IMC findings - Report paves the way for devolution

WITH the latest imprimatur of the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) conferred on the IRA, combined with the decision of Sinn Féin to support the police and the criminal justice system in the North, it was hardly unexpected that it was described as the removal of the “final impediment” to devolution.

Last evening in London Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed that Northern Assembly elections will take place on March 7, a date which in any case, had been legislated for by Britain.

In accordance with the St. Andrew’s Agreement, the Assembly, which was transitional, has been dissolved.

Yesterday was the first time that both men had met since Sinn Féin took its momentous decision to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Ian Paisley and his Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will face intense pressure to positively commit itself to power-sharing, with the IMC stating without equivocation that the IRA had abandoned terrorism and violence, including shootings, assaults or intelligence gathering.

Having said there was no “equivocation, there are no qualifications and there are no conditions” about supporting the PSNI, SF president Gerry Adams, spelled out the party’s position, if clarity were needed.

Yesterday, too, he had an historic meeting with the leadership of the Methodist Church, having previously met representatives of the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church.