Majority in favour of all party talks - poll

A CLEAR majority of people North and South of the Border are in favour of convening all party talks on the future of Northern Ireland, even if the IRA does not announce a renewal of its ceasefire, according to a poll published last night.

The poll found that 85 per cent of voters in the Republic were in favour of such talks, and 56 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Eighty five per cent of Northern Catholics were in favour of talks, even without a new ceasefire. The figure for Northern Protestants was 34 per cent.

The survey, carried out by Irish Marketing Surveys and published by the Irish Independent, found that should there be a new IRA ceasefire, 80 per cent of Northern voters would be in favour of all party talks. Seventy per cent of Protestant voters in the North would be in favour of talks.

Two thirds of Northern Catholics are against an electoral contest there.