PETER ROBINSON and Martin McGuinness are to begin speedily implementing the Hillsborough Castle Agreement, which sets April 12th as the date for devolving policing and justice powers, and proposes an improved structure for tackling contentious parades.
On Monday the First Minister and Deputy First Minister will ask party leaders who should be the North’s first minister for justice since the unionist-dominated Stormont administration was prorogued in 1972.
Alliance leader David Ford is the frontrunner, although the Ulster Unionist Party, which boycotted the publication of the agreement at Hillsborough, said it would oppose his nomination.
On Tuesday Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness will set up a working group, which will have just three weeks to agree the best method of achieving cross-community support for a “new and improved” system of dealing with parading.
These moves will mark the first practical outworking of the agreement, which was ratified yesterday at Hillsborough Castle by Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown after almost two weeks of protracted and tortuous negotiations.
“This might just be the day when the political process in the North came of age,” said Mr McGuinness.
Mr Robinson said the deal was a “good day” for Northern Ireland. He added: “No future generation would forgive us for squandering the peace that has been so long fought for. Today’s agreement is a sure sign that there will be no going back to the past. I believe that we have taken a considerable step to secure the prize of a stable and peaceful Northern Ireland.”
The deal was widely welcomed by political, church, business and community leaders.
The agreement focuses on Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness “working together in a spirit of partnership to deliver success for the entire community”.
It also provides a series of checks and balances to ensure that both parties honour the agreement’s commitments. Mr Robinson said there were “clever devices” in the document to test each side’s bona fides, while DUP Minister Edwin Poots said that “bad faith on one side will be met by bad faith on the other”.
It is clear that if the working group on parading does not come up with acceptable proposals, there is little likelihood that on March 9th, as set out in the agreement, the Assembly will agree to appoint a justice minister by cross-community vote.
The agreement proposes the creation of new structures for addressing parading by December, which must “be capable of maximising cross-community support”. It is unclear whether the Parades Commission will be abolished or enhanced.
“The current adjudication mechanism of the Parades Commission will continue until the new improved arrangements are in place,” the agreement states.
The White House paid tribute to Mr Cowen and Mr Brown for their role in the agreement which it said was “an important step on the pathway to greater peace and prosperity for all communities on the island”.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has pledged to host an investment conference later in the spring.
Mr Cowen urged a constructive partnership.
Mr Brown said: “This is the last chapter of a long and troubled story and the beginning of a new chapter after decades of violence, years of talks, weeks of stalemate.”