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Stormont talks ordered over renewed IRA activity David Cameron called into Stormont talks over renewed IRA activity
(about 5 hours later)
Northern Ireland’s politicians are being called into talks next week to resolve the crisis over IRA activity. David Cameron and his Irish counterpart Enda Kenny have announced emergency talks aimed at preventing power-sharing in Northern Ireland from collapsing next week over allegations that the Provisional IRA (PIRA) stills exists and has killed a former member.
David Cameron and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny ordered negotiations to break the deadlock at Stormont as security chiefs said they would support an independent assessment of paramilitary groups. A Downing Street spokesperson said the prime minister and the taoiseach had discussed the political crisis over the phone on Thursday.
A Downing Street statement said devolved power-sharing is facing a real threat unless there is urgent progress. “They agreed that the current situation in Northern Ireland is serious and without urgent progress there is a real threat to the stability of the devolved institutions,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said.
“As a result of these discussions the government has concluded that there is a clear need to convene urgent, intensive and focused cross party talks, involving the parties engaged in the negotiations that led to the Stormont House Agreement,” the statement said. All five parties will be asked to attend the discussions hosted by the two governments aimed at defusing the crisis caused by the murder of former IRA member Kevin McGuigan in August, which the chief constable of Northern Ireland later said was carried out by individual PIRA members.
“It is vital for the sustainability of the devolved institutions that all parties seize the opportunity for urgent talks to address these issues.” In a statement from Dublin, Enda Kenny said: “We envisage that this process of talks should be short, focused and intensive, and deal with full implementation of the Stormont House Agreement as well as the trust and confidence issues arising from the legacy of paramilitarism.”
Kenny said: “We envisage that this process of talks should be short, focused and intensive and deal with full implementation of the Stormont House Agreement as well as the trust and confidence issues arising from the legacy of paramilitarism. The cross-community Alliance party confirmed on Thursday night that it would attend the talks. Party leader and Northern Ireland mustice minister David Ford said: “I am pleased the governments took onboard Alliance’s suggestion for an intensive talks process.
“If the sustainability of the devolved institutions is to be ensured, it is absolutely critical that these talks are advanced with a sense of urgency and that all of the parties constructively seize this opportunity.” “This crisis began with some parties’ refusal to honour their commitments under the Stormont House Agreement and was worsened by the shooting of Kevin McGuigan and police comments about the IRA. No longer can this be allowed to continue. Uncertainty must be brought to an end and paramilitarism cannot remain in our society, poisoning relationships and being the great unsaid truth in Northern Ireland.
Kenny and Cameron spoke on the phone on Wednesday and agreed the initiative. “These talks need to be a genuine attempt to move beyond the seemingly endless cycle of crisis after crisis, which is damaging the delivery of government and eroding public confidence in the political institutions.”
The talks are planned for next week at Stormont House with secretary of state Theresa Villiers representing London and foreign affairs minister Charlie Flanagan, Dublin. The nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) also welcomed the announcement of talks by the two premiers. West Belfast Assembly member Alex Attwood said: “This is a crucial opportunity for all the parties in the north to deal decisively and properly with the issues that have dogged us for too long. The SDLP made clear to the governments today that these must be dealt with now and agreed in full by all, to ensure there is real lasting progress, peace and stability in the north.”
“The purpose of the talks is to secure full implementation of the Agreement and to deal with issues arising from the impact of continued paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland,” Downing Street said. One of the items of the all-party talks agenda is likely to be the revival of a ceasefire monitoring group staffed by international security experts.
The move came after the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) offered a new assessment of Provisional IRA activity stating that aspects of the terror organisation have gone away, its active service units do not exist any more and what remains fulfils a radically different purpose than during the Troubles. Earlier on Thursday chief constable George Hamilton said he would back any move to set up a commission to examine if paramilitary groups were still engaging in violence. Hamilton told the Policing Board in Belfast – the body that includes local politicians who scrutinise the work of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – he would be “supportive” of a mechanism designed to report on alleged breaches of terror group’s ceasefires.
Both the Irish government and the Democratic Unionists support a new form of paramilitary monitoring of the ceasefires. The head of the PSNI said at the end of last month that PIRA members were responsible for killing Kevin McGuigan in east Belfast in August. Although Hamilton stressed the PIRA leadership did not “sanction” the killing, his assessment prompted the Ulster Unionist party to leave the five-party regional government in Northern Ireland plunging power-sharing into crisis.
The breakdown in relations at Stormont reached a new low after the killing of a former IRA father-of-nine Kevin McGuigan, allegedly by former terror associates. The revival of the Independent Monitoring Commission, which had the task of examining the status of the IRA and loyalist paramilitary ceasefires before devolution was restored nearly a decade ago, has been mooted as one possible way to rebuild the unionist community’s trust in republicans as well as act as a deterrent force against future ceasefire breaches.
That murder earlier this summer caused political uproar after PSNI chief constable George Hamilton said the IRA – which was supposed to have gone away a decade ago – still exists for peaceful purposes and the shooting was carried out by individual PIRA members but not sanctioned at a senior level. Asked at the Policing Board meeting in central Belfast if he backed the restoration of the IMC, which has won broad support from the Irish government right over to the Democratic Unionist party, the hief constable said: “The monitoring of paramilitary groups as conducted, for example, by the Independent Monitoring Commission until 2011, was part of a political agreement.
The police chief said: “The monitoring of paramilitary groups as conducted, for example, by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) until 2011, was part of a political agreement.
“The police service would be supportive of any political intervention to create some form of independent assessment process in the future.”“The police service would be supportive of any political intervention to create some form of independent assessment process in the future.”
The IMC was established by the British and Irish governments to monitor the ceasefires of paramilitary groups after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence. Unionists including Tory peer and Nobel peace prize-winner Lord Trimble have argued that a new IMC could act as a “political deterrent” given that it would have to report via a group of international security experts on who was behind incidents such as the McGuigan murder.
Hamilton said it would be a political decision whether to set up another body such as the IMC. Ahead of Monday’s planned resumption of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister and Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator during the peace process, spoke directly to David Cameron about the ongoing crisis. McGuinness warned the prime minister that it would be a “grave mistake” to side with the DUP and agreed to suspend the devolved parliament, even for four weeks.
He added: “We don’t actually have a statutory responsibility to monitor and report to political parties on the status of paramilitary groups. While urging the prime minister not to use Westminster powers to suspend the Northern Ireland executive, McGuinness also called on all armed groups to go out of business.
“If there is a decision taken politically that there would be some sort of monitoring commission introduced clearly it would fill that gap.” “There is absolutely no case for their to be any armed group against the backdrop of peace agreements that have been made,” he said.
Hamilton said any monitoring should include loyalist groups like the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association.
Senior police briefed politicians and independent members of the Policing Board about the Provisional IRA today in Belfast.
Assistant chief constable Will Kerr said: “At the operational tier, active service units, we don’t believe that tier exists any more. A senior tier exists for a radically different purpose than 20 years ago.”
He said there was no terrorist command and the IRA was not engaged in terrorism.
“It is involved in pursuing an exclusively peaceful, political agenda.”
Police believe the killing of McGuigan was a revenge attack by republican associates of IRA commander Gerard “Jock” Davison, who was gunned down in Belfast in May.
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) last week said it could no longer work with Sinn Féin because trust has been shattered and has left the power-sharing ministerial executive at Stormont.
Northern Ireland’s largest party, the DUP, has called for the assembly to be suspended for four weeks to allow for intensive talks.
Sinn Féin has said the IRA has gone away but supported calls for discussions.