Forget Sinn Féin and IRA, Paisley will tell Ahern
Ian Paisley meets Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today to tell him that politics in the North have to move on without the IRA and Sinn Féin.
The talks take place as the Irish and British governments await the IRA’s response to Gerry Adams’ call for them to commit to democratic means and declare the armed struggle over.
The Democratic Unionist Party leader and two fellow MPs – deputy leader Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds – meet Mr Ahern at the Irish Embassy in London to make clear to him they have little or no interest in what the IRA has to say.
Nigel Dodds said the general election, which made his party the biggest in the North and all but destroyed the Ulster Unionists, showed the unionist population had no interest in what the IRA had to say.
“We will be making it very clear that we are not in the business of waiting to see what the IRA says.
"We are not bought in to the failed approach of the past seven or eight years which hinged on what the IRA had to say.
“We want to move on,” he said.
As Mr Ahern and Tony Blair – who also meet in London today – await with interest the upcoming IRA statement, the DUP branded it “worthless”.
“We have said time and again words are of no interest to the unionist community. We have had words from Gerry Adams and the IRA. What we are waiting for is action, and proof that it means something.”
Suggesting Dublin and London were getting over-excited about the impending IRA statement, he added: “Words are worthless. Martin McGuinness has already said the IRA is not disbanding, so I don’t know why people are getting so hung up about what they are going to say.”
He went on: “The Democratic Unionist Party will not be taken in by stunts.”
He said that if Mr Ahern tried to pressure the DUP to enter government with Sinn Féin in the North, he wanted to hear from him that he was ready to form a coalition with Sinn Féin in the Republic.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is also attending the London meeting, and the DUP wanted to discuss the £26.5m (€39.8m) Northern Bank raid carried out before Christmas by the IRA in Belfast and the “conspiracy of silence” which now appeared to surround it in Dublin.
“We want to know why they have gone quiet about the Northern Bank, and if that is for political expediency.”
Meanwhile Mr Ahern told the Dáil last night that recent behind-the-scenes meetings between himself and Gerry Adams had not been “secret” but part of the ongoing dialogue with Republicans.
The last official meeting between the two men took place in Dublin in January in the aftermath of the Northern Bank raid.
On that occasion Mr Ahern told Mr Adams that there would be no further official contact until the IRA committed itself to ending paramilitarism and criminality.
But commenting on three recent low-key, face-to-face engagements with Mr Adams, Mr Ahern told Dáil opposition leaders: “I’ve had no secret meetings with Gerry Adams.
“Despite all the difficulties, I made it absolutely clear in this house that we would be maintaining dialogue with Sinn Féin and we continued to do that.
“My meetings were consistent with that.”
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