Sinn Féin to review power sharing talks progress

Sinn Féin officials will meet in Dublin today to review the state of the talks aimed at restoring power sharing.

The meeting comes amid warnings from republicans and nationalists that they will reject proposals which fall short of the Good Friday Agreement.

As British and Irish officials worked on a formula to restore devolution, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was preparing to brief colleagues on the party’s national executive about recent negotiations with both governments.

The governments and Democratic Unionists were warned by chief negotiator Martin McGuinness last night that a comprehensive deal, which would involve a groundbreaking IRA statement on its future, was only possible within the terms of the Agreement.

“Sinn Féin are up for a deal,” the Mid Ulster MP.

“We have been working hard with both governments all week to try and achieve progress but the bottom line is that the DUP need to accept that a comprehensive deal is not possible short of the Good Friday Agreement.

“Sinn Féin will not settle for anything less than the Agreement.

“The fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement – power sharing, equality, all-Ireland institutions, human rights and crucially the checks and balances, and the protections designed to prevent unionist abuse of power, are not up for negotiation.

“They were agreed by all of the parties to the talks, including the two governments, and they must be defended in the face of attempts to see them diluted. That is the basis on which we are engaged with the two governments.”

At the end of last month’s Leeds Castle talks in Kent, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he believed the difficult issues of the IRA winding down and carrying out full disarmament could be resolved.

However the provisionals have put its statement on hold until unionist and nationalist negotiators sort out their differences over power sharing.

The Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists want changes to the way the Assembly, power sharing executive and cross-border institutions will operate.

However the nationalist SDLP and Sinn Féin have accused the party of trying to rewrite the Agreement.

They have also claimed the British and Irish governments have encouraged the DUP to think this can be achieved.

Officials in London, Belfast and Dublin are working on a paper that will address how ministers will be elected at Stormont, their accountability to their cabinet colleagues and the Assembly, and the future operation of cross-border institutions involving the Irish Government.

As yet, they have not indicated when the paper will be released.

However after a meeting in Dundalk with Irish foreign minister Dermot Ahern, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan insisted what was currently being discussed was not good enough.

“Without getting into the detail, the fact is the governments both know that we are far from impressed by some of the options they are canvassing,” he told PA News.

“It is our view that it is not the Agreement which has to change but the DUP which has to change its negotiating position.”