IMC issue must be resolved warns McGuinness

Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has said that unless the issue of the International Monitoring Commission (IMC…

Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has said that unless the issue of the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) is addressed the latest round of political talks will run aground.

Speaking at the concluding day of the Sinn Féin ArdFheis in Dublin, Mr McGuinness told delegates that the time has come for the IMC to be decommissioned.

"We have told both governments that the IMC is a problem they created and it is one which they must resolve," he said.

He described the IMC's latest report as "unsubstantiated allegation, fantasy and fiction presented as fact."

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Mr McGuinness outlined his party's proposals made to the Irish and British governments recently on a timetable for moving the political process forward. These included the immediate lifting of the suspension of the Assembly and the repeal of the legislation which gives the British Secretary of State the power to suspend the political institutions.

He warned that an indefinite continuation of the current situation was untenable and if full restoration of the Assembly cannot be restored in the next few months, then it should be scrapped and the salaries of MLAs withdrawn.

Mr McGuinness also criticised the decision last week not to proceed with northern representation in the Oireachtas.