McGuinness: 'Paisley has no more excuses'

The Rev Ian Paisley was challenged today to stop hiding behind rhetoric and show real political leadership by sharing power with Sinn Féin.

At a republican commemoration south of the Irish border, Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness claimed during talks last year that the British and Irish governments told his party Mr Paisley said the only obstacle to a return to power-sharing was weapons.

The Mid Ulster MP told republicans at Edentubber, Co Louth now that the IRA had completed disarmament, the Democratic Unionist leader had no excuse to refuse to share power.

“Last year the two governments made it clear to Sinn Féin during a number of meetings that Ian Paisley had indicated to them that the only obstacle to a return to the power-sharing institutions was the issue of arms,” he said.

“The IRA have decisively dealt with that issue. It is no longer an issue for the process.

“Is Ian Paisley now going to step up to the mark ? Is Ian Paisley going to follow through on what he said to the two governments last year ?”

In September, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning reported the IRA had completed disarmament in the presence of two witnesses, Methodist minister, the Rev Harold Good and Catholic priest, Father Alec Reid.

The IRA also declared in a statement in July that all units had been ordered to dump arms and end their armed campaign.

But unionists have responded sceptically to the moves, criticising the choice of independent witnesses and the failure to produce photographic or video evidence that the IRA’s arsenal had been destroyed.

The DUP, in particular, has insisted the British government will need to address a number of confidence building measures for unionists before they will even contemplate reviving devolution.

Following a positive report from the Independent Monitoring Commission in October that the IRA was moving in the right direction, officials in London and Dublin are pinning their hopes on another positive report from the paramilitary watchdog in January.

As Sinn Féin prepared to launch a document tomorrow on the cost to people in Northern Ireland of direct rule from Westminster, Mr McGuinness said the DUP had blocked a return to devolution for far too long.

“We need to get the political institutions back up and running,” he said.

“Week by week the direct rule administration is taking decisions based not on the needs or requirements of the people but on fiscal considerations in the British Treasury.

“Are the DUP content to sit back and watch this happen ? Or are they finally going to stop hiding behind rhetoric and show real political leadership?”