Nationalist leaders want power-sharing restored
The leaders of Northern Ireland’s nationalist parties tonight called on the British government to restore the power-sharing institutions as soon as possible.
The call was made as Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy held talks with the main pro-Agreement parties to discuss the way forward in the wake of the Assembly election result.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, whose party took 24 seats in Wednesday’s poll, said the British government must lift the suspension of the power-sharing administration and honour all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement.
“We want to see the suspension of the institutions lifted but all of the other institutions that are part of the Joint Declaration that we negotiated, the unfinished business of the Good Friday Agreement, we want acts of completion on all of those,” he said.
However, as efforts to restore power-sharing to Northern Ireland began, the parties conceded it could be a long and tortuous process.
With Ian Paisley’s anti-Agreement Democratic Unionists capturing 30 seats, eclipsing the Ulster Unionists as the largest pro-union party, the prospect of a swift return of devolution appears remote.
The DUP, which is due to meet Mr Murphy early next week, has insisted that the Good Friday Agreement must be re-negotiated.
Ian Paisley Jr, who was elected along with his father in North Antrim, said it was time the British government woke up to the fact that a new political deal had to be worked out.
“It’s dead in the water. The Agreement is over. That was the message of this election.”
But the Northern Ireland Secretary who held separate meetings with Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists and the Social Democratic and Labour Party said the fundamental principles of the Agreement such as power-sharing and consent could not be changed.
“Northern Ireland can only be governed by an accommodation between nationalists and unionists and that accommodation over the last five or six years has been hugely successful,” he said.
His first meeting was with SDLP leader Mark Durkan whose party, now on 18 seats, was overtaken as the leaders of nationalism by Sinn Féin.
Mr Durkan said the British government must recall the Assembly without delay: “They must not let the DUP hold back progress or turn the clock back on change.
“Parties who have an increased mandate must show responsibility to break the deadlock,” he added.
UUP leader David Trimble, who is facing the prospect of a leadership challenge, made no comment as he entered Hillsborough Castle in Co Down talks with Mr Murphy.
But earlier, he said it was a “huge overstatement” to say the Good Friday Agreement was dead. “There is still a majority of the population in favour of the Agreement,” he added.
