Consensus emerges on power sharing
Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy says political parties in the province are in broad agreement that devolution ought to be restored.
Mr Murphy was speaking after the opening session of the review of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement at Stormont on Tuesday.
He and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen co-chaired the talks that brought together a historic gathering of politicians from the DUP, UUP, Sinn Fein, SDLP, and Alliance parties.
Power sharing was suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of IRA intelligence gathering.
Yesterday saw the British and Irish governments and the political parties make opening statements at a round table meeting.
Mr Murphy said it had been a very positive start.
“There was generally an agreement that there should be a return to devolution.
“The point was very clearly made that people in Northern Ireland want locally elected, locally accountable ministers to do the job that I and my fellow ministers are doing in direct rule.
“Obviously the issue of the lack of confidence and lack of trust which has characterised the last year or so is an issue that we have to address, and most parties made that point.”
Brian Cowen said his government wanted to see devolution restored as soon as possible.
“The review is a valuable opportunity to collectively take stock and assess where the operation of the Agreement can be improved.”
Parties have yet to agree on what form the review should take, with the Democratic Unionist Party led by veteran MP Ian Paisley insisting it will not negotiate with Sinn Fein, given the party’s alleged links with terrorism.
Ian Paisley said: “Today was the farce of everyone making a statement. It was only to please the governments, to let them say they got everyone in the same room.
“There is a difference between sitting in the room and negotiating your life, territory and all your liberty away.”
UUP leader, David Trimble, said the IRA must fulfil its obligations on the acts of completion before meaningful progress could be made.
“Unless there are meaningful, confidence building acts of completion there is no real prospect of progress in these review sessions. In fact the review can only serve to mask the underlying problem.”
On the other side of the ideological divide, the SDLP and Sinn Fein said the accord was not up for negotiation.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said: “The review was always envisaged to be taking place in a context where the institutions were up and running and the process was ongoing.”
Dr Paisley is due to meet Tony Blair on Thursday to proffer his proposals for a wholesale meta-review of the review.
