THE Northern Ireland Forum appears to be settling down to a future without any nationalist representation, after finally adopting rules and procedures for its business.
During a brief exchange on the significance of proceeding without any apparent cross-community representation, the leader of the Alliance Party, Lord Alderdice, warned that the forum had no real future without a nationalist presence.
Lord Alderdice said the point of the forum and the Stormont talks was to reach agreement between the two political traditions in Northern Ireland. The lack of any contribution by the SDLP, he said, had "badly disabled" the forum.
"Frankly, there is no real future, no future for the talks process and the future for Northern Ireland is pretty bleak as well," he said.
Without the SDLP's presence, there would be no progress on any of the substantive political issues affecting Northern Ireland, he said.
No support for Lord Alderdice's position was voiced from the unionist benches.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, compared the SDLP's decision not to attend the forum to the nationalist boycott of Protestant businesses in rural parts of the North.
"The message is going out from here to the boycotters that you cannot win. It is our duty to see to that."
He said there had been a serious incidence of boycotting in Portglenone, Co Antrim, in his own constituency where a Protestant trader had been warned by the IRA to leave the town before Sunday or be killed.
"We must say that no one can win by adopting these tactics."
Mr Eric Smyth, also of the DUP, said the SDLP had wanted the forum to fail. Catholic bread and butter issues were not being represented by the SDLP, he said.
Another contributor, Mr Gary McMichael, of the Ulster Democratic Party, which is associated with the UDA, said Lord Alderdice's comments were an insult to the forum. The forum's committees had been doing a great deal of good work and he resented "such negative comments" as those made by Lord Alderdice.
The forum then adopted the rules and procedures without dissent and moved on to debating the future of public sector housing in Northern Ireland and the rights of the disabled.
The housing debate cent red on proposals by the British government to reduce the role of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive as the sole public sector housing provider. It is proposed to move the responsibility for future public sector housing provision to mixed funded housing association projects, leaving the housing executive with the diminished role of regulator.
The forum called on the government to withhold any decision on the future of the executive until after the next British general election.
The forum also called for effective legislation to outlaw discrimination against people with disabilities.
It moved that, while recognising the progress that has been made, there was a need for a body with legal powers to enforce such legislation and to champion the rights of people with disabilities.