Paisley to meet Blair with devolution plan

British prime minister Tony Blair will hear proposals from the Rev Ian Paisley today, outlining steps towards the return of devolution in the North.

The Democratic Unionist leader will travel to Downing Street with a 16-page document advocating a two-phase process towards bringing back the assembly and devolved government at Stormont.

He is also expected to press the British government for progress on a number of key confidence-building measures for the unionist community including a generous financial package for Royal Irish Regiment soldiers facing possible redundancy next year.

With Mr Blair due to travel to Dublin on Thursday for talks with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and both governments pinning their hopes for a political breakthrough in 2006 on a positive report from the Independent Monitoring Commission later this month on IRA activity, Mr Paisley is expected to reiterate that he does not see a government featuring Sinn Féin and the DUP in the foreseeable future.

A party source said: “We will give the Government our paper and it will give them time to digest what we are proposing.

“At this point the broad-brush is quite well aired. We are talking about a two-stage process to get the Assembly members back to work ahead of full-blown devolution.

“There are a number of options about how we get them back to work and a number of mechanisms for getting from stage one to stage two.

“We expect these proposals to feature in the talks being planned by the two governments early next month.”

Devolution has been suspended in the North since October 2002 when allegations of spying against Republicans threatened to destroy power sharing institutions.

After three failed bids to revive devolution, the IRA last year made a historic declaration in July that it was ending its armed campaign and followed that up by completing its programme of disarmament in September.

However the DUP, which is the North’s largest party, and the Ulster Unionists, insist that they also want proof that the IRA is honouring its word by not only ending paramilitary activity but its involvement in criminality.

Mr Paisley was expected to raise the controversy last week in the North over comments made by NIO’s Security Minister Shaun Woodward, claming the IRA as an organisation was no longer engaged in criminality, even if individual members were involved.

A leak from a meeting involving the minister and the police suggested that Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid told members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board that the IRA was still involved in criminality, contradicting Mr Woodward.

A DUP source said: “We will be raising with Downing Street what happened last week.

“We are eager to ensure that you cannot have a situation where government ministers are saying one thing about paramilitary and security people are saying the opposite.

“Government ministers must reflect what is going on and we will be saying that this month's IMC report will be a test.”

The DUP is also looking for progress on a number of key issues already raised with the government, aimed at building confidence in the Unionist committee.

These include:

:: Generous package for members of the Royal Irish Regiment facing cutbacks in 2007 if the security situation continues to improve;

:: Proposals for alleviating deprivation in inner city loyalist neighbourhoods which can address issues of skills and training;

:: Concerns about the number of police officers, the future of the PSNI Reserve and 50/50 recruitment quotas for Catholic and Protestant officers;

:: Assurances that ministers will not implement the findings of the Costello Report on post primary education against public will.