Sinn Féin want talks pace to speed up

British and Irish ministers need to step up the pace of talks designed to restore devolution in Northern Ireland, a senior Sinn Féin figure said today.

Conor Murphy echoed concerns from the cross community Alliance Party at London and Dublin’s handling of the review of the Good Friday Agreement, claiming if they continued at their current pace the talks would last for 10 years.

After meeting the nationalist SDLP and Alliance at Stormont, the Sinn Féin Assembly group leader said concern was mounting that both governments had been “less than energetic” in the review.

“Whether the DUP’s proposals have mesmerised them or not, I do not know,” the Newry and Armagh MLA said.

“Certainly pro-Agreement parties are concerned about the way the review is being handled. There is definitely a feeling that there is no degree of urgency.

“There is no reason why this can’t be short, sharp and focussed.

“It could be completed in a week and certainly in the timescale that has been loosely talked about by the governments.

“It is now three months since the Assembly elections and we are only really getting down to tentative talks. If we continue at the pace we are going, we are going to be here for 10 years.”

British and Irish ministers this week took a break from the review – two weeks after it started – while Parliament was in recess.

However a number of meetings between Assembly parties are taking place.

Last week Alliance MLA Seamus Close expressed frustration at the pace of the review.

Parties will be watching Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s visit to Northern Ireland on Thursday for signs that both governments have a clear strategy for the review.

The Taoiseach is due to deliver a keynote address on the peace process during his visit to Coleraine, Omagh and Belfast.

Earlier today, SDLP negotiator Sean Farren was also critical but attacked the DUP for failing to come up with proposals on the Agreement’s cross border structures.

The former Stormont Finance Minister, whose party met Sinn Féin, the DUP and Alliance, said: “If this review is to be realistic, the DUP have got to be realistic.

“They have got to start demonstrating that they are addressing all the issues that need to be addressed. Our problem is not an internal Northern Irish problem but a multi-relationship issue involving north and south and between the east and west.

“It also involves human rights, equality and policing. Unless all those issues are on the table then there is no meaningful addressing of the issues which need to be addressed.

“The fact that the DUP has begun to show something whereas in the past they did not show anything may well have mesmerised the two governments but it does not mesmerise us. What they are showing is not all that new to those of us involved in the Brooke-Mayhew talks 13 years ago.”

Sinn Féin proposed at the weekend the Stormont Executive should be reconfigured to enable three new government departments to be created covering equality, policing and justice and children’s affairs.

However, the party said the total number of government departments should remain at 10 – with the Departments of Employment and Learning, Regional Development and Social Development having their powers redistributed.

Mr Farren queried whether there was a need for a Department of Equality, arguing it was an issue which cut across several branches of government.

But Conor Murphy defended the idea.

“When the SDLP and Ulster Unionists reached agreement on the government departments we were told equality was a cross cutting issue and that the Office of First and Deputy First Minister would ensure it would permeate throughout government departments,” the Sinn Féin Assembly member said.

“What we got was gridlock on equality issues. But we are prepared to discuss our proposals with all parties in the review and to hear their ideas.”