Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

» Friday, March 12, 2004

Northern Ireland

Asked for an update on Northern Ireland following the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Taoiseach yesterday in Dublin, the PMOS said that, contrary to what some commentators had been suggesting, we were not going to let the process drift. Both Prime Ministers had signalled that they would be stepping up the pace of the review process after the St Patrick’s Day celebrations and that they, themselves, would become directly involved. As they had said last night, we had gone through a situation in which tens of questions that had had to be addressed had been whittled down to just two. First, were Unionists prepared to share power with Republicans if the IRA stopped its activities? We had received indications from both Unionist parties that the answer to that was yes. The second question was whether the IRA, as well as loyalist paramilitaries, were prepared to stop their activities. It was clear that both issues needed to be addressed urgently. Asked how soon the Independent Monitoring Commission might publish its report, the PMOS said that it was entirely a matter for the Commission. However, we, together with other parties, had indicated that we would welcome it if they brought forward the publication sooner than May.

Asked if the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach had also discussed EU issues last night in view of the fact that Ireland currently held the EU Presidency, the PMOS said that there had been some discussion about these matters. However, since the Taoiseach was still in conversation with other European leaders, what he had told the Prime Minister last night had been more of a ‘half-term report’. It went without saying that we were following those discussions with interest.

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