Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

» Friday, March 23, 2007

Northern Ireland

Asked if the Prime Minister would be seeing Doctor Paisley this afternoon, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that the Prime Minister had been in contact on an hour by hour, day by day basis, but it would be for the party to publicise any such contact rather than us.

Asked which Minister would be making the statement on Northern Ireland on Tuesday, the PMS replied that she did not have any update on the position set out by the Leader of the House yesterday.

Asked to comment on the assertion by Gregory Campbell that "Monday was simply not doable", the PMS replied that nobody underestimates the difficult decisions that had to be made, but it was now time to call on the parties of Northern Ireland to make those decisions, and it was right that they should do so. Again, as the Leader made very clear yesterday, Monday was the day for either dissolution or devolution. Nobody was in any doubt about that.

Asked to clarify exactly when the deadline was, the PMS replied that the deadline would be at 00:01 on Tuesday morning. Put that there could therefore be further negotiations on Monday that the Prime Minister could be involved in, the PMS replied that it was not impossible.

Put that given the history of deadlines in Northern Ireland, there were still people within the DUP who believed that the Prime Minister was bluffing, the PMS replied that we could not have been any clearer than we had been.

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