North's Assembly to meet in new devolution push
The North's Assembly members will gather at Stormont today for the first time in three and a half years as part of a new bid to secure devolution.
It will be the first time that the new Assembly elected in November 2003 will gather.
As the 108 Assembly members headed to Stormont, there was still uncertainty as to whether they would be able to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s and British Prime Minister Tony Blair's November 24 deadline for a power-sharing government.
Assembly members will not be taking charge of government departments in the North despite the revival of Stormont.
However the Irish and British governments are hoping that between now and November 24, sufficient trust will be built up between the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin to enable power-sharing to return.
In a radio interview broadcast yesterday, Mr Ahern warned the Stormont MLAs that if they failed to meet the deadline, it could be the last chance to achieve a political settlement to North's problems for 20 years.
“Now is the hour,” he told RTE. “Tony Blair and I are two realistic guys who have spent a total of 20 years on this. We’ve got it to here. I think November is too long but I went with the compromise.”
He continued: “To go any longer will just be a nonsense. It will be unworkable and will flake away. If we can’t do it in six months, then we’re unlikely to do it this side of the next 20 years.”
The new Assembly’s largest grouping is the Reverend Ian Paisley’s DUP, with Sinn Féin the second largest followed by the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and the cross-community Alliance Party.
UK Unionist leader Robert McCartney, Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine and independents, Paul Berry and Dr Kieran Deeny hold the remaining seats.
Although no executive is expected to be formed ahead of the summer, parties have already begun jockeying for position.
Mr Ervine, whose party is linked to the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, announced on Saturday that he would be joining forces with the Ulster Unionists - a move which will ensure that when an executive is set up unionists will have more cabinet posts than nationalists.
Prior to the move, it had been thought that the DUP would be able to claim the position of First Minister and three cabinet posts, Sinn Féin would have Deputy First Minister and three ministries, the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP would have two ministries each.
Mr Ervine’s decision to join the UUP group now means that one of the ministries Sinn Féin had expected to get will fall into the Ulster Unionists’ hands.
On the first day of the new Assembly MLAs will today declare whether they are unionist, nationalist or other.
These designations are needed under the complex voting system.
The new Assembly Speaker, former Alliance Party deputy leader Eileen Bell, will address members.
Sinn Féin is also expected to request a minute’s silence in memory of 15-year-old Catholic schoolboy Michael McIlveen who died last week from injuries sustained in a brutal sectarian beating in Ballymena, Co Antrim, in the heart of the Rev Ian Paisley’s North Antrim constituency.
Assembly members will tomorrow meet business leaders outside the debating chamber before staging their own debate on what they have heard.
Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell has also been invited to address MLAs next Monday on the benefits of devolution, with an Assembly debate following.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has been dismissive of the programme drawn up for the Assembly, claiming it is an inferior model than the Assembly which functioned during the last period of devolution.
Mr Adams has said his party will only focus on efforts to set up a power-sharing administration involving unionists and nationalists and has declared his intention to nominate Mr Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness as First and Deputy First Ministers.
The DUP and Ulster Unionists are expected to be joined by the SDLP initially for the debates.
However the SDLP has warned that its future participation will be dependent on whether Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain’s team of ministers running government departments in the North are prepared to respond to the will of the Assembly if it opposes British government policy.
Assembly members are expected today to cut short business to enable unionists to attend a garden party at Hillsborough Castle involving the Prince of Wales.
