The British and Irish governments are to write to the Northern parties to outline the basis on which they hope talks about restoring devolution can be restarted next month. The decision was announced last night at a joint press conference at Stormont.
The Northern Secretary said yesterday's walkout from the talks by Mr David Trimble's UUP and the smaller unionist parties was "regrettable". But Mr Paul Murphy said their move "underlines once again the lack of trust between parties and the gravity of the situation we face".
He insisted that London's view of the status of paramilitary ceasefires as outlined by Dr John Reid, the former Northern Secretary, and the British Prime Minister remains unchanged. He said Dr Reid spelled this out clearly last summer and Mr Tony Blair had also done so during his key address in Belfast on October 17th immediately following the suspension of devolution.
"The Prime Minister and the Taoiseach made it clear that all paramilitary activity must stop. There can be no halfway house. There is no acceptable level of activity and the transition to democracy must be complete and permanent," Mr Murphy said.
He said the determination to reach that goal meant he was determined to maintain the dialogue with the parties whatever the frustrations or distractions. Reconvening talks next month was the only way to build trust, he said.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said yesterday's talks were designed to report to the parties on progress made during a series of trilateral meetings hosted by the two governments in recent weeks. He reported "an emerging consensus" on the issues facing talks participants and which had to be resolved for trust to be rebuilt and for the Stormont institutions to be restored. He admitted with some understatement: "Today did not add to that momentum."
Mr Cowen said "disproportionate emphasis" had been placed on the contents of the document leaked during Thursday's Intergovernmental Conference.
"That document has no status. Its contents do not represent Irish Government policy. The policy of the Irish Government is the same today as it was 24 hours ago." Key to that policy, he said, was full implementation of the Belfast Agreement, the full commitment of Sinn Féin to the political process in all its aspects, an end to paramilitary activity was required, the transition to democratic behaviour had to be completed and the only route to a functioning democracy was via inclusive talks involving all the Northern parties.
He also called the Trimble walkout "regrettable".
"They retard rather than advance the core objective of bringing about a fully peaceful society." He insisted full involvement by all the parties was necessary to advance the process. "We came here today to propose a framework to the parties to sort out the difficulties. Unless all participate, we will not make the necessary progress. I look forward, therefore, to intensive, productive dialogue in the new year." Earlier, Mr Cowen addressed specifically issues surrounding the leaked document at Farmleigh.
"It is important that the nature of such briefing papers is properly understood," he said in a statement. "When Ministers attend significant meetings, their officials normally prepare a set of background papers containing information and advice. These advisory papers are prepared on the responsibility of the officials concerned. Policy positions and decision-making remain of course the prerogative and responsibility of the Minister. In this instance, I did not draw on these particular papers in my participation in the meeting."