Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

Asked for guidance on the Prime Minister’s meeting with Gerry Adams, the PMS confirmed that the Prime Minister was meeting with Gerry Adams this morning; they were meeting to discuss power sharing in Northern Ireland and it was expected to be quite a wide-ranging discussion. The meeting was ahead of the deadline n Thursday for the nomination of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

Asked if the Government was confident Thursday’s deadline could be met, the PMS said that we were doing everything we could to ensure that the deadline would be met and that the parties were committed to a successful resolution.

Asked if it was the Government’s position that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) should ratify policing changes, the PMS said that we did not want to start talking about positions taken by individual parties at this point, as we did not think it would be helpful. We recognised that there were difficult issues and that the Government stood ready to do whatever it could to help the parties find a way through this.

Asked if the Prime Minister was going to meet with the DUP to discuss power sharing, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had been talking to all the key parties in Northern Ireland in recent days and would continue to do so.

Asked if the Prime Minister was going to meet with the DUP this afternoon, the PMS repeated that the Prime Minister was in close contact with all the key leaders and that if there was anything particular to update people on, we would do so.

Asked who would get the money from the sales of Government property in Northern Ireland, the PMS said that the Government had always been clear about this; the Prime Minister had made an announcement at the Investment Conference in Northern Ireland about investing an additional £1 billion to allow the Northern Ireland Executive, over the next three years, to retain 100% of the proceeds from sales of its assets, up to a new limit of £2.2bn. This was double the existing figure. Army bases were Ministry of Defence (MoD) assets, so therefore UK Government assets, and would not be included in the aforementioned figure.

Asked about the MoD properties, the PMS repeated that they were UK Government assets.

Put that there had been reports that the money used from the sale of MoD properties would be used to bribe Northern Ireland MPs to vote for the Government on 42 days, the PMS said that there had never been any suggestion from the Government that that was case.

Put that some people had suggested that that was the case, the PMS said that the man from the DUP who was interviewed on the radio yesterday had explicitly denied that accusation.

Asked if it was the case that the money from the sale of MoD buildings would not go to anyone apart from the MoD, the PMS said that there was process in relation to the sale of army bases and it was best to check with the Treasury as to what the exact position was. However, UK army bases were the property of the UK Government and the target figure that the Prime Minister referred to in his speech to the Investment Conference in Northern Ireland, related to the assets of the Northern Ireland Executive.

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» Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Northern Ireland

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