Published Wednesday, 07 October 2009
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who helped negotiate the political deal that led to the formation of the power-sharing government, said that he found it hard to believe politicians would jeopardise the future of the political institutions.
Mr Ahern was in Belfast on Wednesday launching his autobiography which recounts the events that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The DUP and Sinn Fein are currently locked in tense negotiations over plans for the Assembly to take-on responsibility for policing and justice as was envisaged in the St Andrews Agreement that followed on from the Good Friday pact.
But while republicans and the British and Irish governments have pressed for the issue to be resolved, the DUP has said it still wants assurances on the finances available for the move, plus efforts to secure unionist public support for it.
Mr Ahern said: "I spent a lot of my life trying to bring the institutions back up and to get them back up and functioning.
"There is no good saying there's easy issues in this.
"I know the complexities, I know the political realities and I know that none of those things have simple solutions.
"So all I would say from a position of non-interference, but knowing the arguments, I hope they work hard to try and find solutions as soon as possible.
Mr Ahern, who stepped down as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fail last year amid controversies over his private finances, noted how politicians north of the border were now getting to grips with bread and butter issues thanks to the existence of the new political institutions.
"I don't think that politicians would want to see anything that would undermine the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement and the review of that," he said.
"I have no doubt that they are aware of the sensitivities and I would wish them well in finding a solution."