UNITED STATES investors could be frightened off if Northern Ireland is faced with political instability over the devolution of policing control to Stormont, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said in Dublin last night.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was clearly opposed to the transfer taking place on May 8th, the date laid down by the Irish and British governments in the St Andrews talks, he said.
"Investors aren't going to come if there is political instability about. So there are lots of imperatives why we should make this as painless as possible," said Mr Adams.
He was speaking shortly before meeting Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern in Government Buildings last night. "Depending on how they [ the DUP] handle all of that will send out its own signal," he said. He was accompanied by the North's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.
Mr McGuinness insisted that senior DUP figures had guaranteed him in March last year that they would stand by the St Andrews deadline.
He said he wanted the DUP to follow through on its commitments. "Very senior members of the DUP told me that they would stand by the St Andrews agreement. We expect that whenever we make agreements with people that they would keep their word.
"If they don't, I think that that represents a real challenge for the Irish and British governments and for the process," he warned, though he quickly added, "Let's not jump all the hurdles at once here."
Refusing to consider a postponement of devolution, Mr McGuinness said: "I think that at this stage is not a reasonable demand. Quite clearly, whenever the two governments officiated at the talks there was an acceptance that May was a reasonable period of time in order to ensure that powers would be transferred.
"I specifically raised this issue in the run-in to the meeting which Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley headed up on March 26th and they told me that they would stand by the St Andrews commitments.
"I also said that in a speech to our ardfheis over a week ago, and nobody has contradicted me. So what I expect is that people who said at that stage that they would stand by commitments should now do so," he said.
Mr Adams said Sinn Féin expected the two governments would insist that the transfer of powers from Westminster to Stormont would go ahead on time.
The departure of First Minister, the Rev Ian Paisley, from office in May "shouldn't make [ devolution] any more difficult", said the Sinn Féin president.
"The fact is that most of the powers have been devolved already. The Policing Board is working, it's functioning. The local district partnership boards are in place," he said.
"The big concern for us is that unionism moves slightly to the right, as whoever replaces Ian Paisley starts to set out his or her stall.
"They could be purely tactical. The vast majority of unionists and nationalists want to see accountable ministers in charge. Some of them are very, very tedious and mundane issues, like PSNI call-out time in response to emergencies," he said.
