DUP prepared to ‘do business’ with Sinn Fein
Democratic Union Party leader Dr Ian Paisley MP has offered Sinn Fein the chance to join a devolved government at Stormont if it pushes for ‘no arms and no crime’ in the province.
The veteran MP and religious leader said Gerry Adams’ party could still share power despite the IRA’s alleged involvement in the £26.5 Northern Bank heist in December.
Dr Paisley told Irish radio station RTE he would “do business” with any democrat who joined the fight against criminality, armed revolt and rebellion.
But Dr Paisley said Sinn Fein could no longer be an “an old boys association” for retired IRA members.
A peace deal came close to being brokered between political parties in Northern Ireland last year but faltered on the question of photographic verification of weapons decommissioning.
Mr Adams, MP for West Belfast, speaking in South Armagh on Sunday afternoon at a commemoration for IRA Volunteers Brendan Burns and Brendan Moley, said republicans faced “hard choices” and more hard decisions in the months ahead.
“We are determined to see all the guns taken out of Irish politics and to be part of the collective effort that will create the conditions where the IRA ceases to exist. We are determined that the issues of policing, demilitarisation, human rights and equality are dealt with.
“But republicans cannot make peace on our own. We cannot implement the Good Friday Agreement on our own. We cannot establish a working, viable power sharing government on our own. We cannot resolve the outstanding issues of equality and justice on our own. These require the British and Irish governments and the Unionists to play their part and to face up to the challenge of making peace.”
Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the DUP and East Belfast MP, said he was fed up with having to interpret Mr Adam’s coded messages.
“What he has to realise is that nobody is trying to interpret his comments any more,” Mr Robinson said.
“People are not interested in their words. They know what they have to do. The IRA has to decommission all of its weapons in a transparent and verifiable way.”
