Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

» Friday, September 10, 2004

Northern Ireland

Asked if the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach would discuss options for a Plan B at their meeting today in the event of a failure of the talks at Leeds Castle next week, the PMOS said that the first priority today was Plan A – to address the items that had been on the agenda for two years, namely a complete end to paramilitarism, decommissioning, a clear commitment to an inclusive Government and resolving issues such as policing. These were things that were not going to change. Consequently, we believed that the ingredients were there for a deal at Leeds Castle. The main emphasis of today’s meeting would be on working towards achieving an agreement. At the same time, the Prime Minister believed it was right to signal to the parties and the people of Northern Ireland that these were issues which could not be put off indefinitely. They had to be resolved. Therefore if Leeds castle did not work we would need to look at what the alternative was to keep the process going because, as the Prime Minister had been emphasising constantly, of the evident dangers of a political vacuum.

Asked about the vote of no confidence in Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the PMOS said that the vote had been in relation to Mr Orde’s proposal to reduce the police reserve force. Everyone recognised that there was a delicate balance to be struck in terms of policing in Northern Ireland. The Government believed that Mr Orde had managed to achieve that. Asked if the Prime Minister had complete confidence in Hugh Orde, the PMOS said that Mr Orde had rightfully gained respect across the community for the way in which he had handled what was clearly one of the most difficult jobs in British policing.

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.