McGuinness to meet NI Secretary

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness is due to meet Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy today after another warning to the IRA that it must stop all paramilitary and criminal activity if power sharing is to return to Northern Ireland.

The meeting will follow talks at Downing Street involving Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, their ministers and senior policemen from both sides of the border.

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern have been briefed by Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde and the Garda commissioner Noel Conroy, on their belief that the IRA carried out the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast in December.

Confirming he accepted the conclusion of both police forces that the robbery was the work of the Provisional IRA, Mr Blair warned that republican involvement in paramilitarism and criminality was an obstacle to progress in the political process.

“The obstacle now to a lasting and durable settlement in Northern Ireland is the continuing paramilitary activity and criminal activity of the IRA,” Mr Blair said.

“It has got to stop. It has got to stop in its entirety. There cannot be any compromise with that. If it is given up the process can move forward on an inclusive basis.”

The Northern Bank raid has shattered hopes in London and Dublin that efforts last year to restore power sharing at Stormont – involving unionists, republicans and nationalists – could bear fruit early this year.

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists have demanded a series of sanctions against Sinn Féin, including exclusion from any devolved government, the withdrawal of House of Commons privileges from the party’s MPs and a clampdown on its fund raising activities in the US.

The British government has also been discussing with parties in Northern Ireland a future role for the Assembly if power sharing cannot return.

The DUP and the Alliance Party have urged the governments to back their idea of a voluntary coalition involving their parties and the SDLP, arguing that such a system already operates successfully in Scotland.

But nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan has shown little inclination to back the voluntary coalition, and has instead promoted his own party’s proposal that 11 commissioners be appointed to run the Stormont Executive Department and Assembly committees until the North’s 108 MLA’s can take over.

The DUP has also suggested a Corporate Assembly model in which Stormont committees assume control of the executive department and take key decisions.

Sinn Féin delegations meeting in Hillsborough Castle today will include West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty, South Down MLA Catriona Ruane and Meath by-election candidate Joe Reilly.