'Dublin considering freezing out Sinn Féin' - Adams

The Government is contemplating freezing Sinn Féin out of the political process in Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams claimed tonight.

As British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin tomorrow, the Sinn Féin president expressed fears that both governments could be moving towards his party’s exclusion over ongoing IRA activity.

The West Belfast MP said during a visit to the Ballymun, Dublin, that recent attacks on his party by politicians in the Republic marked a return to “the old politics of conflict and division”.

He said: “Gone are the concepts of inclusivity, of dialogue, of seeking agreement and of working together.

“In my view the Irish Government is actively considering the exclusion of Sinn Féin from the political process in the north as an option.

“It is actively considering going back to the old agenda, the failed policies and attitudes of the past.

“This, like the current negative politics, the negative campaigning, is wrong. It is destructive and it betrays an absence of real political debate on the part of the establishment and it is something that Sinn Féin will not engage in.”

Tensions between Sinn Féin and the Government have been mounting following a series of public attacks on the party by Justice Minister Michael McDowell over its links to the IRA.

Earlier this week, Mr McDowell claimed members of Sinn Féin had been involved in criminal activity in Dublin.

Republicans have also been under fire following the attempted kidnapping of Belfast republican, Bobby Tohill last month in an incident which Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde blamed on the IRA.

Even though the Provisionals’ leadership has denied authorising any attempt to abduct Mr Tohill, British and Irish ministers have been under pressure from unionists to impose sanctions on Sinn Féin during talks on devolution.

The four-member Independent Monitoring Commission, which was set up last year to assess all paramilitary activity, has been asked by both governments to bring forward its first report to May.

On Tuesday, the commission hinted it could produce a report specifically on the Tohill incident.

Northern Ireland’s politicians have also been getting increasingly anxious about the pace of talks to restore devolution in recent weeks.

As he met Mr Blair in Downing Street today, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan insisted parties needed to focus on implementing the Good Friday Agreement in its entirety.

The Foyle MLA said: “The best possible thing is not to be looking for a fall back at all, but it is to be looking to a new improved plan A, with no ambivalence from any party on the question of paramilitarism or the institutions and with no ambiguity.”

During a House of Commons debate today on justice reforms, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy warned that ongoing IRA and loyalist activity was undermining confidence in the Agreement.

“Each corrosive act of paramilitary crime or violence eats into the hope to which the Agreement gave rise,” he said.

But Mr Murphy insisted that despite this progress was occurring in Northern Ireland.

“Towns and cities are vibrant and we are no longer exporting our young people,” he argued.

“We have the lowest level of troops since 1970 and while every violent death is a dreadful tragedy, not so long ago we measured the toll in hundreds and now they are counted in single figures.

“So much has been achieved, so much progress has been made and there is more to do to build the kind of society that the people of Northern Ireland deserve. Paramilitarism has no place in it.”