North power-sharing - Hopeful signs ahead of historic talks

Today’s notable meeting expected between Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and DUP leader Ian Paisley is at least indicative that the formula worked out during last week’s talks in Scotland may in the longer term prove fruitful.

For the first time the two men will encounter each other across the negotiating table in the Preparation for Government committee meeting at Stormont.

As both men have confirmed they will be present, it will certainly be epoch-making, but whether it will lead to an agreement-making relationship remains to be seen.

While the signs are more hopeful than usual, the fact of the matter is that there is currently no agreement.

What is in place are the steps to circumvent the impracticality of the November 24 deadline, which instead has been drafted as a launching pad for devolved government by March 26.

That ambition is predicated by a number of events occurring, such as the parties responding to the St Andrews agreement by November 10 next and followed within a fortnight, on the date of the original deadline, by the nomination of a first and deputy first minister. That means a first minister drawn from the DUP, which should logically mean Mr Paisley, having as his deputy Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness. It is a prospect which many people would not so long ago have great difficulty in contemplating.

It could become a reality if Sinn Féin embrace policing and the DUP embrace power-sharing with them, which are the two essential ingredients of the plan. If those factors fall into place, then the people will be asked to endorse the agreement

It is somewhat reassuring, at this stage, that Peter Robinson, the DUP’s deputy leader, has defended the St Andrews’ proposals as he is generally considered to be on the more moderate and liberal wing of the party.

Coming from him, a senior DUP figure, it represents the strongest signal yet that the party may accept the power-sharing proposals and timetable put forward by the Irish and British Governments.

The Good Friday Agreement was never accepted by the Unionist party, which actively tried to torpedo it, and if the proposals outlined at St Andrews can be retailed as infinitely better, from a unionist standpoint, then it is a matter of cosmetics. Importantly, Peter Robinson’s acknowledgment of the merits of the deal must encourage both Dublin and London that it may, eventually, work.

Although Gerry Adams is seemingly willing to deal positively with the policing issue, the ard comhairle of the party can only decide by a two-thirds majority to call a special árd fheis to decide a single change. Then, it is the árd fheis which will decide the single issue — policing — not the former.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said he believes both Sinn Féin and the DUP will accept policing and power-sharing, but he knows that both have still to agree to do the deal that would clear the way for devolved government.

The new era in Northern Ireland has not begun yet, although the prospects of it arriving have never been better signposted.