Paisley visit - DUP steers away from key issues

WHILE the significance of the visit of Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley to Government Buildings for discussions cannot be understated, it does not signal a dramatic shift in policy.

In the extremely unlikely event that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was able to offer any comfort to the DUP on its demand that the Good Friday Agreement be amended, contentious issues still remain to be resolved.

Some inferences might have been drawn by Mr Paisley and his deputy Peter Robinson, who accompanied him, from a reference Northern Secretary Paul Murphy would have made at the Labour Party conference in Brighton had he not taken ill. This was to the effect that the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement “should not be beyond amendment or improvement”.