Foreign minister to meet Hain
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern will discuss recent efforts to restore Northern Ireland power-sharing with Secretary of State Peter Hain in London tomorrow, it was confirmed tonight.
The British and Irish governments continued talks with political parties at Stormont on Monday.
“The meeting in London is part of the intensified efforts by the governments to restore the Executive and Assembly as soon as possible,” Mr Ahern’s spokesman said.
The politicians are holding a breakfast meeting at the Northern Ireland Office at Millbank.
Mr Hain has said the British government may be prepared to form a shadow Assembly before power-sharing is fully restored.
The suspended parliament has cost taxpayers £78m since it last sat in late 2002.
Sources close to Mr Ahern say he is travelling to London especially for the meeting and this underlines the importance attached to current efforts to restore power-sharing.
Mr Ahern met Parades Commission chairman Roger Poole in Dublin yesterday.
