SDLP challenges ministers over Stormont

The SDLP is to give British government ministers time to prove they are taking the Stormont Assembly seriously when it reconvenes next week, the party signalled today.

Following the appointment of two new deputy speakers at Stormont, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said his party would base its participation in debates on how ministers responded to the Assembly.

And he also agreed with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams that the Assembly fell short of what was needed in the N.

The 108 Assembly members will gather at Stormont next Monday for the first time since they were elected in November 2003.

However, the North will remain under Westminster's direct rule re-imposed in October 2002 when the last power-sharing government was suspended.

"People should be clear that this Assembly is not the Assembly envisaged by the Good Friday Agreement," Mr Durkan said.

"The Secretary of State (Peter Hain) determines when it meets, what it debates and whether to pay any heed to its concerns.

"So when it comes to debates on important issues like health and water charges in this Assembly, our attitude will be determined by the British government's attitude.

"If they show that they respect united Assembly opposition to bad policies like on water charges, then they will have proved that it has some purpose," the Foyle MP added.

When they gather on Monday, Assembly members will spend the day registering as unionists, nationalists or 'other' under Stormont's voting system.

The following day, a delegation of business people is expected to address MLAs outside the debating chamber.