Northern Ireland close to lasting solution

Tuesday, 19 October 2004 12:00 AM

"Fundamental" changes to the Northern Ireland peace process are just "weeks away," the Secretary of State has said.

Paul Murphy said he believed the Democratic Unionist Party, the province's biggest representative of protestantism, was willing to share power with Sinn Fein as the IRA was committed to decommissioning its weapons for good.

"I would hope that we're talking about weeks rather than months," he told 68 British and Irish parliamentarians at the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body in Wales on Monday.

"I wouldn't want to be any more specific than that other than to say that intensive discussions are going on behind the scenes."

Power sharing at Stormont was suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of an IRA "spy ring" operation.

A confident Mr Murphy said the end to paramilitary activity and the verifiable decommissioning of weapons was something the people of Northern Ireland could "certainly" look forward to.

"I think there's a seriousness amongst all the parties now in Northern Ireland to try to ensure that we see an end to direct-rule, that we see the institutions coming back and that we see an end to paramilitary activity.

"I think if the conditions are fulfilled and confidence can be restored, I have no doubt in my mind that the parties are prepared to work together and particularly the two biggest parties, Sinn Fein and the DUP."

The Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said there was a "window of opportunity" for making progress in Northern Ireland but that had to be seized in the here and now.

He argued that prevarication by all parties could mean a new agreement would not be brokered until after the next general election in Britain and the start of the UK's presidency of the EU and G8 next year.

Sinn Fein's Arthur Morgan said he hoped a position could be reached in the next few days to find a breakthrough in the situation in Ireland.

Noting the impact the Blair administration had had on bringing about change in the province, he said Ireland would be united before a Conservative government was returned to power in Westminster.

But, earlier on Monday, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said he had "grave concerns" about the British and Irish governments' stance on power-sharing institutions and warned his party would not step aside to allow the DUP to change to Good Friday Agreement at will.

"The fundamentals of the Agreement, including the checks and balances which are of such crucial importance to nationalists and republicans, will not be bartered or negotiated away by Sinn Fein," he said.

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