Blair urges efforts to restore assembly

Northern Ireland’s politicians must make significant progress towards the restoration of the Assembly and other political institutions during 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted today.

After a summit with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Mr Blair stressed that Northern Ireland’s politicians could not afford to sit still following momentous IRA moves last July and September to end the Provisionals’ armed campaign.

“On February 6 the talks will get under way with (Irish Foreign Minister) Dermot Ahern and (Northern Ireland Secretary) Peter Hain leading them and I hope people realise two things,” he said.

“The first is that although this is a process which has been running over many years, we’re coming up almost to eight years since the Good Friday Agreement.

“I think we have learned throughout that a state of paralysis or stalemate is not a good place to be however benign or placid things appear to be, whilst that stalemate continues actually under the surface there are all those currents of instability present when there is not a true forceful direction moving the process forward.

“So I don’t think we should be under any illusion at all, neither about how difficult it is but also how important it is to get to the point where we can set out arrangements and a time line for getting the institutions back up and running again.”

Mr Blair continued: ``This year, 2006, is a very decisive year for Northern Ireland.

“Every year has been since the Good Friday Agreement but this year in particular we have to remember the progress that has been made and the crucial imperative of getting to a situation where all the issues and difficulties people have, which are still immense in this process, can be dealt with within the framework of properly functioning devolved institutions.

“So that is our mission.”

Devolution has been suspended in Northern Ireland since October 2002.

Three bids to revive it since then have failed, with the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin coming agonisingly close to resolving it in December 2004.

But sufficient trust between the two parties has proven elusive, with the December 2004 Northern Bank robbery heightening unionist suspicions of the IRA.

With the four-member Independent Monitoring Commission due to report later this month, Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are hoping that it will show that the IRA is transforming into an organisation purely dedicated to peaceful and democratic means.

However, the DUP has insisted it cannot envisage an inclusive power sharing executive featuring Sinn Féin in the foreseeable future.

On Tuesday, Mr Paisley handed Mr Blair a 16-page document advocating phased devolution, with the Assembly sitting ahead of any multi-party executive being formed.

Mr Blair acknowledged unionist concerns about allegations of continued IRA involvement in criminality.

However he urged parties to reflect on the progress that had been made.

Accentuating the positive, the Prime Minister said: “I think the fact that the Democratic Unionists are putting forward proposals is a sign that they recognise that things cannot stay simply as they are.

“Any proposals to work must have the consent of all the parties or otherwise nothing happens.

“I think people, or at least I hope people within Northern Ireland recognise that the IRA statement and the actions which followed last year are important and significant.

“But there are also obviously still a lot of concerns about the situation in Northern Ireland, the situation in communities with a degree of lawlessness and violence is really going to come down and a proper set of political circumstances be in place.

“My point is that it is far better to try to achieve those circumstances within some perspective at least that sees the institutions back up and running at a particular time.

“So I think it is important when the talks begin in February that they do so with a view to setting out the arrangements that can lead to that happening.”

Mr Ahern described his meeting with Mr Blair as very positive and focused.

He said they reviewed the current position of all aspects of the peace process.

But he added: “This is not a time for sitting back or complacency. We cannot afford a prolonged stalemate.”

Mr Ahern said next month’s intensive talks between the British and Irish governments and the Northern Ireland political parties would create a fresh momentum.

“We’re not saying it’s going to be easy. Everybody needs to take risks and everybody needs to take responsibility.

“This year we’ve got to make necessary progress and bring the institutions back into 2006.”

The Taoiseach also said he hoped the Independent Monitoring Commission would deliver a positive report on IRA criminality next week.

Referring to the IRA’s July 28 pledge to end its armed campaign, he said: “I hope there is no obvious breaches of that period.”

He added that the political institutions must be restored to deliver the peoples’ wishes.

He said: “The comfort zone in which everybody can sit on their hands and just drift on, will be a horrendous mistake, because it won’t work that way.

“We have to focus on how we can get what the people voted for.

“The people, north and south, voted for an assembly, an executive and north-south bodies.”