UUP call for an end to 'closed door deals' in North
British and Irish governments must inject greater transparency into talks to revive devolution in the North, they were urged today.
As Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern prepared for a summit in Dublin tomorrow, Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson said the two governments must move away from the practice of side deals and behind closed door negotiations.
“Secret deals, closed door negotiations and the delivery of hugely unpalatable policies have all contributed to a crisis of confidence in the political process.
“The UUP have long been encouraging the Secretary of State to become pro-active.
“If (Northern Ireland Secretary) Peter Hain is keen to see progress he too must pl ay a role.
“That means ending the secrecy and nudge-nudge, wink-wink politics that defined 2004 to 2005 and moving to a more transparent process where everybody knows where they stand.”
Northern Ireland's Assembly and power sharing executive have been suspended since October 2002.
There have been three failed bids since then to revive the political institutions - the last in December 2004 involving Sinn Féin and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists.
