A UUP Assembly member has put forward a possible compromise proposal on decommissioning and Sinn Fein's entry into an executive. Dr Esmond Birnie has suggested the party could enter government without an advance IRA arms handover.
However, Sinn Fein would issue a post-dated guarantee that if the IRA did not subsequently deliver it would resign from the executive, which would remain in existence. Dr Birnie said he was speaking in a personal capacity.
"The UUP's leap is to agree to an executive before decommissioning and without a guarantee that there would be decommissioning. Sinn Fein's leap is to risk loss of office and the continuation of the executive if the IRA does nothing."
Dr Birnie said he was not betraying the party's "no guns, no government" policy. "What I am saying is that if there are no guns there will be no Sinn Fein in government but there will still be a government and the UUP will still be in it.
"That actually strikes me as a firmer strategy than that which keeps us out of government because we have tied our own room for manoeuvre to what the IRA choose to do. Are Sinn Fein brave enough for `leaping together' in this fashion?"
Dr Birnie was addressing the Castlecaulfield branch of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone Ulster Unionist Association last night. He said unionists should acknowledge that many nationalists regarded the Belfast Agreement as a compromise, not a victory.
"Some unionists have been so busy knee-jerking themselves into the belief that Sinn Fein and the IRA must be the victors of the agreement process that they have failed to notice what 95 per cent of nationalists voted for in the referendum.
"They voted for Sinn Fein power-sharing with unionists. They voted for an internal settlement. They voted for the constitutional copperfastening of Northern Ireland's position within the UK. They voted for a peaceful compromise. They voted for the decommissioning of IRA weapons.
"Given all that, it would be a huge mistake for unionists in general, and the UUP in particular, to walk away from the Belfast Agreement."
Dr Birnie said there must be a "parity of risk-taking" between his party and Sinn Fein and that both the executive and the Assembly must survive if either party did not keep their side of the deal.
"I am not flying kites for the party and I am not testing the waters for a change of policy. I am merely exploring political possibilities. What would happen if Sinn Fein tied their fate to the actions of the IRA?
"In other words, if the executive was created before prior decommissioning and the IRA didn't deliver the decommissioning goods. Would the Sinn Fein ministers resign from office until such times as the goods were delivered?
"Given the nature of the relationship which has always existed between Sinn Fein and the IRA, it seems only fair that it be Sinn Fein, rather than the rest of us, who tie their fate to the actions of the IRA."
Dr Birnie criticised the former UUP leader, Lord Molyneaux. "Lord Molyneaux may not like the Belfast Agreement, but at least the party had a say in its negotiation."