Hain gives parties room to strike North deal

Northern Secretary Peter Hain appears to have given the DUP and Sinn Féin room to manoeuvre ahead of a deadline to form a devolved Northern Ireland government tomorrow.

The North's political institutions are on the brink of another collapse after the DUP yesterday refused to commit to forming a government with Sinn Féin tomorrow, instead voting to put off such a deal for six weeks until May.

Mr Hain has repeatedly insisted that the two main parties must form a power-sharing government by tomorrow or the institutions will be wound up, salaries stopped and a greater role for Dublin in the running of the North introduced.

Today he signed a restoration order for devolution, requiring the 108 Assembly members to gather at Stormont tomorrow to nominate a government of unionists and nationalists. This is unlikely to take place in the wake of the DUP decision but today Mr Hain said if the parties could "agree their own way forward" the British government "will respond positively".

Over 90 per cent of the DUP's 120 member party executive backed a resolution yesterday asking the British government and the Northern Ireland parties for a further six weeks before forming a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin.

The resolution said: "The party officers having consulted widely, weighed up all the relevant matters and reviewed progress on outstanding matters, recommend to the party's central executive committee that the DUP would support and participate fully in a Northern Ireland Executive if powers were devolved to it on an agreed date in May of this year."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today: "This is not something we can live with it is not satisfactory for us.

"As of now if we don't get the institutions set up the institutions collapse. That is the position in the absence of any other innovative thinking.

"Any even consideration of this, and I'm not even saying I would consider this, would have to be very specific and there would have to be talk between the parties and would have to be an understanding between the parties, not just the two governments."

Mr Hain said the legislation was "very clear".

"There is either devolution tomorrow or dissolution follows. That's doing it our way, the way we have had to do it this past 10 years and now at this point because there has been no agreement amongst the parties especially the DUP and Sinn Féin, to jointly work out a way forward in their own way.

"Now if they can do it their own way we don't have to do it our way, but the clock is ticking.

He added: "We are in entirely new territory. Now if in that new territory the parties can agree their own way forward...well of course we will respond positively to that.

"But there isn't any way that I will put emergency legislation in or do anything like that in the absence of the parties themselves agreeing to do it."

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams accused the DUP of frustrating the will of people who voted this month for a new Assembly and power sharing government.

But he also told the DUP that if it wanted an Assembly after tomorrow's midnight deadline for devolution it must put its proposals directly to his and other parties.

There have been suggestions that a Programme for Government Committee will take place at Stormont tomorrow involving Dr Paisley and Mr Adams to chart a way ahead towards devolution.

It is believed the DUP may have to take part in their first face-to-face talks with just Sinn Féin. But for the party's plan for devolution in six weeks to succeed, it is believed the DUP will have to give Sinn Féin and other parties a clear date for when they believe power sharing can be achieved.