DUP under fire over Dublin dinner
The Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists were today under fire after it emerged their leadership attended a dinner in Dublin with leading businessmen from the Republic of Ireland.
Senior Ulster Unionist, Michael McGimpsey challenged the DUP to comment on reports that a private flight from Belfast to Dublin airport took senior members of the Rev Ian Paisley’s party to a meeting.
The South Belfast MLA said: “Yesterday Dr Paisley warned Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to keep his dirty hands out of Ulster politics and out of Northern Ireland.
“What I would love to know from Dr Paisley is why, after the General Election was called Tuesday, a week ago, a private jet was sent to the City Airport, the jet was owned by one of the richest men in the Irish Republic and flew the DUP hierarchy to a secret dinner in Dublin?
“That dinner took place in one of the most exclusive clubs in Dublin, The Lords’ Club, at College Green and at that meeting was a number of bankers, financiers and big business interest in the Irish Republic.
“The jet left Dublin so late that the City Airport (in Belfast) was closed and they had to fly into Aldergrove (Belfast International Airport).
“What I want to know, and I think what the average DUP voter is entitled to know, is who was at the meeting and what was being discussed at that secret meeting?”
The UUP's challenge came as Democratic Unionists deputy leader Peter Robinson confirmed there had been a meeting with members of the business community in Dublin.
As his party launched a new economic policy paper, the East Belfast MP said: “The DUP has always been a pro-business political party.
“We want to see business in Northern Ireland prosper and grow, not impeded by costs and regulations.
“We see the rising – often uniquely repressive – cost of doing business in this part of the world as the single biggest issue facing entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland today.”
Mr Robinson added: “We firmly feel that small to medium sized enterprises are the backbone of our economy and it is the development of these indigenous companies that we see as essential.
“That does not mean that Northern Ireland should give up on attempting to attract inward investment. Indeed, the DUP has been proactive on this front.
“As late as a few weeks ago we met with members of the business community and bankers, many of whom have wide international links, in Dublin to discuss the immense benefits to them and Northern Ireland’s economy of attracting jobs and new investment into the province.
“This is a practice we have also carried out in London and Belfast.”
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said the meeting between the DUP and Irish businessmen illustrated the party’s hypocrisy over its dealings with the Republic of Ireland.
The Upper Bann MP said it was inconsistent to tell Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to keep out of Northern Ireland’s business one day and then go down to Dublin to dine with business leaders who have played a significant role in the Republic’s economic and political system.
Mr Trimble also attacked the DUP’s manifesto, released yesterday, claiming that some of the gains party trumpeted in the document had not been delivered.
“There is another manifesto that Mr Robertson did not hold up yesterday and maybe he should have, it is this manifesto,” the UUP leader said, brandishing a copy of the DUP’s Assembly Election manifesto from 2003.
“It is the DUP manifesto from 2003, the ’fair deal’ manifesto.
“People who voted for the fair deal manifesto are entitled now to ask what was the fair deal? Where was it?
“I know what happened. We all know what happened. This emerged, the (British and Irish) governments’ proposals for a comprehensive agreement. People were promised this (the DUP document) but got this (the two governments document).
“The two governments arrangement, as we all know, did not change one word but the 1998 (Good Friday) Agreement and didn’t change one word of the Weston Park declaration or one word of the governments’ joint declaration. That is the reality of it.”
Mr Trimble said voters were entitled to ask what the DUP’s plans were for the future and if they had abandoned the fair deal or not.
He said there was a revealing section of the current DUP manifesto in which the party said it had secured an exemption from rates for Orange Halls and succeeded in persuading the British government to announce in March the creation of a Victims Commissioner in Northern Ireland.
Turning to page 29 of the DUP’s manifesto, he said: “If you look at the very small print, you will see the following words: ‘as well as these issues, the DUP also succeeded in delivering a host of other confidence building measures which are dependent on an agreement being reached’.
“So they say that the DUP has delivered measures which are dependent, in other words they have not delivered.
“They have not delivered anything because everything that is in there is dependent on an agreement being reached and the use of the phrase ’are dependent’ means that the agreement is in the future.
“That sentence reveals what everybody in their heart of hearts knows that after this agreement, after this election if the DUP can get away with it, they will be going back into an agreement, seeking an agreement with whom?”
Mr Trimble said he was aware officials in London and Dublin were planning fresh negotiations next September to move the political process forward and he said people could be sure the DUP would be there.
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