Alliance party conference: The Alliance leader, Mr David Ford, at his party's 34th annual conference warned that if the British and Irish governments did not take action against Sinn Féin to try to force the IRA to end paramilitary activity then they should collapse the review of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Ford complained at the conference in his South Antrim constituency on Saturday that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, while demanding that the IRA end their activity did not apply sanctions or take action to achieve this.
"When we met the Irish Government I was told that the Taoiseach had made speech after speech telling republicans that they must end all violence. I replied that every time Mr Ahern said this and his Government did absolutely nothing it actually made matters worse.
"To lecture republicans in the media, and then negotiate with Sinn Féin as if it was an ordinary democratic party, is to emphasise the weakness of the two governments," he told the 200 delegates who attended the conference.
"In early 1998, Alliance took action to ensure that both Sinn Féin and the UDP [Ulster Democratic Party] were temporarily excluded from the talks. The result was positive. Violence was reduced outside and integrity was introduced inside the process. But this time, with no clear rulebook, only the governments can take action. If they aren't prepared to do so, they ought to be honest and announce that they are shutting down the review."
Mr Ford called for reform of the Belfast Agreement and said the party's results in the November Assembly elections had dumbfounded the pundits. He praised the party for entering the Assembly elections with six seats and emerging with six seats.
He acknowledged, however, that Alliance "did not have a particularly good election" as the party's vote was cut in half from over 50,000 to 25,000.
Mr Ford said the system of Assembly members designating themselves as unionist, nationalist or "other" must be abandoned because designations were divisive, illegal under European law, reinforced sectarianism, didn't work and rewarded "those who remain stuck in a tribal camp".
He added that only an Executive formed on the basis of collective responsibility could work.
Proposing a weighted majority form of government Mr Ford said: "The only realistic way of ensuring that sensitive issues attain cross-community support without sticking tribal labels on MLAs is to require a weighted majority to pass important measures. 60 to 65 per cent would be adequate, while ensuring that it does not become near-impossible to win a vote."
He praised the work of the North-South bodies and proposed that the First and Deputy First Minister, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste would make a joint appearance every year, in both the Dáil and the Assembly to report and answer questions from TDs and MLAs.
"Alliance believes that Northern Ireland has nothing to fear from increased North-South co-operation. In fact, it has everything to gain. Look at how well we dealt with Foot-and-Mouth Disease three years ago through informal co-operation across the Border.
"It is a disgrace that six years on from the agreement, we have not yet established the North-South Parliamentary Body. MLAs and TDs would gain a great deal from regular meetings."
Mr Ford defended the Human Rights Commission against nationalist and unionism criticism and said the full-time police reserve should be maintained. He also opposed the 50:50 Catholic/Protestant recruitment policy of the PSNI.
"Alliance remains opposed to quotas, because they are damaging to the morale of the police service, they are divisive and they are illegal under European law. Instead, we need policies that cut through discrimination, with a tough affirmative action programme to attract recruits from every section of society."
"There can be no no-go areas for the security forces in Northern Ireland and no no-go areas either for Catholics or for Protestants, for immigrants or for citizens of different races.
"That's what we mean when we talk about building a united community."
