New "British-Irish partnership arrangements" will be put in place if the North's political parties fail to agree a deal to restore the Northern Executive by November 24th, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair warned yesterday.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair are to return to Northern Ireland in October to make a final effort to persuade the DUP and Sinn Féin to agree to share power.
In a work plan statement viewed as chiefly directed at the DUP, Mr Blair and Mr Ahern warned that if the parties failed to agree a devolution deal by November, Assembly salaries would cease and the new arrangements would be introduced.
The reference to "partnership arrangements" was generally interpreted as the British and Irish governments working more closely together to strengthen the North-South element of the Belfast Agreement.
The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference would meet in December to detail the enhanced British-Irish co-operation, they said. The two leaders are pinning their hopes of a November deal on a positive Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report in early October on IRA activity.
Mr Ahern indicated he expected the IMC report to confirm the IRA was eschewing criminality and paramilitarism. He said: "On criminality there is no link whatsoever - that we have traced a long, long, way back - of IRA involvement in criminality of any kind in the Republic of Ireland."
The Taoiseach and the prime minister published a work plan timetable for the Assembly members to carry out between now and October to create the potential for a deal. "If the political will exists then we believe the very few issues which remain to be resolved can be satisfactorily addressed in that timescale," they said in a joint statement.
The Assembly would be placed in "cold storage" if there was no agreement. "This is the last chance for this generation to make this process work," said Mr Blair, echoing similar warnings by the Taoiseach.
DUP leader Ian Paisley indicated he was not under any pressure to enter a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin. "The situation remains that IRA/Sinn Féin are a terrorist organisation. They have not conformed to the principles of democracy."
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the two governments had sought to assure his party that they were absolutely committed to their deadline, and to making the process work. "We now want them to match that verbal commitment with action," he said.