Ahern: We will meet DUP
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today insisted the Government was willing to meet Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party in a bid to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.
The DUP overtook David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists as the largest party in the North following last week’s Assembly elections.
The party has never met the Government for full-scale talks before, although deputy leader Peter Robinson has said he would be willing to discuss areas of mutual concern.
Mr Ahern said he was optimistic a meeting could take place in the future.
“I have publicly stated that we will meet any party,” he said.
“Both the SDLP and Sinn Féin have already indicated that they will meet and the DUP have not yet but we’ll just have to, through whatever way we can, we’ll have to see how that’s going to operate.
“I think it’s possible to have a meeting but I don’t want to press a meeting until at least there’s some exchange of how best we formulate that.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to rush it and I think the DUP and other parties will want to work out their own tactics and particularly the DUP because they have not been engaged in meetings with the Irish Government ever so I think they will probably reflect on how they do that.
“But Mr Robinson said he will meet and I assume that will happen.”
The power-sharing Stormont Assembly was suspended more than a year ago and the election was held against the backdrop of an impasse in the peace process.
Mr Ahern said he believed the direct-rule would continue in Northern Ireland for “some time”.
“I think it’s unlikely that the British government will lift the suspension at this stage, at least until we have the talks,” he said.
“At this stage we would remain in the same position as we’ve been for most of the last 13 or 14 months so I think the key issues are how we can work to try to get devolution back.”
Mr Ahern also dismissed criticism that the British and Irish governments had sidelined the SDLP during talks between Sinn Féin and the UUP before the election.
“From the Irish government’s perspective we had more meetings with the SDLP than we did with Sinn Féin, but as I said many times, the reason that there was a lot of dialogue around Sinn Féin and the UUP, and there was, was that Sinn Féin were still associated with a paramilitary organisation and the SDLP were not,” he said.
“The issue was to try to separate that and drive paramilitarism out of Irish politics.”
