THE EYES of the public were on the multi party talks, the Minister for Equality and Law Reform Mr Taylor, said yesterday as the deadlock over procedural issues continued in Stormont's Castle Buildings.
The talks are being held in private, but sources said that Mr Taylor, who is leading the Government delegation, told the parties that the public had difficulty understanding protracted procedural wrangles.
They want to see the political parties at this table show that they are ready and able to negotiate a way out of our difficulties, Mr Taylor said. "At what is a particularly fraught time in Northern Ireland it is more important than ever that the signal we send from this place is one that generates steadiness and hope.
"For that reason, I hope we can keep our procedural debate to the minimum possible limits and begin as soon as possible the real task which all our constituencies sent us here to undertake."
He acknowledged that there were different perceptions of the Ground Rules document prepared for the talks by the two governments.
Mr Taylor made it clear that he was opposed to stripping the chairman, Mr George Mitchell, of his powers, as some unionist delegates would wish. The Minister reportedly said that the procedural rules must afford the former US senator and the other chairmen "a clear basis to conduct business efficiently and to ensure a fair and unprejudiced hearing for all viewpoints".
Sources close to the negotiations said that the Ulster Unionist Party had been urging that the talks be conducted according to one document containing a comprehensive set of rules. This would incorporate procedural elements of the Ground Rules document but not those elements which expressed the aspirations of the two governments.
The Democratic Unionist Party and the UK Unionist Party have jointly proposed that the Ground Rules document, apart from identifying the negotiations and the requirements for participation, "shall have no force or binding effect".
These two parties have also proposed that the powers of Mr Mitchell be limited to those granted to him by the participants in the talks and that any powers previously given to him by the two governments "shall be of no force or effect".
However, the SDLP has been insisting on the primacy of the Ground Rules document. The party has proposed that, in the event of any conflict of interpretation between the new set of procedures and the Ground Rules, "the relevant chairman shall take the Ground Rules document to be the authoritative text".
Mr Mitchell returned to chair the talks late yesterday afternoon. There were indications that the parties might agree to "park" all issues of procedure for the time being and go on to discuss the agenda, including the place to be given to the controversial issue of the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, but it was considered unlikely that the DUP and UKUP would agree to this.
Unionist rejection of the Ground Rules is based on concern that the negotiations should not be "tied down" by a document prepared by the two governments. Unionists believe the negotiations should be conducted solely on the basis of procedures agreed by the participants and that the Ground Rules should, in effect, be put to one side, should have no binding effect on the parties and should not influence the outcome of the talks.
The SDLP, on the other hand, is not prepared to see the Ground Rules dispensed with, believing that such an action would deprive the talks of their statutory basis.
The North's Minister for Political Development, Mr Michael Ancram, told the participants in the talks yesterday, according to sources, that it would be "wholly sensible" to produce a single set of rules to form the "operational" basis for the negotiations.
He pointed out that the two governments were proposing an amendment to the draft procedures for the talks specifying that "No outcome is either predetermined or excluded in advance, or limited by anything other than the need for agreement."
"We are no more likely to agree on a united Ireland than on full integration," Mr Ancram said. "But it does mean that we come here trying to find some overall agreement on the way Northern Ireland should be governed. We shall have to address some uncomfortable issues.
"For each of us there will be fundamental issues on which we cannot compromise. But what we are about is the search for an agreement which reflects those fundamental principles and aspirations each of us has, while finding an accommodation with one another where that is possible."
He emphasised that the principle of consent was a fundamental one for the British government.