A NORTH-SOUTH Ministerial Council sectoral meeting scheduled for Co Cavan today was the first casualty of the cancellation of the scheduled Northern Executive meeting yesterday afternoon.
First Minister Peter Robinson warned of political "gridlock" after Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness refused to lift the Sinn Féin veto on Executive meetings that has been running for just over three months. DUP, Ulster Unionist and SDLP Ministers instead met at Stormont Castle to discuss fuel poverty allowances and other matters such as trying to provide some financial impetus for the troubled construction sector. This, however, was an informal gathering and had no executive status.
Mr Robinson previously warned of "serious consequences" if yesterday's Executive, which has not met since mid-June, did not convene. He said yesterday that the first such consequence was that the cancellation of the Executive meant that today's meeting between the Southern and Northern Ministers for Agriculture Brendan Smith and Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew could not take place under the official aegis of the ministerial council in Ballyconnell.
The two Ministers and Minister for Rural Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív will instead hold a trilateral meeting in Ballyconnell. This will not have ministerial council status as such meetings must be authorised by the Executive and involve a nationalist and unionist Minister from the North. Mr Robinson said if Sinn Féin's boycott continued then a scheduled full North-South Ministerial Council meeting early next month and a British-Irish Council meeting next week would be cancelled.
"We end up in a gridlock situation which only can be released when we have a properly functioning Executive," added Mr Robinson.
Mr Robinson said Ministers would attempt to carry out certain works that did not require the full authorisation of the Executive. "Each of us, if there is not an Executive meeting taking place, I think will look to urgent procedures because we are not in the business of making people outside suffer. Others will have to answer for themselves," he said.
The First Minister made his comments at a brief press conference outside Stormont Castle flanked by Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey and SDLP Minister Margaret Ritchie, an image that Mr McGuinness played upon when he spoke to the press shortly afterwards.
"What people will see is a minority nationalist party sandwiched between two unionist parties," he said. Mr McGuinness said people would remind themselves of the speech SDLP leader Mark Durkan made at the British-Irish Association at Oxford where he suggested sometime in the future the system of the main parties having to designate as unionist or nationalist could be ended. This demonstrated that Mr Durkan was "clearly advocating a return to unionist majority rule", said the Deputy First Minister.
Mr McGuinness added that the DUP clearly was in "default of the St Andrews Agreement" in not moving on issues such as policing and justice.
The DUP has argued that these issues could be addressed in tandem with meetings of the Executive. Mr McGuinness, however, rejected this. "The issue of the Executive meeting has to be on the basis of partnership and equality and there are people in the DUP who are opposed to partnership and equality, and they are the tail who are trying to wag the dog. The dog needs to be taken control of," he said.
SDLP Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie said Ministers had a responsibility to address urgent matters such as fuel poverty and tackling suicide.
Earlier yesterday Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward met at Hillsborough Castle, with both pledging to try to assist the parties in seeking a resolution. Sinn Féin and the DUP meanwhile continue to hold high-level talks aimed at breaking the deadlock.