Blair and Ahern arrive to set power sharing timetable
Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair today arrived at Stormont in a bid to encourage the Northern Ireland parties to resume power sharing.
The two leaders were expected to outline a timetable for unionists and nationalists to meet the two governments’ deadline of November 24 for devolution.
They were due to meet a Democratic Unionist delegation headed by their leader the Reverend Ian Paisley.
Other talks were scheduled with Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, the nationalist SDLP and the cross-community Alliance Party.
Following the round of meetings with the parties, they will also take part in a session with all the parties reporting back on the day’s talks.
Shortly after Mr Ahern and Mr Blair arrived at Stormont, the British Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that Northern Ireland parties needed to quicken the pace of efforts to resume power sharing.
“The public’s patience is wearing thin,” he said.
“You know better than I that the days that politics was what everybody wanted to know in Northern Ireland are going.
“It is a tough fight getting politics on to the local media and local papers. That is not good for political parties.
“Local people need to see their local politicians delivering on issues such as education, health, the rates.
“If they do not believe local politicians are going to deliver on their future then they will lose confidence.”
The two leaders were expected to present a rough timetable for progress in the run-up to the November 24 power sharing deadline at a final meeting involving all the parties.
Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are expected to return to Northern Ireland in the autumn in advance of the November 24 deadline.
The British Prime Minister’s spokesman refused to be drawn on the alternative plan for Northern Ireland if the deadline for restoring devolution is missed.
“Let us be realistic about this,” he said. “Working on Plan B is quite legitimate and rightly continues because the job of governments is to think about what they do if Plan A fails.
“Plan A is the preference of the British government and although I cannot speak for them the Irish Government says it is their preference.
“We are not going to focus on Plan B today. If we talk about Plan B then we lose focus.
“What we want to see is local politicians making local decisions. Anything else is second best by a long, long way.”
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