The British government outlined to the House of Commons yesterday emergency legislation to postpone the Northern Ireland Assembly elections by four weeks, despite Tory protests that the debate was being curtailed.
Under the Bill, being rushed through the Commons in a single day, the elections would be delayed until May 29th to give parties time to consider new proposals. These were put forward at the Hillsborough talks earlier this month for the restoration of the power-sharing Executive.
Northern Ireland Minister Ms Jane Kennedy said the "prize" for the delay would be that people could vote at the elections on the basis of working institutions.
"There is a real chance that we might shortly be in a position to complete the transition to a peaceful and democratic society in Northern Ireland," she said. "All parties now need time to reflect on the way forward."
Ms Kennedy, standing in for the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, who was at an emergency cabinet meeting, told MPs:
"The prize is that the people of Northern Ireland would have the opportunity to cast their vote at an Assembly election on the basis of a set of working institutions."
Without the Bill, the Northern Ireland Assembly would be dissolved this Friday, the election campaign would start and there would be "no political advance" of the peace process before the Assembly election on May 1st.
The Bill, in postponing the dissolution date until April 28th and the elections until May 29th, would allow "a very short delay to the elections in order to give the parties the opportunity to reflect". However, Tories accused the government of undermining MPs' right to debate legislation for as long as they chose by rushing the Bill through parliament in one day.
The Shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Quentin Davies, said: "The legislature should be allowed to take the time it needs to debate proposals brought forward by the Executive in its own way and its own time."
Mr Davies dismissed the government's timetabling system as a "monumental scandal" and said it had been introduced "quite gratuitously, unnecessarily, very regrettably".
However, Ms Kennedy said: "If we are to achieve our objective, which is to give all of the parties more time to consider the issues that arose from the discussions that took place at Hillsborough, I believe that that makes the compressed timetable for the Bill's passage through this House unavoidable - unpalatable though I know that that is to you and your party."
Ulster Unionist MP Mr David Burnside said the delay to the elections had come about because of the government's "total mismanagement" of the peace process.
"It sums up the total mismanagement of this government of a political process that it calls the peace process," he said. "The reason why we are having a one-month delay, and perhaps even more, is because the government has accepted a 100 per cent veto from the representatives of Sinn Féin/IRA on the operation of any form of democratic local government within Northern Ireland."
DUP MP Mr Peter Robinson branded the Bill "probably one of the most corrupt pieces of legislation that the House will see". He said: "This is not simply putting off an election for four weeks. It is now four years since that election should have taken place."
Mr Jeffrey Donaldson MP of the UUP said there ought not to have been any need for this legislation as the election should not have been delayed.
"There has to be a bottom line here. This process has lurched from one crisis to another and every time we reach a crisis, the government reaches into the goody bag to find more concessions to make to the republican movement."