North's power-sharing talks resume
Talks aimed at restoring devolution in Northern Ireland will resume today at Stormont with parties waiting to see fresh DUP proposals on power-sharing.
Democratic Unionist negotiators were working through the night last night on a fresh plan to bridge the gap between them and other parties on the future operation of power-sharing institutions.
With British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern believing they have resolved the thorny issues of IRA disarmament and paramilitary activity, the row over the accountability of power-sharing ministers to a devolved Assembly and the scope of cross-border bodies is holding up the implementation of a deal to restore devolution.
Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and junior minister Tom Kitt put forward a position paper yesterday that outlined their best guess on how the impasse could be broken.
They suggested a revised code of conduct for ministers, requiring certain categories of ministerial decision to be taken at a collective cabinet level.
They also suggested that Assembly members should be given the right to challenge individual ministerial decisions through a petition of concern.
Should the minister’s policy fail to attract cross-community support in the Assembly, it would be referred back to the power-sharing executive, but the minister would reserve the right to either press ahead with it or modify it.
Democratic Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson was not satisfied with the position paper.
The East Belfast MP said the DUP are not interested in “quick-fix” solutions and were determined to come up with an accountable system of government.
Nationalists were also unimpressed by the document, with SDLP leader Mark Durkan criticising the plan over its proposal for cross-border bodies.
The SDLP and Sinn Féin believed limitations could be placed on the number of North-South bodies under the plan.
An SDLP source also denounced the proposed new ministerial code as a “recipe for deadlock”.
Today’s talks will be chaired by Mr Murphy and foreign minister Brian Cowen.
Parties are also anxiously waiting to see if the IRA will issue the statement, sanctioning full-scale and transparent disarmament and a winding down of the organisation, ending all criminal and paramilitary activity.
SDLP sources have confirmed that they were intending to publish their own position paper on the political institution and would press for an expansion of the cross-border arrangement.
A party source said: “We will be publishing a detailed response to the two governments’ strand one and two paper.
“In particular we will be looking for an expansion of the North-South agenda now.
“We will be opposing any new and unjustified restrictions on the authority of ministers at the North-South Ministerial Council.
“We will also set out our proposals for efficiency and collectivity and we will be exploding some of the myths the DUP have built around their proposals.”
