Parties meet face-to-face in talks marathon

The North’s political parties met face-to-face for crunch talks tonight as the Irish and British governments expressed hopes the powersharing administration could be saved.

The round table meeting chaired by Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, brought together the Democratic Unionists, Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Ulster Unionists and Alliance Party for the first time during the talks.

The plenary session marked the first occasion all the main political leaders have sat down in the same room since the marathon negotiations to resolve the row over devolving policing powers was dramatically convened by the two governments yesterday.

Afterwards Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said:

“It was a very constructive exchange of views around the table, the party leaders spoke and contributed their views in a plenary session.

“The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach are now re-engaging in talks with representatives from the parties and there is a real spirit of co-operation, I think a real willingness to want to make progress.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin echoed the sentiments.

“It was a very constructive meeting and I think the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister are clear that there is a real willingness to make progress and to resolve the outstanding issues,” he said.

Despite the development there are still no signs of an imminent breakthrough in the wrangle that has threatened the future of the fragile Stormont Executive, but the two governments said a “positive platform” had been created.

Mr Cowen and Mr Brown have spent the day formulating proposals aimed at breaking the deadlock and now could be set to spend another night at the castle.

Sinn Féin are demanding a swift transfer of the powers but the DUP have insisted that they will only move when changes are made to the way contentious Orange Order parades are managed.

Papers drafted by the governments are understood to focus on a date for the transfer, possibly before the UK general election, and a replacement for the Parades Commission, the body which rules on parades.

Sinn Féin and the DUP, the two largest parties at the Assembly, tonight remained tight lipped and would only confirm that talks were continuing.

The summit started yesterday evening and ran until the early hours of this morning before continuing today.

It also emerged the US administration is keeping a close eye on the negotiations, with Mr Brown holding a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this afternoon.

As today’s talks convened DUP leader Peter Robinson said he was prepared to hammer out a deal.

“It really is not until the last few minutes or hours that you do get the sense that it (a deal) can be put together.

“I cannot say that there is going to be a deal, we are going to sit at the table...until we get the deal.”

The 2006 St Andrews agreement paved the way for the power sharing government led by former political enemies in the DUP and Sinn Féin.

But they have suffered a rocky relationship in government, with the timing of law and order devolution the main issue of contention.

Mr Robinson stressed the importance of securing a positive deal.

“This is not a party political quibble, this isn’t a small issue, this is a critical issue. Policing is a life or death issue, it is a sensitive issue, it is something that touches every member of our community.”

Sinn Féin Assembly minister Conor Murphy said the failure would have serious implications for the Assembly.

“The consequence of failure is that we don’t have a functioning executive,” he said. “If we don’t have a functioning executive, we don’t have functioning institutions.”

Asked about the prospects for a deal, Mr Murphy refused to be drawn on the details.

But he added: “This isn’t about us trying to reach some compromise, we have delivered on our commitments in terms of St Andrews.”

After the plenary session ended there was flurry of activity as Peter Robinson left the talks venue with party colleagues, telling reporters he was taking a break for refreshments – fuelling the speculation of further late night negotiations.