Northern political parties should be allowed to set the standards for the peace process at a round table meeting, Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Mr Mark Durkan said today.
Emerging from a meeting at Stormont with Sinn Fein President Mr Gerry Adams, the nationalist SDLP leader said it was clear that the IRA remained active which was a cause of concern in the process.
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Mr Durkan said: "The fact is the IRA remains active.
"They have always remained active and we know that the issue is recently there have been a number of events that have given concern that the IRA was involved either directly or indirectly.
He said he had no difficulty with Dr Reid making a formal determination as to the status of the IRA ceasefire. He said he objected to the Assembly calling for a determination as it was not the Assembly’s job to do so.
The SDLP leader, who was accompanied at the meeting by Deputy Leader Ms Brid Rodgers, said it was not sufficient for the IRA or Sinn Fein to act as the arbiters of the peace process.
"We are coming into a situation where we hear in mantra from the IRA that they are no threat to the peace process as though they are the arbiters of what the peace process is and requires.
"We often hear from the IRA and from Sinn Fein's spokespersons that the rest of us are somehow a threat to the peace process because of the way we raise some of those issues or address some of those concerns.
"So I am quite happy that the parties in the implementation format would be able to air and share those issues and people can offer their different views on the status of the IRA ceasefire and also we can argue our views as to what the real and best standards of a ceasefire should amount to."
PA