Hain challenges Northern politicians
Northern Ireland’s politicians will today be challenged to take up the reins of power at Stormont or watch British ministers push forward the North’s reform agenda.
Peter Hain, the Northern Secretary, will review the work of his team of direct-rule ministers from Westminster during a keynote address at Stormont.
However, he will also throw down the gauntlet to unionists and nationalists to form a power-sharing government and shape the future of the North.
A British government source said: “Effectively this is an end-of-term speech looking at what has been done so far in Northern Ireland and what needs to be done.
“Peter will be saying it is time for local politicians to get hold of the opportunity to build on the foundations his ministers have laid.
“It is time to turn this place into the world-class region it could be and should be.”
Since becoming Northern Secretary 14 months ago, Mr Hain and his team of ministers have pushed ahead with plans to introduce water charges next spring, raise domestic rates, shake up rural planning regulations, tackle overspending by education boards and announce a major reorganisation of local government and public bodies.
Unionists and nationalists have been critical of many of the initiatives, especially the introduction of water charges and the rise in rates bills.
Some have also criticised plans to change radically the course of primary education, with unionists unhappy about the decision to scrap academic selection.
Mr Hain and his ministerial team, however, have challenged politicians to form a power-sharing government featuring Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists (DUP), Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP by the November 24 deadline for devolution at Stormont.
Northern Ireland Office Education Minister Maria Eagle has also dangled the prospect of Northern politicians having the final say on whether the post-primary school reforms are implemented or not if they agree to form a devolved administration.
However, it is still uncertain whether the North's largest party, the DUP, will be willing to share power with Sinn Féin, despite the IRA’s declaration 12 months ago that it had ended its armed campaign and the completion last September of the paramilitary group’s disarmament programme.
Mr Paisley and his colleagues have warned the British government they will not be bounced into government with Sinn Féin by the November 24 deadline, but will instead base any decision on whether they believe republicans have abandoned the gun and all criminal activity for good.
During a visit to Stormont last month for talks with the parties, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Assembly members that if there were no power-sharing executive by the November deadline, their salaries and allowances would be stopped and Dublin and London would implement joint partnership arrangements to put in place all remaining aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, including enhanced cross-border co-operation.
In another speech to the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, yesterday, Mr Hain also stressed the need for the North to move ahead with devolution so that vital changes to the education system and the economy could take place.
He argued that too much public money was being wasted on a segregated education system, which wasted resources and was counter-productive to a society where both communities could carve out a shared future.
He insisted there needed to be a radical reorganisation of the economy, reducing the North’s reliance on the public sector and encouraging the private sector.
The secretary also advocated deeper all-island economic links to enable the North and the Republic to work on common investment strategies, share resources and cope with and embrace the challenges posed by emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere.
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