Paisley attends 'farce' with Sinn Féin

The British and Irish governments got Ian Paisley to sit down at the same table as Gerry Adams today at the start of a review of the Good Friday Agreement which they hope will restore devolution to Northern Ireland.

But the Democratic Unionist Party leader insisted he did not, and would not negotiate with Sinn Féin.

“There is a difference between sitting in the room and negotiating your life, territory and all your liberty away,” said Mr Paisley.

“I made it clear we are not negotiating with IRA/Sinn Féin. There were no negotiations today.”

As the review got underway Mr Paisley – who sees Tony Blair on Thursday to put radical proposals to him for the way forward – branded the 90-minute review opening as a farce.

“Today was the farce of everyone making a statement. It was only to please the hovernments, to let them say they got everyone in the same room.”

Any hopes that he would be moderating his stand against Sinn Féin being in government, while the IRA retains its weapons, were dismissed.

“IRA/Sinn Féin are not in the frame at all,” he said about the proposals he would put to the British Prime Minister.

Immediately it became clear that the British and Irish governments face a mammoth task in seeking a resolution to the seemingly intractable political deadlock in Northern Ireland.

While Mr Paisley seeks to renegotiate the Agreement the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, insists it has to stay and says he will not accept it being “tweaked, twiddled or subverted”.

The review is being jointly chaired by Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowan.

At a news conference Mr Murphy said the opening day had been “very civil and very courteous.”

But he said the lack of trust and confidence of the past year or more had to be addressed as well as the stability of the institutions, paramilitary activity and implementation of all aspects of the Agreement.

Those were “very serious and very big issues” to be dealt with and it would not be easy, he said.

Mr Murphy said he wanted the review to be as brisk as possible, no one wanted it to drag on for months and months.

But he made it clear it wouldn’t be resolved in the short term either, revealing there would be a review of the review’s progress at around Easter.

“We have not set a deadline but we want to ensure we deal with this review as quickly as possible.”

Asked if he thought there would be success Mr Murphy responded honestly: “I don’t know, I can’t say, because I’m not a clairvoyant.”

And revealing that he was more hopeful than confident, he added: “All of us know here in Northern Ireland that the unexpected can happen, agreement can occur.”

Mr Cowan insisted that the fundamentals of the Agreement were not up for re-negotiation.

Nevertheless he said in the review there might be “practical, sensible proposals that would improve the operation of the Agreement.”

Those who propose such changes in the review would have to try to persuade others of their merits.

“We are open to considering change that would be capable of attracting a wide measure of consensus. In the meantime the Agreement remains the agenda,” said Mr Cowan.

He insisted the Good Friday Agreement was there to stay. “Every time this process hits problems there are people who have been prepared to suggest the process is over. This process is a robust process.

“I know it is challenging but every time we try to come to a solution the sceptics raise their heads and say this Agreement is about to collapse – it won’t collapse."