THE Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said last night that the British Government's election proposal was not a disaster for Northern Ireland, because nobody had said No.
The Minister, a member of the Government's Northern Ireland committee, said that nobody should make snap decisions about the future of peace in Northern Ireland. He was speaking on RTE's Prime Time programme.
The Government was strongly criticised by Mr Ray Burke, Fianna Fail's Foreign Affairs spokesman, about what he called the "ludicrous election process plus a body that is unacceptable to nationalists in Northern Ireland."
Mr Burke said they had always been a general bipartisan approach on Northern Ireland, but that "this negotiation by the Government is a total failure of negotiating skills and capacity".
Mr Mitchell McLoughlin, Sinn Fein chairman, said on the same programme that what had been established was that the unionists had accepted the principle of restoring a Stormont type assembly. "The point is that this principle has been accepted not just by the British Government but by the Irish Government," he said. He found this very disconcerting.
The deputy leader of the SDLP, Mr Seamus Mallon, said the party would be asking for clarification of the proposals. They would make their judgments in the context of what was best for the people of Northern Ireland.
Mr De Rossa said that the forum outlined in the proposals had no administrative or legislative role. It was a talking shop. There was a lot of fear out there, he continued, adding that he took exception to Ray Burke's remarks.