IAN PAISLEY availed of the US-Northern Ireland investment conference, which concluded yesterday, to begin bidding farewell to frontline politics and to start preparing for the handover to Peter Robinson.
There will be a number of valedictory moments in the lead-up to the end of May when Dr Paisley is to formally stand down as DUP leader – a post he held for 37 years – and as First Minister.
But it was clear that Dr Paisley viewed the conference as a high-point, choosing to mention in the company of the British and Irish leaders, Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen, and the 120 US investors who attended the conference, that he is about to pass on the political baton to his deputy, Mr Robinson.
“While I fully recognise that this challenge will be for others to take forward in a few weeks’ time, I am confident that, under new management, the Executive’s renewed focus on delivery will enable Northern Ireland to continue to move forward as it has done in the past year,” he said.
“As I leave the high-level political stage at the end of this month, I will depart knowing that Northern Ireland is not facing further years in the economic wilderness. It is not making daily headlines across the world for the wrong reasons and its communities are not ridden with fear, anxiety and suspicion of what the next day will bring,” added Dr Paisley.
“The Northern Ireland we have today has already travelled many miles beyond that. Yes, we must remember the past, but we must also focus on the future, and the Executive is doing just that,” he said at the end of the gala dinner for American executives at Hillsborough Castle late on Thursday night.
Also in the audience were the DUP Minister for Finance Peter Robinson, who is succeeding him as First Minister and DUP leader, and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Industry Nigel Dodds, who takes over as deputy DUP leader, and who is also expected to claim the finance portfolio.
Dr Paisley used the occasion to again thank former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for his positive role in the peace process and to warn the politicians who run Northern Ireland that they must not fail the people. “We must maintain an effective, stable, locally accountable government with a strong foundation, driving forward a clear plan to secure economic prosperity. It is this that the people of Northern Ireland want to see most. So we must now focus on the business of delivery if we are not to fail them,” he said.
“So that is why action and delivery will be the key words for the Executive in the coming months. This is the challenge before us,” said Dr Paisley.
The First Minister looked back on a year “of positive change in Northern Ireland; times which many thought would never come”.
“Times which give us a taste of what is possible as we helped to move Northern Ireland further forward in the last year. That year has seen Northern Ireland begin to grow in confidence. That year has seen this country recognise that it has turned a corner,” he continued.
“That year has enabled the vast majority of people to put their trust in an Executive which is determined to deliver the prospect of greater stability and greater prosperity both for them and for those who follow.”
Conference report: page 18
Editorial comment: page17
