Trimble - Good Friday or bust

Monday, 24 November 2003 12:00 AM

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble has dismissed calls for a new format to the power-sharing executive.

Dr Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists have insisted a new political settlement in Northern Ireland would have to be penned if the party emerged with a majority in the 108-seat Assembly.

The devolved administration was suspended a year ago amid allegations of IRA intelligence gathering at Stormont.

But ahead of Wednesday's elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Trimble said there was 'no alternative' to the power-sharing institutions enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Mr Trimble said the demands of the DUP were disruptive and unspecified.

But the deputy leader of the DUP, Peter Robinson, said the Belfast Agreement failed to provide structures that communities in Northern Ireland could feel confident about.

"The Belfast Agreement has failed. Its failure can be seen in the fact that it collapsed on four occasions.

"It has been suspended for over a year and that isn't stability, that's an agreement that isn't capable of bringing us lasting peace in Northern Ireland, therefore we need to have a new agreement."

SDLP leader and MP for Foyle, Mark Durkan, warned that any significant gains by the DUP in the elections would put the institutions created by the Agreement in jeopardy and impede progress socially and economically in Northern Ireland.

"If the DUP are allowed to succeed in this election by getting sufficient seats to stop the agreement in its tracks, then our prospects of moving forward are fundamentally damaged.'"

Last night, senior Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey criticised the DUP for adopting a "parasitical" approach to the Good Friday Agreement.

Sir Reg challenged Dr Ian Paisley's party to explain why it had participated in the Assembly whilst pooh-poohing any progress.

He said: "There are people who have been benefiting from the Agreement, taking all the benefits such as membership of the Assembly and all the salaries that go with it, without contributing anything to its creation.

"That in my mind is parasitical behaviour.

"The DUP portrays itself as having this lofty position of opposing everything in the Agreement but the reality is they are participating in its structures."

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy told Sky News yesterday: "What unites all the parties of Northern Ireland is that they do want devolution. They like to govern themselves. They like local ministers who are accountable to people in Northern Ireland unlike ourselves in Westminster who do not have seats in Northern Ireland.

"So I think there is that common denominator. People want devolution back.

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