THE parties which have refused to engage in dialogue have been rewarded by the British government accepting their proposals while those who have tried to engage in discussions have had their views rejected.
Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein made this point at a debate in UCD last night organised by the Literary and Historical Society on the subject "That this House Rejects the Concept of an Elected Body for Northern Ireland".
Mr McGuinness said: "When I first met Michael Ancram I asked him to tell me of any country in the world where, following a conflict, a party had to surrender its arms before talks. I am still waiting for an answer."
Mr Ancram, the under secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said he would like to reformulate the question as follows: "That this house rejects the concept of an elective process for Northern Ireland" - and urge its rejection.
He said the international commission, chaired by Senator Mitchell, was one track of the twin track approach. The other political track made specific reference to the role of an elective process in bringing the process forward.
When asked by a member of the audience why, after all this time of working with the Irish Government, Mr Major had chosen this time to go it alone, he drew attention again to the twin track approach. There is a huge lack of trust throughout Northern Ireland, he said.
"The international commission reached the conclusion, unpalatable to many including the British government, that prior decommissioning was not practicable. We have to now consider what other options there are," he said.
These included a number of confidence building measures encapsulated in the six principles which the British government welcomed, he said. But the six principles fell within the framework of Sinn Fein rhetoric. Those words alone would not be enough to build enough confidence to allow all party talks to take place.
An elective process cannot be a Trojan horse for the return of majoritarian rule, said Ms Joan Burton, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. While the concept of an elected body within Northern Ireland as part of a comprehensive accommodation could be endorsed, it was quite a separate issue from how such a body could play a part in facilitating all party negotiations.
While they agreed that such a question could legitimately be raised for discussion, the two governments had stipulated the context in which it should be considered.
The Fianna Fail Chief Whip Mr Dermot Ahern, said while commenting on, though not recommending, an elected body, the Mitchell commission had stipulated it should be broadly acceptable, have an appropriate mandate and be within the three strand structure.
Fianna Fail was not against an assembly emerging out of talks as part of an overall three strand agreement, he said. But why should one party or several parties obtain in advance what they wanted out of negotiations without even committing themselves to all party talks?