Northern Ireland crisis talks set up by Cameron and Kenny
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Version 0 of 1. 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. Downing Street said the prime minister and the taoiseach had discussed the political crisis on the phone on Thursday. “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 spokesman said. All five parties in the regional government will be asked to attend the discussions hosted by the two governments aimed at defusing the crisis caused by the murder of ex-IRA man Kevin McGuigan in east Belfast in August, which the chief constable of Northern Ireland said was carried out by individual PIRA members. In a statement from Dublin, 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 David Ford, who is Northern Ireland’s justice minister, said: “I am pleased the governments took on board Alliance’s suggestion for an intensive talks process. “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. “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 nationalist SDLP welcomed the announcement of crisis talks. Alex Attwood, the assembly member for West Belfast, said: “The talks must be the only show in town. London must not have any understanding, front or back door, on any issue with any party, be it DUP [Democratic Unionist party] on suspension or Sinn Féin on the rule of law. “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.” One of the items on the all-party talks agenda is likely to be the revival of a ceasefire monitoring group employing international security experts. Earlier on Thursday, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable George Hamilton said he would back moves to set up a commission to examine if paramilitary groups were still engaged in violence. Hamilton told the Policing Board in Belfast – the body that includes local politicians who scrutinise the work of the PSNI – he would be supportive of some kind of mechanism designed to report on alleged ceasefire breaches. The head of the PSNI said at the end of last month that PIRA members were responsible for killing McGuigan. Although Hamilton stressed the PIRA leadership did not “sanction” the killing, his assessment prompted the Ulster Unionist party (UUP) to leave the regional government, plunging Northern Ireland’s power-sharing into crisis. The revival of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), 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 route to rebuild the unionist community’s trust and act as a deterrent force against future ceasefire breaches. It has won broad support including backing from the Irish government and the DUP. Asked at the Policing Board meeting if he backed the restoration of the IMC, the chief constable said: “The monitoring of paramilitary groups as conducted, for example, by the 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.” 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 discovering those responsible for violent incidents such as the McGuigan murder. Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister who was Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator during the peace process, spoke directly by telephone to Cameron on Thursday about the crisis. McGuinness warned the prime minister that it would be a “grave mistake” if he sided with the DUP and agreed to suspend the devolved parliament even for four weeks. The DUP leadership met Cameron in Downing Street earlier this week and asked for support for the temporary suspension of the devolved institutions. They claimed this would enable all-party talks to take place in an attempt to try to rebuild faith in the process. McGuinness urged the prime minister not to use Westminster powers to suspend the Northern Ireland executive and called on all armed groups to go out of business. “There is absolutely no case for there to be any armed group against the backdrop of peace agreements that have been made,” he said. |