Powerless Assembly would be a farce - Sinn Féin
British Prime Minster Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were tonight warned that setting up a Stormont Assembly with no real powers would be a costly, undemocratic farce.
Sinn Féin vice-president Pat Docherty sounded the warning as Mr Blair and Mr Ahern prepared to unveil their roadmap for restoring devolution in Northern Ireland this Thursday.
With speculation mounting that the two Prime Ministers will propose a role for the Assembly ahead of one final push to restore power-sharing in the province this November, the West Tyrone MP also said Nationalists and Republicans were deeply concerned that the two governments were going to let Democratic Unionist Party leader the Rev Ian Paisley dictate their approach.
Mr Doherty said: “Sinn Féin want to see the political institutions restored.
“We want to see an end to British day release Ministers making a mess of the economy and taking disastrous decisions in relation to health, education, farming and transport.
“But creating Mickey Mouse work for a Shadow Assembly with no real powers is not the way forward. It would be a costly, undemocratic farce.”
Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are due to visit Armagh, when they are expected to advocate a two-phase approach to reviving devolution.
It is believed the province’s 108 Assembly members will be recalled in May and given six weeks to form a power-sharing executive featuring the DUP and Sinn Féin.
If that proves impossible, the British government is expected to introduce new legislation changing the rules governing the Assembly, which will enable them to park the body through the difficult summer marching season in Northern Ireland.
The Assembly would be recalled in September and given what the party believes will be a November 24 absolute deadline to set up the executive.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain insisted today that politicians in the province would have to show a new spirit of maturity.
He told Sky News: “People need to take up their responsibilities, assume their duties and carry out the functions for which they were elected, which frankly they’ve not been doing.
“And if they don’t – and this is not a threat – they will bring the curtain down on themselves.
“This is not me trying to blackmail or bully or threaten or any of these things – the public are fed up to the back teeth with the politicians continuing to be paid when they won’t do their job.”
Earlier Mr Paisley said he believed it was nonsense for the two governments to plan to recall the Assembly to enable an executive to be formed.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “They can’t do that. It is not going to happen because the foundation for such a decision is not even laid.
“The foundation, of course, must be the end of terrorism and must be that this is on a solid democratic foundation.
“Now they haven’t done that. So that is not going to work.”
Mr Paisley also cast doubt on whether there would be an executive and suggested that the Assembly should be allowed to have its say on issues affecting Northern Ireland if the devolved government could not be formed.
He asked: “Why do they not turn the Assembly into a body that has power to consider important matters and let the government know what the elected representatives feel about these matters?”
Mr Doherty said it was clear from Mr Paisley’s comments that there had been no road to Damascus conversion by the DUP.
“The DUP remain as opposed to the Good Friday Agreement as they were in 1998,” he said.
“They are opposed to power-sharing political institutions. They are opposed to key elements of the Good Friday Agreement.
“The difference now is that the government seems intent on allowing Ian Paisley to dictate their approach to the way forward. This is deeply concerning to nationalists and republicans throughout Ireland.”
