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Saturday, 06 March 2010

McGuinness gives UUP ultimatum

Deputy First minister Martin McGuinness speaking at Sinn Fein's Ard Fheis in Dublin

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said the Ulster Unionists have "three days to sort themselves out" after leader Sir Reg Empey declared the party could not support the devolution of policing and justice.

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As the Stormont assembly prepares to vote on the Hillsborough agreement, Mr McGuinness said Sir Reg Empey was being "unreasonable".

Speaking at Sinn Fein's Ard Fheis in Dublin, Mr McGuinness warned:

"The Ulster Unionists have three days to sort themselves out".

"They can do the right thing and join with the rest of us in building a new and better future, or they can continue to pursue a negative, rejectionist agenda which is out of step, I believe, with the majority of Unionist opinion and the vast majority of citizens who live on this island."

On Friday Sir Reg said the Hillsborough deal was not acceptable in its current form.

He said the party was not in a position to back the deal to transfer policing and justice powers from London to Belfast.

The party will take a final decision on Monday night, he added.

The UUP was the only party to boycott the unveiling of the Hillsborough Agreement last month.

Sir Reg repeatedly complained that he had been kept in the dark during the marathon talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

He has also been highly critical of what he calls the "dysfunctional nature of the executive".

Last month, he told UTV his party would not sign up to the deal unless a "consensus" was found to solve the education debate.

"If Reg Empey is really saying he's threatening the political institutions because Caitriona Ruane won't re-introduce the 11-Plus, what can be more dysfunctional than this?" Mr McGuinness asked on Saturday.

Ms Ruane told the party's executive meeting she won't be changing her policy.

Policing and justice powers will be devolved on 12 April, if a resolution jointly tabled by the First and Deputy First Ministers gets cross-community support in an Assembly vote on 9 March.

Sinn Fein and the DUP have enough MLAs in the Assembly to secure the required cross-community vote.

But last month the DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said devolution was unlikely to go ahead without the backing of the UUP.

The DUP's executive will meet on Monday to assess whether there is enough confidence within the community to go ahead with the deal.

Meanwhile, Mr McGuinness insisted Sinn Fein was ready to take the reins of power in the Irish Republic.

But he ruled out any partnership with senior Opposition party Fine Gael.

"Wake up and look north," he said.

"We are in government, we are taking the hard decisions and we are doing a good job to boot."

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11 Comments

At 15:30 on 08 March 2010, Deaglan Bhreathnach wrote:

The UUP are now the Never, never, never party, and all I can say to them is thank you ever so much; your stupidity, childish behaviour is now the catalist that will rip the union to shreds, we republicans can now sit back comfortably without a thing to say or do and watch these idiots ruin everything they stand for!

At 14:02 on 08 March 2010, lorna wrote:

Seamus I have come to the conclusion no country want us, Not Southern Ireland or England. We are too expensive in all departments to run. It takes two Governments applying money .We are like kids of divorced parents each clinging to one or the other without the will to stand on our own.

At 08:21 on 08 March 2010, Fed Up wrote:

Guilpin wrote - Unionism is finished, phewww, the monolith is broken. Get over it and wake up to a new day, a new dawn!!!!!!!! I don't think so and if you truely do then it is you who needs to wake up. Comments like this are not helpful. How do you expect Unionists to believe in this so called peace process with people like you running their mouth off. And to Neil - 80% of the south wants the country re-united and is a major goal of all the major political parties in the south - Then why did the south get rid of their claim to the North??? Doesn't seem they want us either or care if the country is re-united or not. Like most sensible people they have more important things to worry about. Like the state of their economy.

At 21:49 on 07 March 2010, Seamus M wrote:

I must say that I agree with Neil. The British government does not want the six counties, because we cost them £50 billion per year. From its inception, the north has always been and will always be on the British exchequer economical life support system. Without the British exchequer, the north would be a third world province like Haiti.

At 20:19 on 07 March 2010, Neil wrote:

eh phil its england doesnt want us, as recent polls in the sunday newspaper says that 80% of the south wants the country re-united and is a major goal of all the major political parties in the south, england has stated it does not want us!! the reason its here is cause of the blood that would be spilled if it left

At 17:50 on 07 March 2010, guilpin wrote:

Wake up and smell the coffee! The UUp (UCUNF), what colour's the beret, are finished, thank God. Unionism is finished, phewww, the monolith is broken. Get over it and wake up to a new day, a new dawn!!!!!!!!

At 16:54 on 07 March 2010, Deaglan Bhreathnach wrote:

In response to Phil, I feel that your comments are ridiculous! I know and admit that SF was almost defeated in the 26 counties by the perverted, greedy, swindling, back hander parties like Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, however, the Irish people are under no illusion where their votes got them - to the closest rim of hell possible economically, lets wait and see how badly SF do in future Irish elections before writing them off!