Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly in mid-May and give it six months to elect a new power-sharing Executive, sources close to the talks have confirmed, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent.
The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, outlined this plan yesterday to leaders of Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance Party who had separate talks with them at Government Buildings. Sinn Féin and the SDLP later warned the Government against allowing the DUP to use the plan to "string out" the political process and frustrate progress.
The Taoiseach and Mr Blair are to travel to Armagh next Thursday where they will announce plans to reconvene the suspended Assembly on May 15th for a six-week period. According to its rules, it must then try to form a power-sharing executive - a process which all involved expect to fail because the DUP does not want to join a power-sharing Executive.
The Assembly will then adjourn for the summer and reconvene again in September. There will then be a further six-week period, after which an attempt to elect an executive - under the complex d'Hondt voting system - must take place.
Yet another six-week period will then be made available for these efforts, with the assembly being suspended on November 24th if the power-sharing executive has not been formed. The governments say they will then move to an as yet unspecified "Plan B".
Senior figures in Sinn Féin and the SDLP yesterday told the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs that they believed the DUP was being given too much control over the political process.
Both parties reflected the widespread belief that the DUP will not agree to set up an Executive, as it does not want to share power with Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, called on the governments "not to be bullied by Ian Paisley and not to facilitate Ian Paisley's obstructionism towards the Good Friday agreement". He said the Assembly should be brought back and an effort made to elect a first minister, deputy first minister and an Executive.
"If that fails it is incumbent on the two governments to move on with the process of joint decision making, building on the all-Ireland dimensions of the agreement and ensuring that all the other aspects of the agreement around equality and human rights and demilitarisation are pursued and pursued vigorously," Mr McGuinness said.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said he wanted the governments' plan to force the political parties to make real choices within a set timescale.
"We are worried about six weeks leading into a recess, leading to another six weeks and another six weeks with parties hoping that they will get some big talks in a stately home after that. The incentive will be to stalemate and stand off rather than make progress and deliver."
He said that having heard the SDLP outline its reservations and point to various scenarios in which the process could be stalled, the Government "know that they have more work to do in terms of the detail of their proposals".
He said the DUP was being left in control of the calendar, because nothing would happen unless the DUP agreed to it. "We are concerned that the DUP has been put in the driving seat and are in danger of remaining in the driving seat."
Alliance Party leader David Ford said nobody would be fully happy with what the two governments proposed next week. He had urged the governments "to stay engaged and not just leave it to Northern Ireland politicians, and work on other issues like a shared future and address the institutional problems of the Good Friday agreement".