Sinn Féin seeks early all-party talks on North

Sinn F

éin wants the all-party talks on the North involving both the Irish and British governments to commence as quickly as possible and to have a time limit set for when negotiations should be concluded.

Party leader Gerry Adams also said last night that he favoured a broad agenda bringing in all the unresolved issues between parties in the North.

That would see the talks encompass disputes over legacy matters and also those to do with the impasse affecting the powersharing Executive over budgetary and social welfare cutes.

Separately, he also accused Taoiseach Enda Kenny of "stupid arrogant abuse of his office" in the manner in which he had handled the process of putting Fine Gael candidate John McNulty forward for the Seanad byelection.

Mr Adams, speaking before he addressed a public meeting in Roscommon, said the details and modalities of the talks have yet to be finalised. But setting out Sinn Féin’s position, he said: “We want the talks held as quickly as possible, in some way time-framed.

“We want to see all the issues that people want on the agenda to be on the agenda and once we see that we will know the best way to run them in an efficient [way] . . .

“It needs political will to close these issues but they can be closed,” he said.

Lobbying

The Sinn Féin leader said his party had been lobbying for both governments to become directly involved for 10 months and he also argued the

Irish Government

needed to take a lead in the negotiations.

“We have a very conservative government in London which is very pro-unionist and our own Government has been understandably focused on domestic issues.

“It’s crucially important that the [Irish] Government asserts itself and makes sure that talks are inclusive and that all the issues are there, [that] there are no preconditions and no threats,” Mr Adams said.

It is likely Sinn Féin will press that undertakings promised under the Good Friday agreement be commenced including the civic forum, the North-South parliamentary forum, Acht na Gaeilge and a Bill of rights.

Issues

Mr Adams said the historic and identity issues that were the subject of the talks chaired by American diplomats Richard Haass and Megan O’Sullivan should be deal with and he also argued that the cuts to the northern Executive budget (that affected social welfare) should also form part of the talks.

“A programme of government was put together [in the North] which also included anti-poverty measures.

“All of these cuts coming out makes a complete mockery of any attempt by the Executive to build jobs, to get people who are disadvantaged anyway in such a small economy. Some of those communities are in dire straits,” Mr Adams said.

Controversy

In relation to the the controversy surrounding the Seanad byelection, he said: “He is persisting in putting forward John McNulty [for the Seanad]. This has little to do with John McNulty. This is about the Taoiseach, almost an episode straight out of Fianna Fáil book of political strokes . . . just stupid, arrogant abuse of his office.”

Mr Adams said Sinn Féin would raise the matter in the Dáil this week.