Air of hope as new Assembly members meet

There was a positive air today as the North’s newly elected Assembly members met for the first time since the polls that gave Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party an even greater mandate.

Mr Paisley was in buoyant mood, saying progress was being made towards the restoration of devolution, although he would not be drawn on whether the deal was do-able by the British government’s March 26 deadline.

He was travelling to London for meetings tomorrow with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown could hold the key by providing the financial package which the DUP insists has to be in place before it enters a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness announced that he had written to Northern Secretary Peter Hain confirming he was ready to serve as Deputy First Minister alongside Mr Paisley as First Minister, and said the public expectation was that there would be a power-sharing government in place by the deadline.

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey said he saw signs of early progress in putting together the economic package which would ease a new Assembly on its way.

Assembly members met in the chamber for just 51 minutes, with only one item on the agenda: registering of members and re-starting their salaries.