SF has 'positive' meeting in Downing Street
Gerry Adams said tonight that that a Sinn Féin delegation had enjoyed a "positive" meeting with Tony Blair and new Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain.
He said: “We put the point to him that the elections are over, everyone has refreshed their mandate, renewed their madate, and now is the time for us all to make progress.
“While there are challenges facing everyone, and Sinn Féin faces up to those, the British government has a particular role to play along with the Irish Government in pressing ahead with the Good Friday Agreement.”
Mr Adams said that the meeting had not discussed the question of when the IRA could be expected to release its long awaited statement, and he refused to be drawn on the timing.
“If anyone says to you that the IRA decision is expected at such and such a time, they are talking through the tops of their heads,” said Mr Adams.
“Speculation about how long the IRA will take, or the nature of its consultations, is not helpful and we are staying well away from it.”
Asked whether they had discussed Mr Paisley’s suggestion that the Good Friday Agreement was “dead”, Mr Adams said: “We didn’t have a post mortem on the Good Friday Agreement. As far as we are concerned, the Good Friday Agreement is work in progress.”
He poured scorn on the idea, floated by the DUP, that the Stormont Assembly could be restored with its role limited to that of scrutiny.
“It just doesn’t make any sense whatever,” he said.
“Is the DUP saying that they are not fit for government? Is the DUP saying that they are not able to deal with the social and economic issues better than fly-in fly-out British ministers?”
He added: “As far as we are concerned the only way to resolve all these matters is the agreement negotiated at Easter seven years ago.
“That’s the template for the future and that’s the only way to move forward at this time in Ireland.”
Mr Hain made clear that the British government remained committed to pushing forward with the Good Friday Agreement, insisting there was “no reverse gear in this process”.
“There is no reverse gear in this process. It has got to be finding the right gear forward to make sure that we lock in stability and peace and prosperity,” he said.
Mr Hain, who characterised today’s meetings as “very positive”, said that the DUP and Sinn Fein have come out of the election “leading the field” and now had to take their responsibilities “very seriously”.
He added: “There is now a new era in Northern Irish politics and they need to take their responsibilities very seriously to move the whole process forward and create peace and prosperity in the long term on a stable basis,” he said.
The announcement of the IRA’s response to calls for it definitively to give up violence would be “the decisive event of the next period”, he said.
