South will see powers devolved to body for North

Government Departments will be required to devolve powers to the North/South body being proposed in the Northern negotiations, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Dail yesterday.

Reporting on the "substantial progress" made in talks with Mr David Trimble and Mr Tony Blair last week, Mr Ahern also said the concept of the so-called East/West body (London/Dublin) now emerging was "wider than originally envisaged".

He indicated that a working group would publish a report soon on the Government's ideas for a Dublin/London "umbrella group".

The Taoiseach also indicated that the transfer of three prisoners from British jails was imminent. They could be made today. A further six prisoners are due to be repatriated before Christmas.

Responding to Northern questions from Opposition leaders, Mr Ahern said the North/South dimension would involve "the removal of powers and functions from Departments and agencies here, which will result in those powers being devolved into a new arrangement".

He had not given much thought to the financing of the proposed body, he said, but he believed it would be desirable that it would have its own core administration.

The process of a North/South dimension, in whatever its final configuration, would be meaningful only if our agencies delegated powers, Northern agencies engaged in a similar process, and those powers were subsumed into an executive structure, the Taoiseach continued.

In the run-up to a key plenary session of the Stormont talks next week, Mr Ahern reported that he had "a very good meeting" with the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr Trimble, last Thursday "which went over the primary issues in the negotiations and gave us a better understanding of the positions on both sides".

He also had "a very useful discussion" with the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, on Friday, when they reviewed progress on the talks and related issues, including prisoners and security. The British government had responded positively to a number of issues he had raised, Mr Ahern said, as well as to issues raised by the SDLP, Sinn Fein and others, "and that should be clearly acknowledged".

The Taoiseach indicated that the Northern issue will dominate his political agenda for the next fortnight. He will meet representatives of the SDLP, the Alliance Party, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, the Northern Ireland Labour Party and Sinn Fein at Government Buildings tomorrow.

Parties participating in the talks will make a statement on the current state of the negotiations at a meeting of the reconvened Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin Castle tomorrow week. The Dail parties will later engage in a question-and-answer session with the Northern parties.