Trimble slams GFA review as 'desperation'

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has slammed the government's forthcoming review of the political processes in Northern Ireland as a move of "desperation".

Speaking last night to the Annual General Meeting of the Foyle Ulster Unionist Association in Campsie, Co Londonderry, Mr Trimble questioned the need to review the rules and regulations if the assembly was not going to resume because of the criminal activities of the paramilitaries.

"Frankly, it is as if the NIO wishes to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic after it has hit the iceberg," he said.

“The reason we do not have an assembly is not because of some fatal flaw in the institutions - though they are, of course, capable of improvement and reform - but because we have not had acts of completion by the paramilitaries, most notably the IRA.”

Commenting on the government’s forthcoming review of the operation of the institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement, the UUP leader said: “There is more than a hint of desperation in the NIO’s handling of the political process. It is as if a review has been called to fill a vacuum created not by the election result but the continued activity of paramilitaries. If there is a political crisis, it is the same crisis today as that which existed before the election."

Dismissing to the DUP's recent election success, Mr Trimble added: "The ‘problem’ was not the DUP’s election victory but the inability or unwillingness of paramilitary-related parties to commit themselves fully to the democratic process.

“In such circumstances, while an examination of the voting arrangements in the assembly or the functioning of the committee system or the d’Hondt formula would be a worthwhile exercise if we had an assembly, it is somewhat pointless otherwise."

Meetings between government officials are expected to explore possible procedures to review the operation of the Good Friday Agreement institutions in the coming months.

Suspended 15 months ago, the Northern Ireland Assembly remains in limbo following alleged intelligence-gathering by the IRA within the Stormont-based administration.

(SP)