The Democratic Unionist Party will veto any attempt to go back to the type of devolution which existed in Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement, a senior member of the party warned today.
DUP MEP Jim Allister told Queen's University's Democratic Unionist Association in Belfast if there was to be a return to devolution it would have to be a radical departure from the previous model at Stormont.
Mr Allister said: "Generically devolution is desirable, but not essential.
"In the Belfast Agreement form it is patently unacceptable, inherently unstable and destructive of unionist interests.
"We saw that on the three execrable occasions when it was foisted upon us - ministers running departments as fiefdoms, shutting hospitals at will, abolishing the 11-plus in pique, and all in defiance of the elected Assembly.
"Malevolent direct rule has nothing to teach Sinn Fein as to how to abuse ministerial office.
"Little wonder that the DUP is resolute that we're not taking Ulster back to such misery.
"We do have a veto and we will use it!
"No, if there is to be devolution, then, it must be on a fresh and radically different basis, where the Assembly, not the ard fheis, has the final say on ministerial decisions."
Northern Secretary Peter Hain will sound out the Norths' politicians at meetings on March 8th on legislative changes to the way the Assembly will operate in the future in the event of there being a return to power sharing.