British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg is today continuing his visit to the North after vowing to intensify co-operation with the Republic to stabilise peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, while speaking at the first meeting of the North-South Parliamentary Forum in Newcastle, Co Down, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and Mr Clegg praised the political progress achieved at Stormont in the wake of the Belfast and St Andrews agreements.
Mr Clegg said the new coalition government in London did not take the new stability in the North for granted.
“We know that there will be bumps and scrapes in the future, as relationships are tested within the devolved administration, and with the governments in Dublin and London,” he said. “But we are confident that the political maturity that presently governs these relationships has the potential to endure.” He pledged his government’s efforts to build on existing achievements.
Referring to recent dissident violence including the bomb attack in Derry on Tuesday, Mr Clegg committed the British government to combat paramilitary activity.
In the wake of growing anxiety about the severity of looming public spending cuts, Mr Clegg said his government recognised the Stormont Executive’s concerns. “We recognise anxieties here in NI, concerns which derive particularly from the local economy’s long-standing overreliance on the public sector . . . our ambition is for a private sector-led recovery, which can sustain growth,” he said.
Mr Clegg said the British government was not going to "pull the rug" from the North's economy, but he has pledged to deal with the country's deficit.