Assembly recall 'will help build trust'
The recalling of the Northern Assembly next month will provide the North’s politicians with a chance to build trust, a delegation from the Democratic Unionists will tell a body of TDs and MPs from Ireland and Britain today.
The delegation headed by DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson will give a one-hour presentation on its views on the peace process at a meeting of the British Irish Inter-parliamentary Body – an organisation which it has refused to take part in for 16-years.
DUP sources said the delegation, which would also include MPs Nigel Dodds, Iris Robinson and Jeffrey Donaldson, would also reiterate that the party would base any decision on whether it would go into a devolved government at Stormont with Sinn Féin or not on whether the IRA had truly abandoned terrorism and criminality for good.
“We will be going into an Assembly on May 15 and we really see this as a bedding-in period,” a DUP source said.
“We see the recall of the Assembly as a time for the parties to get their teeth into issues and an opportunity to build trust.
“With the Independent Monitoring Commission report due this week, we would obviously welcome any progress that may show if there is movement in the right direction by paramilitaries.
“However, we intend to keep the pressure on to ensure that if the institutions return, they are stable and that republicans have abandoned criminality and paramilitary activities for good.
“It is also worth pointing out that if they are going in the right direction, now is not the time to relax the pressure.
“The fact that our delegation is at the meeting of the body today also shows that we are keen to look at not only North-South relationships but also East - West on these islands.”
The British Irish Inter-Parliamentary body was formed in 1990 and emerged out of the 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement which Unionists opposed.
The forum draws TDs from the Dáil, MPs from Westminster and members of the UK’s regional assemblies.
The body, which is gathering in Killarney, Co Kerry, will today also be addressed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.
Ahead of today’s events, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed the DUP’s involvement was significant.
He said in Dublin yesterday: “For many years we wanted to see unionist’s involvement. The fact that we are about to see that should be seen as very significant.”
Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan urged the DUP to use the event for a positive engagement with its political foes.
The Louth TD said: “If the DUP are simply going to travel the length of Ireland to grandstand with the media, then an opportunity will have been lost.
“Time is pressing on and we are only a matter of weeks away from the re-convening of the Assembly on May 15.
“The time for grandstanding from the DUP has long since passed. They should now be in the business of positive engagement with all of the other parties, including Sinn Féin, if we are to see the fully functioning all-Ireland institutions demanded by the people delivered.”
SDLP MP Eddie McGrady also welcomed the DUP’s participation but reminded the Inter-Parliamentary body that the Rev Ian Paisley’s party failed miserably to engage with the Good Friday Agreement’s most meaningful institutions – the North-South bodies.
The South Down MP said: “The test for the DUP is not whether they will give a presentation to the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, it is whether they will work each and every one of the Good Friday Agreement’s institutions with the rest of us, including the all important North-South agenda.
“Then, and only then, will the DUP have lived up to the standard set by the Irish people in 1998.”
Mr McGrady was commenting as SDLP leader Mark Durkan prepared to discuss the operations of the recalled Assembly with Northern Secretary Peter Hain at a meeting later today in Stormont Castle.
