AN inter-party dispute has broken out at Stormont over the status of North-South bodies to be set up under the Belfast Agreement. Ulster Unionists say the bodies would have to be dissolved if the Northern Ireland Assembly collapsed, but the SDLP insists the cross-Border institutions would continue in existence.
The dispute arose following circulation of the draft texts of agreements between the British and Irish governments to establish the North-South Ministerial Council and the cross-Border bodies.
Commenting on the texts, distributed to parties in the Assembly, the UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Robert McCartney, claimed the Ulster Unionists had been "conned".
He said the texts were treaties between two sovereign governments and it was "not even clear the Ulster Unionists can bring about changes in them".
Mr McCartney said: "If the Assembly fails, there is every indication that any all-Ireland institutions which have already been created will be of a free-standing nature and will continue."
However, the Ulster Unionists accused Mr McCartney of "scaremongering". The drafts were not acceptable without a "frustration clause" to guarantee the interdependence of the Assembly and the North-South bodies. "This issue will have to be resolved," UUP sources said.
"The Belfast Agreement is quite clear," according to the Ulster Unionist Assembly Member, Dr Esmond Birnie. "North-South cannot steam ahead without the continued operation of the Assembly which is the ultimate check on the funding and policy scope of North-South activities.
"In any case, the government cannot sign any North-South treaties without our support. We have previously seen this draft and rejected it outright."
However, the SDLP's Mr Sean Farren took a different view: "If the Assembly collapsed, the work that the North-South bodies would be doing would have to continue and could only continue under the auspices of the two governments."
Mr Farren said the draft treaty on the six cross-Border bodies was acceptable to the SDLP and in line with the agreement. "If in some future scenario, the Assembly were to fall, but the six bodies had been set up, then we believe it is possible under the agreement for valuable practical work that may have been started to continue. At the end of the day, the responsibility for this decision lies with the two governments."
The leader of the anti-agreement Northern Ireland Unionist Party, Mr Cedric Wilson, said: "Once these implementation bodies are set up, they'll take on a life of their own. It's a massive deception on the electorate and David Trimble has an obligation as pro-union leader to fight this tooth and nail."
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said: "There are ongoing discussions between parties and government over North-South bodies and other issues. This is one of a series of consultative papers which has been given to parties."
The six cross-Border implementation bodies agreed by the parties cover inland waterways; food safety; trade and business development; European Union programmes; the Irish language and Ulster Scots; aquaculture and marine matters.
Mr Ian Paisley jnr of the DUP said the Belfast Agreement was undermining the rule of law in the North. In a guest lecture at Boston College, he said: "The agreement allows representatives of the paramilitaries to hold ministerial office without decommissioning their arms and provides for the early release of terrorists responsible for heinous crimes. This constitutes a slap in the face, not only to the democratic process, but also to those from both communities in Northern Ireland who have lived within the law."
In a statement, Mr Tommy Owens of the Workers' Party said the paramilitaries on both sides should "give a pledge to start the process of decommissioning once the new executive had been set up and cross-Border bodies have been established".
The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Rev Ian Paisley, said last night he had been assured by the Orange Order that "there would be no fudge" on the issue of Drumcree and that the parade must go down the Garvaghy Road.
Speaking to a meeting of youth members of the DUP in Carson Street Orange Hall in Portadown last night, Dr Paisley said the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, had nothing new to offer Orangemen which would resolve the issue.
Drumcree was not about decommissioning or prisoner releases, he added. Rather it was about Protestants having the right to go to their place of worship and to return from it: "That right will never be surrendered", he said.
Mr Paisley said the forthcoming European election would be a second referendum on the Good Friday agreement.