A week of broken political promises
By Caítlin Doherty
This week, on Stormont Hill, most of the political activity focused
on the now missed March 10 deadline. On Monday, two days before the
set date for the transfer of powers from London to Belfast, British
governor in Ireland Majorie Mowlam made a surprise announcement: she
set the new deadline for the establishment of the Executive to Easter
week, the week that will mark the anniversary of the Good Friday
Agreement.
Majorie Mowlam promised to then trigger the d'Hondt mechanism that
ensures the setting-up of the Assembly executive. Sinn Féin's
chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin immediately expressed ``concern and
disappointment''. This set-back was, according to him ``a further and
unnecessary delay''. He added: ``The setting-up of the executive is
clearly a matter of political will. If that will is missing at
present, it begs the question where will it be found before the end
of the month''.
Mowlam spoke after having announced the signing of four treaties that
provide for the establishment of the six all-Ireland bodies,
Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council, as well as a
so-called Irish-British Intergovernmental Conference. These treaties
were signed in Dublin on Monday.
Meanwhile, in the Assembly, members faced an avalanche of standing
orders, mainly from the DUP. These are aimed at setting guidelines
for the future functioning of the Assembly. There were calls for
greater parliamentary scrutiny of the office of David Trimble and
Seamus Mallon. Sinn Féin also expressed concern at the fact that
there was no established mechanism to supervise the powers of the
joint office of David Trimble and Seamus Mallon.
On Tuesday, a meeting between a Sinn Féin delegation and Mowlam in
Castle Buildings kick-started the political marathon of meetings.
After this face to face, a Sinn Féin delegation met Ulster Unionist
Party leaders John Taylor and David Trimble. Martin McGuinness and
Gerry Adams met up in the office of the First minister designate for
more than an hour and a half.
Speaking after the meeting, Adams said, ``our positions were discussed
in detail. There was no breakthrough and we have agreed to meet
again. We came to this meeting in a very positive and constructive
mood, anxious to manage the situation and to get through this
impasse. We are mindful that these difficulties can be only resolved
in the terms of the Agreement and mindful of the crisis.''
He went on to say: ``The reality is that the British secretary of
state has set a new deadline. We have made it clear that we think it
was a mistake. But we have also made it clear that the time that is
before us must be used to best advantage and to ensure that this
process is not collapsed. The governments need to be focused and need
to implement the Agreement within the time-frame that has been set.''
``There is a huge responsibility upon the British government to
implement this Agreement and trigger the d'Hondt mechanism as it
should have done last June. A vacuum has been created and the only
people who are going to be satisfied are the people who want this
process to fail''.
Martin McGuinness continued: ``All of us are very conscious that we
are entering a very critical phase of this process and probably the
most critical of these past 10 years. Our focus is on the
responsibilities of all the parties and of course, we are going to
meet again''
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