Civic forum should be reconvened, urges SDLP

Northern Ireland’s Civic Forum should be reconvened to play a part in next month’s review of the Good Friday Agreement, the British and Irish Governments were urged today.

In their submission on the review, which begins on February 3, the nationalist SDLP said the 60-member body of trade unionists, businessmen, farmers and members of the community and voluntary sector, should be asked for its views on the Agreement.

The forum, which was set up to give civic society a say during devolution on issues facing the Stormont Assembly, has been labelled a waste of taxpayers’ money by Northern Ireland’s largest party, the Democratic Unionists, who want it scrapped.

Ulster Unionist peer Lord Kilcloney also last week called the forum an expensive talking shop, and said it should be axed after the review.

The Civic Forum first met in October 2000 under the chairmanship of Chris Gibson, but has not been active for some time.

Its more prominent members include loyalist politician Gary McMichael, and Donncha MacNiallais, who represented nationalist residents in the Bogside area of Derry during marching disputes with the Protestant Apprentice Boys.

The SDLP, whose submission was released today by former Stormont ministers Sean Farren and Carmel Hanna, and party chairman Alex Attwood, said the Civic Forum should be asked to look at its own operation and other issues affecting the Agreement.

The party also argued:

:: The review must not be a renegotiation of the Agreement and should be short and intensive, with the participants meeting three times a week.

:: Northern Ireland’s power-sharing institutions should not be blamed for the breakdown of devolution. Rather it was the unwillingness of parties to work the institutions properly, and of paramilitaries to honour their commitments under the Agreement, which were at fault.

:: North-South institutions should be expanded, with the Irish Government and any future administration at Stormont increasing co-operation and cross-border implementation bodies.

:: There should be greater co-operation between a Stormont Executive, the British and Irish governments, and devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands through the British Irish Council.

:: There can be no diminution of human rights and equality commitments in the Agreement.

:: The Agreement’s pledges to those who lost relatives or survived incidents during the Troubles should be honoured, vindicating their right to remember what happened.

:: All of the accord’s commitments on tackling sectarianism and promoting reconciliation should be delivered, with its provisions on symbols and parity of esteem for the identity, ethos and aspirations of nationalists and nationalists respected.

:: The review should acknowledge the failure to normalise society in Northern Ireland by scaling down the military presence and handing over British army bases for civilian use.

:: It must recognise that the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont would mark the final stage in the overhaul of law and order, but the failure of all parties to participate in new policing structures has made the creation of a normalised society and achievement of real community policing more difficult.

:: In the event of the review not being successful, and devolution not being restored, consideration should be given to Assembly members’ salaries and allowances.

:: There should be regular meetings of a Good Friday Agreement implementation group.