REACTION:MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward praised the parties for "positive and constructive engagement", despite the failure to agree a deal on justice devolution.
“We don’t underestimate the challenges that remain but we are determined to get a resolution to these issues,” said Mr Martin.
Both declined to give what they said was a running commentary on progress in the talks, although Mr Woodward characterised the meeting as an exchange of ideas, with the Taoiseach and prime minister in listening mode.
“Everybody is focused on what is at stake,” he said. “The two governments will go on assisting the parties in their work. The two [premiers] are determined to see a resolution to this.”
Asked if Brian Cowen and Gordon Brown would stay until the talks achieved a breakthrough or ended in failure, Mr Woodward said: “They are here now because it is possible for [them] to help at this time with all the political parties. We are here in support of those conversations that are taking place. We are here very much in support of the St Andrews Agreement and all that it has brought in terms of transforming Northern Ireland. The commitment of the prime minister and the Taoiseach is also proof of wanting this to succeed.”
He stressed: “It is ultimately a matter for the political parties but we will remain here to help them in that process. We are here while it helps in that process, that is our role.”
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the British and Irish governments should not opt for a fudged deal which would only serve as a “breakdown waiting to happen”. He made a warning to all involved in the talks.
“In the past, we have had exercises where deals and understandings and fudges [were] scrambled together,” he said.
“That isn’t something that can be allowed to happen this time. Both governments realise there is a need for outcomes – not more process, not for more things that will keep kicking this can down the road in front of us. The public want an end to this stop-go politics. People want stability.”
He warned against entangling politics, parading and policing in a deal that did not address what was needed.
“If those wires are crossed dangerously it is going to be damaging for all of us in the future. The agenda the DUP have would give planning permission for the dissidents to create all sorts of problems about parades that would cripple and transfix politics and compromise policing in the future.”
Mr Durkan admitted there were lessons to be learned from the Derry parades compromise, but he warned that circumstances in the city were specific to it.
He said local accommodation had “the safety net of the Parades Commission” – the scrapping of which is a key DUP demand.
He said the commission was like a handrail: it was not expected to be needed – “it simply played a role by being there”.
“We cannot do without the Parades Commission, we have been consistent in that.” He said the parades controversy had the potential to set back progress by years “if it is handled wrongly”.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey and party colleagues returned to Hillsborough mid-afternoon expecting to attend a plenary session.
“Our point is that, given we have certain powers at present, I don’t believe that the average member of the public believes those powers are being exercised to the best of their ability,” he said.
“There is a problem at the core of the executive needs to be resolved first.”