Hain meeting DUP Assembly team

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain was today preparing to face Assembly members from the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.

Mr Hain was due to meet the 33-strong DUP Assembly team and was expected to face questions on a variety of issues including the forthcoming marching season.

It will be his first encounter with many MLA’s from the party, which is the largest grouping in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

A DUP source said: “Peter Hain was keen to meet the Assembly team.

“It is an opportunity for our members to raise issues such as water charges, education cuts and health with him.

“However I think the issue of parades is also going to feature strongly as we face into marching season.”

On Friday night, 29 people were injured during rioting by nationalists following an Orange Order parade in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast.

In his speech to republicans in Bodenstown, Co Kildare, Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy accused the Orange Order of stoking tensions over marches at a time of political sensitivity, with the IRA due to respond to Gerry Adams’ call for it to consider abandoning violence for purely democratic means.

Mr Murphy, the MP for Newry and Armagh, warned that marching disputes had the potential to undermine political progress in efforts to revive devolution and power-sharing.