The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, are expected to today contact the Northern parties to brief them about intensive rounds of negotiations beginning early next month. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.
The two ministers are due to advise the parties that they are to initiate a three-stage process, culminating in three days of talks at Leeds Castle, in Kent, England, which they hope will lead to the re-establishment of the Northern Assembly and executive.
In the first week of September, Mr Cowen and Mr Murphy are to have a series of bilateral talks with the parties at Stormont to determine their willingness to sign up to an agreement that would see an end to paramilitarism and unionists guaranteeing to share power with nationalists.
In the second week of September, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will meet to assess the chances of success, and to plan for the Leeds Castle talks.
Then in the third week of the month, from September 16-18th, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair will co-chair the negotiations at Leeds Castle.
Meanwhile, new financial figures for the four main parties in Northern Ireland show that Sinn Féin enjoys the healthiest balance sheet, while the SDLP is the only one of the four in the red.
Figures for the year to December 31st, 2003, illustrate that the Ulster Unionist had the largest surplus of the four parties at £319,718. However, this was achieved through gaining over £558,000 profit on the sale of its former headquarters at Glengall Street in central Belfast. Without that sale it would have suffered a loss of £238,657.
Sinn Féin on the other hand showed a straight surplus of £155,539. This was chiefly achieved through its Assembly members handing over a portion of their salaries to the overall tune of £332,000, and donations of £240,000.
The DUP enjoyed a total income of £427,000 against expenditure of £385,000, resulting in a surplus of £42,000.
The SDLP suffered a deficit of £32,000, which at least was down on the £100,000 deficit the previous year. Donations to the party were up from £214,000 in 2002 to £479,000 last year.
Sinn Féin's Assembly group leader Mr Conor Murphy said each MLA contributed at least 40 per cent of his or her salary to the party. "This commitment to the development of Sinn Féin from elected representatives is unique in Irish politics, and is a demonstration of the commitment of all our representatives."