SDLP warns against delay in power-sharing deal
Sinn Féin and the DUP must not delay any longer in setting up power-sharing political institutions in Northern Ireland, the SDLP said today.
Speaking after hour-long talks with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin, party leader Mark Durkan also raised concerns about proposed changes being sought by Ian Paisley to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
The SDLP will join other political parties for intensive talks in Scotland this week with Mr Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair.
Mr Durkan, who led a six-member talks delegation to Dublin, said: “I welcome the fact that Sinn Féin and the DUP are finally catching up with the rest of us, but they shouldn’t delay too long.
“They shouldn’t think that just because they’ve got away with holding us up for so long that they can do it again.”
Mr Durkan reiterated that the DUP was negotiating changes to the Good Friday Agreement which were dangerous.
“Changes are being conceded to the DUP and some of them are actually dangerous,” he said. “Some can lead to worse governance, stalemate and stand-offs within government.
“The DUP is looking for all sorts of drive-by vetoes on what various ministers are doing.”
Mr Durkan said that his party had better ideas on fine-tuning Executive and it would be bringing them to the talks at St Andrews in Scotland.
The SDLP said the Good Friday Agreement boils down to the two key principles of an inclusive democracy and a lawful society.
“What we really need is to find out if Sinn Féin signed up to a lawful society and the DUP signs up to an inclusive democracy,” said Mr Durkan.
“We have to move forward with a sense of purpose.”
He said that the DUP has come a long way from saying no to power-sharing and North-South co-operation, while Sinn Féin has also moved on from supporting violence to possibly entering policing structures.
Mr Durkan also raised concerns about MI5’s role in intelligence gathering in the North.
“We see the move to give MI5 primacy in terms of intelligence policing as outside the Patton Report,” said the Foyle MP.
“The British Government cannot ask us to trust what they tell us we cannot know. If you can’t even get that degree of transparency and openness about the British how do we know that it’s not going to be outside accountable policing.”
Mr Durkan also dismissed Sinn Féin suggestions that internal difficulties in the Irish Government had been a distraction from efforts to push for power-sharing.
Mr Ahern, Tánaiste Michael McDowell and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern seemed very focused on all relevant issues, he noted.
“I saw no signs of any distractions or preoccupations debilitating their good work,” he added.
