Assembly return 'could be delayed two years': DUP

The return of the Northern Ireland Assembly could be delayed by two years, the DUP has warned.

The DUP sounded the warning in a four-page document given to the British government outlining a series of sanctions the party could take in response to moves by ministers to bolster the IRA’s decision to end its armed campaign.

With unionists furious about the failure to consult them about the proposed disbandment of three Northern Ireland-based battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment, DUP sources said the party could over the next two years frustrate efforts to revive devolution.

After meeting Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain in London, the party said not only had it raised concerns about the scaling down of the Army presence in the North but they were also angry about the failure to reconstitute the Policing Board.

Mr Paisley said the IRA was having its own way since declaring an end to its armed campaign.

“We told him that the majority of the people of Northern Ireland are very angry,” the DUP leader said.

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said: “The prospects of a return to devolution have been damaged very considerably by the actions of this government. The community in Northern Ireland is outraged at what the government has done.”

The DUP are expected to tell Tony Blair in Downing Street tomorrow they will disrupt British government plans to hold talks in the autumn about reviving devolution.

They will also tell him the DUP will prolong the assessment period for republicans to prove the IRA statement is for real before they will even consider going into government with Sinn Féin.

Nationalists, however, accused the DUP of failing to face up to the reality that there was going to be change.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey said his party was keen to see the Good Friday Agreement implemented and power-sharing government restored as quickly as possible.

“Even the DUP must now accept that the only situation in which they will have executive power will be in the Good Friday Agreement institutions alongside Sinn Féin,” he said

The SDLP’s Alban Maginness said Mr Paisley and his colleagues were being confronted with the fact that they could not exercise a veto.

“Instead of issuing futile threats to the Policing Board, they should back its work in implementing Patten for the benefit of everybody,” he said.

“Instead of saving the RIR, they should ask that the money spent on it go on policing instead.”

Mr Hain, who also met relatives of people killed the 1993 Shankill bomb attack over his decision to release IRA bomber Sean Kelly after returning him to prison last month, moved to reassure unionists that security concerns would guide the Government’s plans for demilitarisation.

“Nobody will take any risk with the security and safety of any individual citizen in Northern Ireland,” he told reporters. “There will be no precipitous drawdown of the Royal Irish Regiment.”

It also emerged Tony Blair will hold his first meeting with Sinn Féin at Downing Street tomorrow since the IRA’s announcement.