Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

» Monday, January 8, 2007

Northern Ireland

Asked if the Prime Minister would be meeting with Ian Paisley or Gerry Adams this week, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister was in constant contact with both parties. He had been over Christmas and over the New Year and would no doubt continue to be so.

Asked why the DUP had not responded, pointing to the Prime Minister’s piece in the Irish Times where he talked about detailed conversations held with the DUP and how he believed that providing Sinn Fein delivered on their commitments then the DUP would enter into government with them on 26 March, the PMOS replied that he was not a spokesman for the DUP. They would speak for themselves. Everyone knew that 26 March was laid down in legislation; everyone knew that that was the deadline for setting up power sharing. Dr Paisley has said that his party would not be found wanting so long as Sinn Fein delivered on policing. He added that he understood people’s concerns but believed that there actually was a shared intent on where people wanted to go. The Prime Minister’s article today set out his reasons why it would be absurd for people not to move forward on the basis of that shared intent.

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.