Unionists accuse Ahern of 'bullying' over powersharing

The Irish Foreign Affairs Minister should stop trying to bully Unionists into accepting powersharing with Sinn Féin, it was claimed today

Dermot Ahern has said that if unionists do not accept a forthcoming plan to get the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running again, the Irish and British governments will have to impose joint authority.

But Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Jeffrey Donaldson accused Mr Ahern of having his head buried in the sand.

“It’s time Dublin stopped being the bully boy and worked with the rest of us. You can’t bully unionists into accepting something that they find unacceptable at the moment and the sooner Mr Ahern realises that, the sooner we can make progress with the Irish Government,” he said.

Mr Donaldson said that joint authority would seriously destabilise Northern Ireland and would lead to an increase in violence and disorder.

“If that is the Plan B, then the government should quickly put it in he bin and concentrate with the rest of us on trying to restore some form of devolution to Northern Ireland,” he said.

All of the Northern parties attended yesterday’s St Patrick’s Day ceremony at the White House, except the DUP which has said it will not talk to Sinn Féin until it is confident the party has completely renounced violence.

The Irish and British governments are planning to publish their joint plan to restore powersharing in three weeks time. They had intended to publish the plan sooner but both Sinn Féin and SDLP opposed the concept of setting up a “shadow assembly” in advance of restoring the powersharing executive – a move favoured by the DUP.

Mr Ahern told BBC Radio Ulster that the plan would include all the elements provided for in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement: an assembly, executive, North-South bodies and east-west ministerial council

“It (the agreement) has been voted on by the people and we can’t simply tear it up,” he said.

Mr Ahern also emphasised that progress had to be made this year because of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to step down at some stage in the future and the Irish General Election in 2007.

But Mr Donaldson said this was an absurd suggestion.

“There have been initiatives going on in Northern Ireland long before Tony Blair became the Prime Minister and will be after he goes. As for the timing of the Irish general election, that has no relevance to the situation in Northern Ireland.”