TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown were working through the night at Hillsborough Castle trying to devise a compromise on parades that would allow Peter Robinson to finally move on transferring policing and justice powers.
There were indications that some progress was made in the attempt to create a formula that would permit the DUP leader to accept a proposal on parading that would be short of the abolition of the Parades Commission.
The Taoiseach and prime minister and their senior officials were seeking a mechanism which would allow Mr Robinson to stand back from his absolutist demand on the Parades Commission, without appearing to succumb to Sinn Féin demands, said senior sources.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, who was joined by Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward at a 9.30pm press conference outside Hillsborough Castle, said that the Taoiseach and prime minister would work through the night to try to reach a deal. Mr Woodward indicated that both leaders would resume talks today.
Mr Woodward said there was scope for “lateral thinking” around the parades obstacle.
Minutes before, the DUP acting First Minister Arlene Foster and Minister of Finance Sammy Wilson also indicated that movement on parades was possible. “We are open to any suggestion that helps deal with the issue of parades,” said Mr Wilson.
“We are not being prescriptive on parades,” he added. He described the negotiations as a “contrived crisis”.
“I think the whole of Northern Ireland will thank us if we can sort out the parading issue,” said Ms Foster.
Sinn Féin negotiator and junior minister Gerry Kelly left the talks at 9pm to report that his party was in the talks “to do the business” and agree a date for devolving policing and justice, but that there was still no progress.
“We want this issue sorted out as soon as possible,” said Mr Kelly. “The issues are well known. We can have them sorted out very quickly, and we hope to have them sorted out very quickly, but up to this point we haven’t reached that.” The Ulster Unionist Party was called to Hillsborough Castle for a briefing at 10pm while the SDLP is expected to be briefed today.
Despite the logjam that remained after Mr Robinson and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness held their “critical and defining” talks at Stormont at noon yesterday, Mr Cowen and Mr Brown still believed the process could be rescued.
“We are not going to contemplate failure,” said Mr Martin.
At noon yesterday there appeared to be little chance of a deal and there was speculation that Mr McGuinness was on the verge of resigning from the Executive, an act which after seven days would have compelled Mr Woodward to call Assembly elections.
Sinn Féin was still refusing to contemplate any deal that would mean the abolition of the Parades Commission as a trade-off for the transfer of policing and justice powers, which Mr Robinson is demanding.
Senior British and Irish officials were late last night working on position papers on parading and other matters, and these were being presented to the DUP and Sinn Féin negotiating teams for their responses, according to talks sources.
It was a frenetic day of political activity at Downing Street, Stormont and Hillsborough Castle. Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness spoke for just 45 minutes yesterday in a meeting that was described as “courteous, but in which there was absolutely no change of positions on either side”. The Taoiseach and prime minister, meanwhile, were meeting at Downing Street.
Before travelling, both leaders held firmly to the line that the deadlock could be broken. “We are working to see what way we can assist this process. We believe it is very important to have a successful outcome in these discussions. We are going there to help bring these issues to a conclusion,” said Mr Cowen.