MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin met Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Shaun Woodward in London last night to review developments in and relating to Northern Ireland.
Officials said the meeting at the Irish Embassy gave the Ministers an opportunity to discuss recent developments and to take stock of progress towards the planned devolution of policing and justice powers to the Stormont Assembly.
The Minister and Mr Woodward also considered continuing developments in relation to efforts to address “the painful legacy of the past”, and, in anticipation of the marching season, the issue of parades with a view to ensuring a peaceful summer in Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that, thanks to the Belfast Agreement, Britain and Ireland now enjoy a broader relationship extending far beyond their shared interest in Northern Ireland.
Speaking in London last night, Mr Ahern said he believed a united Ireland would happen, but added that he did not think this was a short-term objective. He said cold-eyed pragmatism and practical common sense were vital in any negotiation.
Mr Ahern was speaking at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, where he delivered the first in a planned summer series examining the possible implications of the next British general election on Anglo-Irish relations.
Earlier, Mr Woodward told MPs in the House of Commons that the PSNI is investigating claims that dissident republicans are recruiting through the internet.
Mr Woodward said there were legitimate concerns around claims that dissidents were availing of social networking sites in order to recruit young people to join illegal organisations such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, which, respectively, recently murdered two British soldiers and a police officer.
He was aware of one site where it was alleged there were attempts to recruit young people.
“The site has vowed to remove material they consider to be illegal, defamatory, fraudulent or which infringe or violate any individual’s rights,” Mr Woodward said during Northern Ireland question time yesterday.
“The police obviously will act if there is any evidence of a criminal nature going on here,” he added. “These organisations are criminal organisations and we need to make sure that young people realise they are just that.”
Mr Woodward told SDLP leader Mark Durkan that it was incumbent upon politicians “to make sure in whatever way we can we reach young people, make them realise that these criminal groups have nothing to offer them now and will have nothing to offer them in the future”.
Politicians also had a responsibility to complete devolution by transferring policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive, he said.
“That clearly would be the strongest signal of all that politicians in Northern Ireland have the confidence to say to these young people, ‘Leave the future to the legitimate elected people of Northern Ireland’,” Mr Woodward stressed.