Sanctions will not be tolerated, says McLaughlin

Sinn Féin view: The Sinn Féin chairman stuck by commitments that sanctions resulting against his party would not be tolerated…

Sinn Féin view: The Sinn Féin chairman stuck by commitments that sanctions resulting against his party would not be tolerated.

Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said: "We have made it clear that we will accept no sanctions or any diminution of the rights of those many thousands of people who have made our party the largest nationalist party in the six counties.

"We have referred, in a constructive way, to specific sections of the Good Friday agreement which do set down mechanisms for dealing with infraction of the conditions or principles of that agreement."

Mr McLaughlin referred to articles of the accord which pointed to the ultimate supremacy of the Assembly in such matters.

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He added: "Our suggestion is that a sub-committee operating under the aegis of the implementation body could, in the first instance, consider a complaint against any individual member. And if the implementation group were to consider that a valid complaint, then it could be referred to the First and Deputy First Ministers or to the committee on standards and privileges within the Assembly. That is already provided for within the agreement."

He said he wanted to encourage unionists to recognise there were provisions within the agreement for them to use but have never employed effectively.

He accused Mr Trimble of wanting to renegotiate the agreement on this issue and claimed he alone in this regard.

The issue of sanctions is one that would be a deal-breaker. We will not have that under any circumstances.

The issue of sanctions is one that would be a deal breaker, he said. "We will not have that under any circumstances."

Referring to the chances of an eventual overall agreement to restore power to the Stormont institutions he said all parties "were clearly in the ballpark".

"This isn't rocket science," he said, explaining that much of what was being discussed had been thrashed out when the agreement was negotiated in the first place.

He put the currently difficulties down to "teething problems" coming out of a conflict situation.

He admitted there were questions of confidence, but he said there had been progress "and we believe we can continue to do it".

But he cautioned: "This issue of changing the agreement will find no support whatsoever from Sinn Féin."

He told The Irish Times: "Suspending elections is not something people would die in a ditch for. It is important, suspension sensd out very negative signals. But it is not something that Sinn Féin would walk away from these negotiations on."

Mr McLaughlin said: "This is a society riven with conflict, it is not an easy job putting this together. If the political will was there, we could sort this out today. But we haven't quite got to that point. However, I'm saying this with absolute confidence, it will be sorted out sooner or later. This process is going to work."

He dismissed talk that republicans were the problem.

"But there are other considerations not least for the other parties. In terms of Sinn Féin we can demonstrate that we have the energy, arrangements, and the ability for very quick consultation with our members."