Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

» Monday, November 15, 2004

Northern Ireland

Asked how significant the Paul Murphy statement that would be coming up in the House later in the day was, the PMOS replied that Paul Murphy would be welcoming a statement from the UDA that it would be ceasing its activities. It was a welcome statement, and obviously, people wanted to see it implemented, as people would judge it by deed, not just word. What it said, above all, however, was that events in Northern Ireland were still moving in the right direction, despite all the difficulties in getting the final steps to be taken. All the different groups, one by one, were moving to where the people of Northern Ireland want them to be, i.e. an end to all paramilitary activity. The pieces of the jigsaw were coming together, bit by bit.

Asked how long there was left, with reference to the deadline of 25th November made at the Leeds Castle talks, the PMOS acknowledged that time was getting short, but what had been helpful was that the parties had been able to have discussions in private.

Asked if the Prime Minister was going to see Bertie Ahern this week, the PMOS said he was not aware of any plans to do so at the moment.

Asked why time was short, the PMOS said that political reality was such that Northern Ireland parties knew when there was a time to talk and a time to stay quiet, and the outer limits of that time were now getting close.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.