Deadlock 'threatens Assembly': McGimpsey

The Northern Ireland Assembly will not survive another year’s suspension, leading Ulster Unionist Michael McGimpsey warned today.

Mr McGimpsey said if the deadlock over devolution was not broken within weeks, Stormont would close.

“Anybody who imagines that Stormont can go on to after the next general election is living in cloud-cuckoo-land,” he said.

“It’s unsustainable, the shambles that we have up there with all those MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) floating about, drawing big salaries, not doing the jobs they are being paid to do. All the infrastructure, including that huge building, is just sitting there.

“We are now two years down the line from suspension – anybody who imagines we can run like this for a third year is frankly not living in the real world.”

The Belfast South MLA also told BBC Radio Ulster he thought the British government’s scepticism about IRA disbandment was tactical.

Efforts to restore power-sharing are continuing in the wake of last month’s talks at Leeds Castle, Kent. A Sinn Féin delegation is due to meet Bertie Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern in Dublin on Monday.

Rev Ian Paisley’s landmark meeting with the Taoiseach in Dublin this week was hailed a success, with both sides describing the talks as useful.

But the bitter row between the DUP and the SDLP shows no signs of ending and SDLP negotiator Sean Farren has urged the Democratic Unionists to declare their full support for power sharing and cross-border co-operation.

Nationalists claim Rev Paisley’s party is trying to radically rewrite the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.