Ireland, to devolve policing and justice powers from Westminster, and to grant terror suspects who have been on the run since the Troubles to return to the province without facing imprisonment.

A British government official last night insisted London and Dublin would stick by the joint declaration.

“We will study the outcome of the Executive meeting closely,” he said. “However, the two governments are firmly committed to the joint declaration which they believe provides the basis for political progress.”

Devolution in Northern Ireland has been suspended since October last year when allegations of IRA spying threatened to lead to the collapse of power-sharing.

Northern Ireland is currently being ruled by a team of four ministers drawn from Westminster.

At the Labour Party conference on Thursday, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy insisted this was “unacceptable”.

He repeated British government calls for an end to paramilitary activity by the IRA and loyalists.

But Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has insisted republicans will not go to the IRA requesting a fresh peace process initiative without a firm date for Assembly elections in Northern Ireland.

In May, the British Prime Minister cancelled Assembly elections four days into the campaign because he felt that it would be impossible to restore the power-sharing Executive without an historic declaration from the IRA that it was ending paramilitary activity for good.

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair were due today to assess recent efforts to revive the Assembly and debate whether Stormont elections should go ahead before Christmas.

Sinn Féin has been critical in recent days at the focus on republicans in the peace process, insisting that it is not just the IRA who has to move the peace process forward.

Mr McGuinness said that the Irish and British governments must also address aspects of the Good Friday Agreement which they have not implemented, and David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists must guarantee the stability of political institutions if devolution is restored.