New Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey has told the North's security minister Shaun Woodward that any comprehensive political deal to restore devolution must also include an agreement on parades.
Sir Reg met Mr Woodward at Stormont Castle yesterday afternoon, leading a delegation which included North Down Assembly member Alan McFarland, whom he narrowly defeated for the UUP leadership on Friday night in Belfast.
Also in the delegation were North Belfast MLA Fred Cobain and former environment minister Sam Foster.
The new leader insisted that parades must be part of any overall agreement.
"This issue has been left festering for too many years and it's not getting any better," he said. "Every year it is the same old story. It is a source of instability and it has to be resolved. It needs a wider political agreement to deal with it."
Sir Reg said the UUP has no confidence in the Parades Commission, which is "clearly now part of the problem rather than part of the solution".
Sir Reg also said he is now in the process of rebuilding and unifying the party.
Although the party's sole MP, Lady (Sylvia) Hermon, has been critical of him in the past, Sir Reg said that his meeting with her on Monday "went fine and we will be working closely together in the days ahead".
Mr McFarland replied "absolutely" when asked if he gave the new leader his total support. Mr McFarland added that the UUP is no longer riven by the old pro- and anti-Belfast Agreement divisions. "We have to be unified if we are to attract the voters again. Reg and I have worked together for a number of years and that work will continue," he said.
Sir Reg's comments on the marching season came amid continuing tensions over parades. In Ballymena on Monday night three nationalists were arrested during a protest against an Orange Order parade in the town, which led local SDLP representatives to accuse the PSNI of "heavy handedness".
Local SDLP representatives, including councillor Declan O'Loan, husband of the Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, are to raise the issue with the Ombudsman.
DUP representative Jimmy Spratt said there is "clearly a conflict of interest" in the Ombudsman investigating a complaint issued by her husband.
Tomorrow the Parades Commission is again expected to rule that the annual Orange Order Drumcree parade may not proceed down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, which will further ratchet up the parading anxieties.
The DUP also met Mr Woodward yesterday to protest against the rerouting of Saturday's Whiterock Orange parade. Afterwards West Belfast MLA Diane Dodds said the Parades Commission must be disbanded.
In west Belfast yesterday Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said his party wants a peaceful marching season and that unionist leaders have a role to play in achieving that goal.
