Donaldson says peace talks will focus on IRA

Parnell Summer School: The focus of the peace talks in September will be very much on the IRA giving up weapons and going out of existence, the DUP MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said yesterday at the Parnell Summer School.

If there was movement from the IRA "they will have a major impact on loyalist paramilitaries". Mr Donaldson was not ignoring loyalist paramilitarism, which had to be dealt with, but "Sinn Féin are the only party linked to a paramilitary group who have a prospect of being in government" and the most immediate area for movement was the IRA.

"In the event that the republican movement take steps," this would have an impact on the stability of the political institutions and for policing, and would put huge pressure on loyalist paramilitaries who would face the "full force of the law" if they then continued to operate, Mr Donaldson said.

However, Sinn Féin MEP Ms Mary Lou McDonald said unionism could never be the mechanism for dealing with republican guns. There was a need for trust. It did not have to be absolute trust, but "a sufficiency of trust to move forward through dialogue" and it was unacceptable and unsustainable for the DUP not to talk directly to her party. It made a nonsense of the DUP saying it respected Sinn Féin's mandate.

They were speaking in a debate on the stalled peace process, which sparked sniping comments between the parties at the summer school in Avondale, Co Wicklow.

The Ulster Unionist Party MLA Mr Alan McFarland said the DUP had "nicked our clothes" and was taking up where the UUP had left off with its proposals and policies. He also predicted that if a deal was agreed, the DUP would face a rebellion from the "backwoodsmen" of its party.

A former SDLP MLA, Cllr Eamonn O'Neill, warned: "People spin deals up beforehand and sound constructive, not because they are really going to do a deal, but because they want to avoid the blame when they fail to really deliver the goods."

In his address Mr Donaldson said that movement from the IRA would result in huge pressure on the loyalist paramilitaries from within the unionist community.

If loyalist paramilitaries continued to operate in the face of IRA movement, then they would face the full force of the law with the complete support of the unionist community.

Pressed from one of the audience about this "double standard", Mr Donaldson said the reality was that none of the paramilitary groups on either side had felt the full force of the law.

He stepped back somewhat from the optimism he expressed last month at the MacGill Summer School about the prospects of a deal, when he felt confident that the deadlock could be broken in the autumn.

He said yesterday that his party was "not planning for failure", but later when he spoke at the summer school of the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation he said: "It may be that the next six to eight weeks will not see agreement reached.

"It would require a minor miracle - but then miracles happen." He said: "If the deal is right, then we will do the deal. If the progress is sufficient, then agreement will be reached." He insisted that the DUP would be able to convince the unionist community.

In her address, Ms McDonald said her party was preparing for success in the talks. Her only comment about paramilitarism was that the issue of arms needs to be dealt with. Pressed on this by the debate's chairwoman, RTÉ presenter Áine Lawlor, she said a process had been agreed to deal with the issue of arms but unionism insisted that it would be the mechanism through which this would be done. "Unionism is not and never will be the appropriate mechanism through which republican guns will be dealt with."