Don't repackage shadow Assembly proposals, SF warns

He told Sinn Féin’s National Elected Representatives Forum in Dublin’s Writers’ Museum that the coming weeks would be critical for politics in the North.

“Several weeks ago Sinn Féin resolutely opposed any halfway house, in-between, transitional, interim or shadow Assembly. That remains our position,” the West Belfast MP said.

“If there is to be an Assembly in the north (of Ireland), then it has to be the Assembly contained in the Good Friday Agreement.

“Although it only worked for a short time it was popular and relatively efficient.

“However the current approach of the governments to the restoration of the political institutions is a source of significant concern.”

Mr Adams said there was no future in the governments tampering with the 1998 agreement as a sop to the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.

“Rather than looking at how they can change the Good Friday Agreement to suit the DUP, the governments need to be coming forward with propositions which are about implementing the Good Friday Agreement and then endeavouring to get the DUP on board,” he argued.

“Our party obviously will look at whatever proposals the governments produce and we are in daily contact with them.

“But there is no point in the governments withdrawing proposals a month ago and then repackaging the same proposals and trying to represent them as something else.”

It is understood Mr Blair and Mr Ahern will travel to the North on April 6 to present their roadmap for reviving devolution.

They are believed to be considering recalling the Assembly in May, giving the Northern Ireland parties six weeks to form a power-sharing government.

If that proves impossible, legislation could be introduced at Westminster to park Stormont over the difficult summer marching season, with the Assembly returning in September.

The province’s 108 Assembly members would be given work to do at a committee level on the review of public administration, water charges, rates and education.

However they will also be given a deadline in December to form an inclusive executive which if they do not meet will result in the Assembly’s suspension.

Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the DUP, yesterday welcomed any move to have some temporary form of devolution in place ahead of the possible formation of an executive.

However he insisted the DUP would not be forced into government by any deadline.

The East Belfast MP said his party would only go into an executive if republicans completed the transition from violence and criminality to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.

Sinn Féin and Mark Durkan’s nationalist SDLP are expected to be critical of any move by the governments towards an interim Assembly.

Mr Adams today also called for the expansion of cross border co-operation and bodies for Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

The West Belfast MP said there were compelling arguments for moulding the health departments on both sides of the border into one and developing an all-Ireland agriculture policy.

He also suggested there should be all-Ireland strategies for roads, energy, education, rural development, sport and recreation, waste management, policing and justice.

Sinn Féin members were also told they needed to engage more with unionists and build support for Irish unity in Britain in the same way as they had built up a network of support among Irish Americans.

With the party facing a General Election in the Irish Republic next year and a possible Assembly Election north of the border in 2007, Mr Adams said Sinn Féin was significantly underdeveloped in the south.

He called for a more open party, with more women in leadership roles.