Kenny backs power-sharing deadline
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny today backed the November 24 deadline set by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern for the return of power-sharing in the North.
As he prepared for a joint visit to Belfast with Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, the Fine Gael leader said they supported the efforts to restore devolution.
He told PA: “We want to see progress by November 24, with the Good Friday Agreement being implemented.
“We will be talking with Sinn Féin about their plans for an internal review of policing once the legislation is published, and we will be looking to the DUP to recognise the efforts that have gone on to reduce criminality and illegal activity.
“The November 24 deadline is essential, because you have to rememer we are operating against a position where in Britain the Tories are starting to make headway under David Cameron, and there have been difficulties internally within the Labour Party as the question of Tony Blair’s succession also looms.
“In the Republic, you will also have a General Election in the next year, and there is pressure on the parties in the North (of Ireland) to get an Assembly with an election in 2008.
“So you have to set a deadline. The Government has set a date, and I believe they are going to be firm about that.”
Mr Kenny and Mr Rabbitte’s visit will be the first time they have travelled to Northern Ireland together as the leaders of the alternative coalition to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s government.
Ulster Unionists said today they would be teasing out whether a government led by Mr Kenny and Mr Rabbitte in the Republic would have any policy differences from the current coalition in Dublin between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.
The Fine Gael leader and his Labour counterpart will meet the DUP, the nationalist SDLP, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and the cross-community Alliance Party at Stormont, as well as the UUP.
Talks have also been arranged with Northern Ireland Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde.
The meetings will also take place as Northern Ireland Assembly members hold their first debate in over a month on the spending priorities for a future Stormont administration.
Mr Kenny said as he prepared to head to Belfast that he hoped the North’s parties would meet the target date for devolution.
“The two governments have spelt out the consequences, such as salaries being withdrawn for Assembly members and no elections,” the Fine Gael leader noted.
“The Independent Monitoring Commission report in October is obviously going to be critical, and hopefully it will point to a further reduction in criminality.
“When I met Ian Paisley in November, he said to me his constituents would tell him if illegal actvities were going on in his constituency and that any judgment he would make would be based on that.”
Mr Kenny also noted the DUP leader had agreed to meet Vera McVeigh, the mother of 17-year-old Columba McVeigh from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, who was abducted by the IRA and whose body has never been recovered.
He said: “I think the families of the bereaved ad disappeared are entitled to hav the long agonising wait brought to an end.
“I support them fully.”
