Peace process talks scheduled for Hillsborough Castle
The British and Irish governments will today meet Sinn Féin at talks in Hillsborough Castle focussing on a range of issues in the peace process.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern have invited a number of parties to discussions today and on November 24.
However the Democratic Unionists’ Nigel Dodds ruled out his party’s participation in today’s meeting because they appeared to be nothing more than a stocktaking exercise.
Government sources were at pains to stress that the meetings were not the start of a new push to restore devolution.
Among the issues which Mr Hain and Mr Ahern were expected to discuss were parades, policing and restorative justice.
The nationalist SDLP and the Ulster Unionists have opted not to meet both ministers today and will instead hold discussions with them on November 24.
The meetings follow the publication last week of controversial legislation which would enable paramilitaries who have been on-the-run abroad since the Troubles to return to the North safe in the knowledge that they will not be arrested or serve prison sentences for offences they might have committed.
The legislation would also enable police officers, soldiers and intelligence agents who colluded with paramilitaries to also avoid arrest.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are hoping to restore power sharing at Stormont next year on the back of a positive report by the cease fire watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission next January on IRA, loyalist and other republican paramilitary activity.
In July, the Provisionals delared an end to their armed campaign.
In September the IRA also completed its programme of disarmament in the presence of members of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and two clergymen, Methodist minister the Revd Harold Good, and Catholic priest Father Alec Reid.
Today’s talks also follow a Remembrance Day statement yesterday from the North's largest loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Defence Association that it wants to embark on talks with the British government about its future.
