The chances of a power-sharing government being set up in the North this
year are now non-existent, nationalist and unionist sources have said.
The current talks' process to restore devolution is effectively over after
the statement from the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, that the IRA carried out
the Northern Bank raid.
DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, said if the International Monitoring
Commission (IMC) reaches the same conclusion, Sinn Féin should be excluded
from government for a year.
The IMC, which monitors paramilitary activity, is due to publish its
findings in April but Robinson called for it to issue its report within a
month. Sinn Féin, which is continuing to deny IRA involvement, held an
emergency ard comhairle meeting in Dublin yesterday.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, will meet the Northern
Secretary, Paul Murphy, next week to discuss both governments' response to
the raid. The Taoiseach is also due to meet Tony Blair.
The Rev Ian Paisley will visit Downing Street next week to urge Blair to
allow a devolved administration to be set up without Sinn Féin. The DUP
leader will argue that the SDLP could be the major nationalist players in
the proposed new Executive.
However, SDLP, and British and Irish government sources have ruled this out.
A Government source said: "A majority of nationalists in the North vote for
Sinn Féin and that can't be ignored. Any lasting deal has to involve
them."
The SDLP's Alex Attwood, said the issue wasn't one of exclusion but he
called on the governments to urgently tackle the flaws in the political
process.
"The continued criminality of various organisations must be addressed.
There can no longer be denial. The full weight of the law must deal with
this problem," he said.
It had been hoped that political negotiations would resume immediately after
May's Westminster election with Sinn Féin and the DUP entering a
power-sharing administration in the autumn.
"It could have been possible if we built on the enormous progress made in
the talks before Christmas," said a British government source. "We could
have closed the gaps but it's unrealistic now."
Peter Robinson said that in any future negotiations, the DUP would be
demanding even greater proof that IRA activity had ended: "The pressure will
not be on my party, to lower the bar, the pressure will be for a higher
bar."
Meanwhile, the deal to free the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe is now off as
a result of IRA involvement in the robbery, a senior Government source has
told the Sunday Tribune.
