Ahern stops short of excluding Sinn Fein
Sinn Fein should not be banned from devolution talks despite their leadership’s apparent foreknowledge about the Northern Bank raid in Belfast in December, the Irish government said yesterday.
The British and Irish governments and Hugh Orde, Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, have and continue to blame the Irish Republican Army for the £26.5 million robbery.
The IRA has consistently dismissed the allegations and argued they are part of a smear campaign to discredit the political party.
Following the two-hour meeting between Sinn Fein and the Irish leader Bertie Ahern, Malcolm McDowell, justice minister, said the Taoiseach was “strongly opposed” to a policy of exclusion or punishment.
But he underscored the prevalent view at Westminster and Dublin that there was no room for anybody “associated with criminality or paramilitarism”.
“There is no mandate for Sinn F?in to pursue a political path with violence,” he added.
Foreign affairs minister, Dermot Ahern, said the question of sanctions against Sinn Fein for allegedly failing to curb punishment beatings and robberies was one for the British government.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams told journalists that Mr Ahern could not stand up the accusation that Sinn Fein was aware the raid was going to take place.
“There can be no intelligence or no evidence because we simply didn’t have any knowledge,” he said.
Mr Ahern said: “We had made it clear in the Government that this meeting wasn’t going to be about sharing intelligence or about giving explanations.
“We repeated that in the meeting and repeated it again after the meeting.”
The nationalist SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party also held talks with Mr Ahern in Dublin.
Ulster Unionist negotiator Sir Reg Empey said the robbery necessitated sanctions on Sinn Fein.
“You cannot do business with the political wing while its paramilitary wing is still in operation,” he said.
“If they (both governments) do nothing they punish the democrats and the elected Assembly on this island will be effectively destroyed because of bank robbers.”
Sinn Fein leaders are expected to meet Tony Blair on Thursday at Chequers.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair will then hold talks at the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental conference on February 1st.
