The SDLP has called for Northern Ireland's Civic Forum to be reconvened as part of next month's review of the Belfast Agreement, the British and Irish Governments were urged today.
In their submission on the review, which begins on February 3rd, the SDLP said the 60-member body of trade unionists, businessmen, farmers and voluntary groups, should be asked for their views on the Agreement.
The forum, which was set up to give civic society a say during devolution on issues facing the Stormont Assembly, has been labelled a waste of taxpayers' money by the DUP.
Ulster Unionist peer Lord Kilcloney also last week called the forum an expensive talking shop, and said it should be axed after the review.
The Civic Forum first met in October 2000 under the chairmanship of Mr Chris Gibson, but has not been active for some time.
The SDLP, whose submission was released today by former Stormont ministers Mr Se[AC]an Farren and Ms Carmel Hanna, and party chairman Mr Alex Attwood, said the Civic Forum should be asked to look at its own operation and other issues affecting the Agreement.
The party also insisted the review should not mean a renegotiation of the Agreement and should be short and intensive, with the participants meeting three times a week.
The SDLP said that the North's power-sharing institutions should not be blamed for the breakdown of devolution. Rather it was the unwillingness of parties to work the institutions properly, and of paramilitaries to honour their commitments under the Agreement, which were at fault.
PA