Unionists blame Hain for lack of devolution progress

The British and Irish governments will tomorrow review the lack of progress in restoring devolution in Northern Ireland since the parties were given a November deadline to a breakthrough.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain and Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern meet at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down to see if they can identify any progress since Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern set the clock ticking down to November 24 in April.

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are expected in Belfast later in the week to re-emphasise to the parties the need for progress and remind them what will happen if they don’t do the premiers bidding.

But with scant sign of movement Mr Hain was accused of double standards and being the reason behind the lack of recent political progress in the province.

The Democratic Unionist Party North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds branded Mr Hain and Sinn Féin “a shoddy double act” which was extremely counter-productive to creating circumstances where confidence could be built towards establishing devolution.

He said there were two boycotts of the Assembly going on, Sinn Féin’s refusal to attend, and Mr Hain’s refusal to permit business to take place in the Assembly.

Mr Dodds said: “Mr Hain is displaying an atrocious attitude to the democratically elected representatives of Northern Ireland. He continues to stymie meetings of the Assembly for no apparent reason other than he feels the need to pander to Sinn Fein/IRA.”

In an angry onslaught he said: “The glaring double standards of Peter Hain are now blatantly exposed. He calls the Assembly into being but vetoes meetings.

“He criticises MLAs but rejects efforts to ensure debate and discussion on the Assembly floor.

“He pours money into the coffers of Sinn Féin/IRA at Westminster which they never attend whist harping on about money to Assembly parties who do wish to attend the Assembly but are prevented by him.”

The MP said on the Assembly Mr Hain plucked deadlines out of the air but there were no deadlines when the IRA was exposed for robbing the Northern Bank of £26m 18 months ago and it was clear they should be excluded from the political process.

It was six weeks since the Assembly had been recalled to Stormont, but for most of that time there had been no business because of Mr Hain, he said – it was no wonder people were frustrated and questioned the purpose of having an Assembly.

Mr Dodds added: “The responsibility for the current situation lies firmly at the feet of Peter Hain and he has created a very bad context in which the discussions with the Prime Minister are due to take place later this week.”

Yesterday Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, MP, warned his party may walk away well before November 24 if there is not progress.

He announced a review of Sinn Féin involvement and cautioned the Government’s against claiming things were going to plan.

Mr Adams said: “We are coming to the end of the six week sit-in of the Hain Assembly and we need to recognise that no progress has been made.”

He accused the DUP of showing no interest in progress and the two governments of allowing them to prevent progress.

Calling for Mr Blair and Mr Ahern to act he said: “If there is to be any possibility of power-sharing institutions being restored, there is a need for them to take decisive action.”