Paisley and Adams 'on their own' if they miss deadline

Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams will have to strike their own devolution deal if next week’s power-sharing deadline in the North is missed, Peter Hain warned today.

Both leaders have until Monday to sign up to an agreement to go into government linked to a multi-billion economic package. But with the DUP still holding out on a commitment, Mr Hain claimed the parties would be on their own if they failed to meet the deadline.

As Mr Adams prepared to meet An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin, Mr Hain warned those in the DUP who believe they can push past the March 26 deadline that the party will lose everything it gained at the St Andrews talks if there is no devolved government.

“March 26 is cast in stone,” he said. “It is cast in statute, whether anyone likes it or not. My one big fear is that people think there is a way back after midnight on March 26. There will not be. There will be no emergency Bill after then and Jack Straw has reinforced that in the House of Commons.

“The Assembly will close down, the salaries will stop, the allowances will stop. Water bills are being processed over the next week and those will kick in.

“The end of academic selection will kick in. The Irish language legislation will be taken forward in Westminster.

“We will also not be facilitating any party discussions. The DUP and Sinn Féin would have to find their own way to agree a cast-iron deal and then come back to us.

“This isn’t just me saying this. I would not have taken the stance I have on the deadline without clearing my lines first with the Prime Minister and after March 26 he is not going to come back for second helpings.”

Mr Hain will have to know by midnight on Saturday that Mr Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness will be nominated as the North’s next First and Deputy First Ministers if he is to make the restoration order next Monday to bring back devolved government.

The decision will hinge on the outcome of a meeting of the DUP executive on Saturday.

The DUP wants clarity from Sinn Féin that its recent endorsement of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is not equivocal and that it is being matched by co-operation on the ground in republican neighbourhoods.

The party will also be heavily influenced by the multibillion-pound economic package UK Chancellor Gordon Brown will propose on Thursday to bolster the new power-sharing government.

The DUP, Sinn Féin, Ulster Unionists and SDLP have been arguing Mr Brown will need to significantly improve on the offer he made last November of £50bn (€74bn) over 10 years if the next Stormont government is to tackle key infrastructural problems.