Missing devolution deadline ‘would betray voters’
The North’s politicians will betray their voters if they fail to form a power sharing government by November 24, a senior SDLP official warned today.
Negotiator Sean Farren told the Glencree summer school in Co Wicklow that after a bad start the Stormont committee, tasked with preparing for government, had set about its work in a business-like manner and with less bitterness than before.
However the former Stormont finance minister said it was too early to predict whether the Democratic Unionists (DUP) and Sinn Féin (SF) would be able to set aside their differences and form a devolved government.
“If we’re not to go down in history as the politicians who spurned the best means ever to build a new Ireland, to create harmonious relations between Orange and Green within the North and across Ireland as a whole, we need to openly and honestly grasp the opportunity we now have to restore the Good Friday Agreement - an opportunity which will only last until November 24,” he said.
“Current discussions in the Preparation for Government Committee have – after a bad start – got down to work at least in a business-like way and with less of the acrimony between SF and the DUP that characterised that start.
“But whether or not all the issues will be resolved in a manner that will make restoration possible is difficult to say.
“Even if all of the practical issues to do with how the Assembly, the North South Ministerial Council, the British Irish Council etc are to work, and what the arrangements should be for the administration of policing and justice, the Bill of Rights etc., the key issue is whether the DUP will see it to be in their interest to agree to enter and lead an administration with Sinn Féin.
“It is part of the challenge we face that we convince the DUP that it is in their interest and indeed in the interest of all of the people of Northern Ireland that they do so.”
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair have given the Assembly parties until November 24 to strike a deal which will enable the province’s politicians to exercise power through a devolved government. The obstacles to power sharing remain considerable, however.
Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists, the North’s largest party, insist they will not participate in a government in November featuring Sinn Féin if there is no proof that the Provisional IRA has ended all criminality and paramilitary activity.
In the opening address to the summer school, senior DUP MP Gregory Campbell insisted yesterday Sinn Féin would also have to endorse the current system of policing in the North and encourage its supporters to co-operate with the police if it was to be a credible partner in government.
Mr Farren said the involvement of all parties in the Preparation for Government Committee was a welcome departure from the Irish and British government’s tendency in recent years to focus exclusively on talks with the province’s ’problem parties’.
However the North Antrim Assembly member said if there was to be a successful outcome in their bid to restore power sharing, all parties must honour their obligations together instead of taking part in a series of choreographed moves.
“In the North the challenge is to develop a more dynamic economy that moves us to a better balance between wealth creation and wealth consumption (we consume much more wealth than we produce by a factor of approximately 50%); to fast forward infrastructural investment; to develop programmes to more effectively tackle social disadvantage,” said Mr Farren.
“And above all to tackle the sectarianism that continues to poison relationships in our society, that takes the lives of young teenagers like Michael McIlveen and many, many others and that constructs so-called peace walls and creates no-go areas in our cities, towns and villages.
“Those who would be responsible for us not being able to move to this position would rightly earn the very strong condemnation of this and succeeding generations.
“They would have betrayed the tremendous efforts that have been made by friends and supporters of a peaceful and democratic way forward.
“Such friends are here today, they have been with us throughout the past 10 years, and they have come from here at home and from abroad.
“But above all it will be our own people whose hopes and expectations from what we could do together will have been betrayed.”
