Unionists to demand continuation of forum during the election campaign

UNIONISTS are expected to argue strenuously for the continuation of the Northern Ireland Forum during the British general election campaign.

The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, fired the first salvo as the full plenary session of the Stormont multi party talks was adjourned for another week. Dr Paisley threatened to pull out of the talks altogether if the forum was suspended.

He claimed the British and Irish governments had made an agreement to suspend the talks when the chairman, Mr George Mitchell, who is currently in the United States, returns to Belfast.

"The forum cannot meet if the talks are suspended - if they only adjourned, the forum could carry on meeting," Dr Paisley said. "If they took that road, we would very seriously consider if there was any case left for us at all in these talks.

"If the Northern Ireland representatives can only meet with the blessing of Dublin, it's time that I was no longer a party to any forum that meets under the benediction of Dublin."

However, a Northern Ireland Office source said it was "premature to speculate" about any interruption of the talks. "We haven't arrived at any decision about an interruption of the talks, although it's well understood that the talks would be interrupted for the general and local elections."

An SDLP representative, Mr Denis Haughey, said it was never envisaged that the forum would develop a life of its own. "It was clearly envisaged that the talks would go on but the forum might not. I think it would be absurd now to turn that on its head and develop a situation where the forum would go on and develop a life of its own where the talks were in a state of suspension."

Mr Reg Empey of the Ulster Unionist Party said the forum had not been used properly because parties had boycotted it.

"It could be a forum in which a lot of grievances could be aired. And, indeed, if Sinn Fein walked in tomorrow morning, they would have the opportunity to be sitting there and putting forward their views as well. They don't have to decommission to join the forum."

The leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, Mr Gary McMichael, said the forum should continue during the election campaign, even at a limited committee level.

"It's wrong for the SDLP to be talking in terms of the forum being dismantled during an election period," he said. "As a party which has withdrawn voluntarily from the forum, they have no desire to see the forum continue in any shape or form."

The UK Unionist party leader, Mr Bob McCartney, pointed out that under the legislation "if the talks were concluded or suspended the forum would automatically come to an end". The forum had a very limited but useful function and could never ever be an "embryo Stormont", as both Dublin and the SDLP feared.