Adams calls for no more setbacks

The Irish and British governments were urged today by Gerry Adams not to let any more deadlines on the road back to power sharing at Stormont slip.

As he prepared for a meeting with An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin today, Mr Adams said the failure of Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain to allow the new Stormont Programme for Government Committee to hold its first meeting was a mistake.

And he insisted it would be a further set back for the North's political process if the November 24 deadline for the nomination of new First and Deputy First Ministers were also to slip.

He said: “The refusal by Ian Paisley to attend the Programme for Government Committee that month was undoubtedly a setback in the wake of the St Andrews talks.

“We should not try to minimise that. The subsequent decision by Peter Hain to cancel the Programme for Government Committee at Ian Paisley’s behest was a mistake and I have made that point to him.

“In our view there is no reason why November 24 should also slip and I have told Peter Hain that. I've also told him he should convene the assembly that day.”

Mr Adams, who met British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday ahead of a multi-party discussion with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown on a multi-billion pound peace dividend for a new Stormont government, is consulting his party on the St Andrews proposals put forward last month by the two governments to secure power-sharing.

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern have given the North's parties until November 10 to say whether they will implement the proposals.

If they refuse to do so the Assembly will be wound down and the prospect of devolved government will have been lost possibly for a generation.

The Irish and British governments will also have to put into place their Plan B.

If they do commit themselves to the St Andrews agreement, Sinn Féin will have to join with the other Assembly parties in endorsing the Police Service of Northern Ireland if Mr Paisley’s Democratic Unionists are to share power with them.

Both parties are also expected to nominate Mr Paisley and Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness as First Deputy Ministers on November 24 in the first in a series of confidence building measures aimed at securing evolution by March 26 of next year.

However with both parties at logger heads over the issue of what oath Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness will take, there has been suggestions from the DUP that there could be slippage on the November 24 deadline.

The DUP also wants a clear signal from Sinn Fein that it is prepared to urge its supporters to recognise the Police Service of Northern Ireland as the legitimate force of law and order and it wants senior members of Gerry Adams’ party to swear to uphold the rule of law.

For Sinn Féin to change its policy on policing, Mr Adams will first have to call a meeting of his national executive ahead of a special party conference to discuss the issue.

“Internal consultations are still ongoing and when we have finished there will have been 60 meetings the length and breadth of Ireland,” he said.

Mr Adams said yesterday’s meeting with the Chancellor involving senior DUP, Sinn Féin, Ulster Unionist, SDLP and cross-community alliance party members represented political progress.

“I think it was important because we had people with different manifestos and different analysis able to agree on the broad principles and have a sense of the measures required to give an incoming executive the capacity to deliver for all of the people we represent,” he said.