Direct talks between the Orange Order and Garvaghy Road residents to settle the Drumcree dispute are needed sooner rather than later, Mr David Jones has said.
Amid signs of a growing desire for an end to the impasse, Mr Jones, a spokesman for the Orange Order in Portadown, told The Irish Times: "Now is the time for a resolution." However, Mr Brendan Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition expressed doubts that Portadown Orangemen had changed their position from previous years.
Mr Jones believed that progress could be made through some kind of civic forum and that trust between the two sides could be built up in stages leading to consensus.
He was speaking shortly after the annual Drumcree march ended peacefully yesterday, despite being banned by the Parades Commission for a sixth year from returning to the Portadown Orange lodge along the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
The PSNI said the peaceful passing of the day was a "victory for common sense and good policing".
Chief Supt Jonathan McIvor praised Orange marshals for proper conduct. The SDLP and Sinn Féin welcomed the low-key police tactics.
Mr Jones, in defiance of official Grand Orange Lodge policy, said: "We are prepared to meet people face to face. Now is the time to get a resolution, not December and January when such efforts were begun in the past. Let's start now. Let's try and get sorted."
He said they would meet anyone who is representative of the Garvaghy residents, including Mr Mac Cionnaith.
Referring to previous refusals to talk to him, he said: "That was then, this is now."
Mr Mac Cionnaith, however, said: "I don't believe the Orange Order's position has changed substantially. I believe they are sticking to their precondition of a march before talks."
He believed that had the Orange proposals for a resolution sent to the British government in recent weeks been different from those in the past, he and the residents would have been contacted either by Mr Tony Blair's chief of staff, Mr Jonathan Powell, or the Northern Ireland Office.
Politicians responded positively to Mr Jones's comments but also insisted that talks must take place without preconditions.
Mrs Bríd Rodgers, the SDLP deputy leader, said any move towards direct dialogue is welcome. People in conflict can change their own situation by talking," she said.
"There has been a realisation by the Orange Order that attempts to force the British government, the PSNI and the Parades Commission are counter-productive," she added.
Dr Dara O'Hagan said Sinn Féin would support "any genuine and meaningful dialogue" without any predetermined outcome. "There is a need for them to begin with a blank sheet," she added.
The president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, last night congratulated Orange leaders in Portadown for their management of the parade.
