Adams insists agreement is not up for renegotiation

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was today set to repeat his insistence that there can be no renegotiation of Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday agreement.

He was telling a republican commemoration ceremony in the Republic that last month’s failure to reach agreement with the Ulster Unionists ahead of new Northern Ireland Assembly elections should not be allowed to cloud his party’s political judgment.

In a prepared speech he stressed “We are committed to this process and we do not intend to walk away from it.

“Nor do we intend to allow others to deny or escape from their obligations with respect to this process.”

“There cannot and will not be any re-negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.

“There can be no new agreement. But there obviously is a need to make sure the unfinished business of the agreement is completed.”

Mr Adams, speaking in Edentubber, Co Louth, said it was now more than a year since the suspension by Britain of Northern Ireland’s political institutions – a move, he added, that “caused enormous frustration and anger among all of us who have vested so much in building the peace process, in constructing the Good Friday Agreement and in pursuit of the full implementation of the Agreement.”

He charged that the approach of both the British and Irish governments before and since the suspension had “tested the patience of republicans to the limit.

“We have good cause to be disappointed and good cause to be angry – but we must not allow this to cloud our political judgment.

“We are committed to this process and we do not intend to walk away from it.

Nor do we intend to allow others to deny or escape from their obligations with respect to this process.

“In the run-up to the summer months the Sinn Féin leadership initiated an intensive dialogue with Ulster Unionists. Our objective was to try and ensure that people living on the interfaces had as peaceful a summer as possible. And although some areas continued to face difficulties, in the main our dialogue succeeded.

“We also sought to ensure that the election, which we were demanding, would take place in a climate most conducive to bringing about restored political institutions on a stable basis.

“This intense dialogue between the UUP and Sinn Féin has been a hugely important development in itself.

“Notwithstanding the present difficulties and whatever the explanation from the UUP about their failure to deliver on what they had agreed to, this must be protected.

The task facing us has undoubtedly been made much more difficult by the position adopted by the UUP. But dialogue, a genuine dialogue, with them is key to future political progress. So, we will return to this in the wake of the election.

Mr Adams accused the Ulster Unionists of “walking away” from a pre-election deal.

“For the record let me state again. The culmination of our discussions with the UUP was an agreement on a choreographed sequence of statements and events to give public expression to that agreement.

“This included statements and actions from Sinn Féin, the IRA, the UUP and British and Irish governments.

“Sinn Féin delivered our part of this sequence as agreed.

“The IRA delivered their part of the sequence as agreed.

“It was then that the UUP walked away. Only they can explain why. They have yet to adequately or satisfactorily do so.

“And whatever their reason or explanation it was certainly not because republicans did not deliver.”