THE Alliance Party yesterday welcomed the report of the review of parades group as "important and valuable". Its chairman, Mr Steve McBride, said that setting up a new independent commission was "the best hope of a peaceful and fair resolution" of the parades issue.
"It is vital, with the threat of another summer of disorder and disruption hanging over Northern Ireland, that the government acts urgently to endorse and implement the commission's proposals," he added.
The Orange Order described the proposals as draconian and said that they leave the way open for further "unreasonable protests" by nationalists against loyalist marches.
A spokesman for the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland said it opposed the setting up of a new commission which would rule on contentious parades.
"We do not need another quango in this country. We have no experience of government appointees reflecting the ethos and traditions of our community and we do not believe that a commission would be independent," he said.
The spokesman expressed concern that, under the terms of the Anglo Irish Agreement, Dublin could make nominations to the panel.
He claimed that the North commission had not listened to parade organisers and had failed to understand that the problem was caused, not by lawful Orange marches, but by "the illegal activities" of nationalist protesters.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said that the report provided a "panacea for lawyers, encouragement for whingers and an increased role for Dublin".
He opposed the idea of a new commission on parades and said the report was irrelevant.
"When the hundreds of pages are read and digested and even, God forbid, implemented, the same questions will need to be resolved. Do Orangemen march down the Garvaghy Road? Will the Black Perceptory parade the Ormeau? Will the Apprentice Boys walk the walls of Londonderry?"