The British government today outlined emergency legislation to postpone the Northern Ireland Assembly elections by four weeks.
Under the Bill, being rushed through the Commons in a single day, the elections would be delayed until May 29th to give parties time to consider new proposals put forward at the Hillsborough talks earlier this month for the restoration of the power-sharing Executive.
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Northern Ireland Minister Jane Kennedy said the "prize" for the delay would be that people could vote at the elections on the basis of working institutions.
"There is a real chance that we might shortly be in a position to complete the transition to a peaceful and democratic society in Northern Ireland," she said. "All parties now need time to reflect on the way forward."
Without the Bill, the Northern Ireland Assembly would be dissolved this Friday, the election campaign would start and there would be "no political advance" of the peace process before the Assembly election on May 1st, she said.
The Bill, in postponing the dissolution date until April 28th and the elections until May 29th, would allow "a very short delay to the elections in order to give the parties the opportunity to reflect."
However, Mr David Burnside, Ulster Unionist MP South Antrim, said the delay to the elections had come about because of the government's "total mismanagement" of the peace process.
"It sums up the total mismanagement of this government of a political process that it calls the peace process," he said. "The reason why we are having a one month delay, and perhaps even more, is because the government has accepted 100 per cent veto from the representatives of Sinn Féin/IRA on the operation of any form of democratic local government within Northern Ireland."
Mr Jeffrey Donaldson (UUP Lagan Valley) said there ought not to have been any need for this legislation as the election should not have been delayed.
"There has to be a bottom line here. This process has lurched from one crisis to another and every time we reach a crisis the Government reaches into the goody bag to find more concessions to make the republican movement. Instead of punishing those who have been responsible for the crisis they reward them" he said.
"We do need acts of completion. We need complete disarmament and complete disbandment. That has to be the bottom line."