THE Northern Ireland forum, reviled by nationalists and championed by unionists, is meeting today amid uncertainty about its future. The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, is currently seeking advice as to whether he must wind up the body or grant it a reprieve.
Under the legislation which set up the multi-party talks process and the forum, Sir Patrick is legally obliged to determine whether the body is adjourned or suspended now that the talks are put in cold storage until early June.
If the body is legally suspended, then Sir Patrick must lay an order in the House of Commons also suspending the forum, but if it can be established that the talks are legally adjourned, the forum can be allowed to continue until the end of May. On May 31st, the forum comes to the end of its year-run which, at the discretion of the British government can be renewed for one further year.
When the talks ended at Stormont on Wednesday, Sir Patrick pointedly declined an opportunity to endorse the operations of the forum, further inflaming Rev Ian Paisley's suspicions that the British and Irish governments want rid of it.
The best Sir Patrick could say was that he had never attended a meeting of the forum, but from "accounts and minutes" he had read he believed it had provided "useful meetings", particularly in the committees.
Pressed further he said: "If I have a view I don't choose to express it."
The Tanaiste, in Stormont the same day, made a sideways attack on the body. "I don't know very much about the workings of the forum, that is very much a matter for the Secretary of State, other than I have heard that there has been a great amount of abuse hurled across the floor of the forum ... I am not sure how constructive a body it is."
The SDLP is boycotting the body, and Sinn Fein has never attended even though it could still enter the forum chamber without any IRA arms decommissioning. The Alliance Party and the Women's Coalition have been growing increasingly disillusioned, believing the forum to be dominated by a unionist agenda. One of the firmest supporters of the body is the DUP leader, Dr Paisley, who has warned that if the forum is terminated, the DUP will not reengage in the multi-party talks when they resume in June.
