Consultation paper not to be changed, Taoiseach signals

THE Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, has strongly signalled that the joint Anglo-Irish consultation paper setting out the ground rules for substantive all-party negotiations will not be changed.

He also told The Irish Times he expects to have telephone consultations with the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, early this week on the format and basis for an election in Northern Ireland.

It is understood that the British have postponed their original plan to announce their decision on the nature of the elective process tomorrow.

Mr Bruton will return from his four-day trip to the US and Canada early today believing that Sinn Fein has been given four sets of assurances on decommissioning which it indicated might be necessary to persuade the IRA to rein-state its ceasefire.

Sources in the Taoiseach's travelling party are now concerned, however, that a straightforward acceptance by the British government of the proposal by the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, for a multi-constituency election in the North could scupper the prospects of restoring the IRA ceasefire.

In a lengthy interview with The Irish Times on current developments in the peace process, Mr Bruton said the consultation paper sent out to the Northern parties over the weekend dealt with the mechanics, rather than the political objectives, of the talks after June 10th.

Commenting on the status of the document, he said it was a consultation paper prepared by the two governments, which had listened very carefully to all the parties who had put forward practical proposals for the management of the talks. "Obviously, other views will be expressed, but this consensus between the two governments is a solid and practical way forward," he said.

The important thing to stress about these talks was that, unlike the 1992 talks, the three strands - covering relationships within Northern Ireland, within the island of Ireland and between the British and Irish governments were not being taken in sequence. Strands One, Two and Three would all start at about the same time.

Responding to unionist concerns that the Government would have an input into the internal Strand One, Mr Bruton said that was not the paper's intention. "The intention is to recognise the reality that the three strands are going to be running in parallel and that the Irish Government has an intimate interest in two of the three strands and that there will be an interaction, or a cross-over, between Strand One and Strand Two," he stated.

He said the proposal was designed with a view to managing that, not with a view to becoming directly involved in Strand One matters.

One of the worries which Sinn Fein had been expressing - presumably on behalf of the ones with whom they have contacts" - was that the talks would be just about decommissioning. They had now been given four sets of assurances on this. The joint communique made it clear that that would not be the case. The consultation paper reaffirmed this. He had stressed that point in the US and he had asked the American administration, in his consultations with President Clinton, to take "a particular interest in this point", he continued.

These initiatives were designed to give the sort of reassurance that Sinn Fein indicated might be necessary to persuade the IRA to reinstate its ceasefire, he added.

Asked to spell out what would" be required of Sinn Fein and the IRA on the Mitchell principles and decommissioning at the start of the all-party talks on June 10th, the Taoiseach said that would depend on the way the talks advanced. If there was a willingness to make progress on a lot of other issues of interest to Sinn Fein's electorate, there would be an expectation that the decommissioning issue would be dealt with at the same pace.

If the pace of the negotiations was slower, there would be, perhaps, a slower requirement to deal with the range of issues.

Turning to the election proposals, now due to be announced by the British government later this week, Mr Bruton said it was not clear which of the two elective models, or what combination, had the widespread support suggested in the Mitchell report and accepted by both governments.

The Government favoured one constituency-wide election on the list system. It favoured the minimum complication. The election should be to elect people to start negotiations rather than to get involved in other tasks.