The Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, believes that the International Monitoring Body, the subject of much dispute between Mr David Trimble and Mr Jeffrey Donaldson earlier this week, could be a catalyst for revitalising politics in Northern Ireland. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.
On July 2nd a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference will be held in London to try to formally plot a course towards October elections and the subsequent reactivation of the Executive and Assembly. It is quite a task in the current climate of political torpor, but as Mr Murphy said, "We are not taking our eye off the ball."
The main theme of the BIIC would be setting out how and when those elements that do not depend on IRA acts of completion can be implemented, Mr Murphy told The Irish Times after his meetings in Dublin yesterday with the ministers for Foreign Affairs and Justice, Mr Cowen and Mr McDowell.
Among the issues discussed by Mr Cowen and Mr Murphy were the sanctions body, the International Monitoring Body (IMB), as well as Monday's Ulster Unionist Council meeting in which Mr Trimble once again saw off Mr Donaldson but once again by the tight margin of around 55 per cent to 45 per cent.
During the Hillsborough negotiations, Sinn Féin described the sanctions body as a "deal- breaker". Republicans claimed it was designed to appease unionists and would be chiefly used against Sinn Féin for any IRA actions, while Mr Donaldson in his effective but unsuccessful UUC heave against Mr Trimble claimed it gave Dublin an unacceptable role in the Assembly.
The British government has argued that the IMB would be used to test that all the parties, including the UUP and the DUP, were honouring their commitments under the Belfast Agreement, were devolution to be restored.
Mr Murphy said that the IMB could be a mechanism for sorting out differences between all the different parties, helping to establish trust and confidence. "We now have the context where we can resolve problems," he said.
Negotiations are expected to resume in September after the summer vacations. Ulster Unionists and the two governments are seeking assurances from the IRA that they will end all paramilitary activity before elections would be called. The Northern Secretary said that a calm summer would help the climate for the autumn negotiations.
Mr Murphy viewed Monday's UUC vote as "decisive" despite the narrowness of victory for the UUP leader. "After all a win is a win, and when you are in this game you either win or you lose. I think the result shows that activists within the Ulster Unionist Party want to go forward with the views that Mr Trimble holds. They want to implement the agreement. They don't want to reject outright the Joint Declaration."
As a Blairite Mr Murphy, recalling the days of old Labour disunity, had words of counsel for Mr Donaldson. He advised him against resigning from the UUP and said that people who are elected here to "high office have a responsibility to their party and to Northern Ireland, and a duty to think about the long-term future of the party and Northern Ireland."
Still, what Mr Donaldson did in the final analysis was for him alone, he added.