NI Assembly sits at Stormont

Northern Ireland's Assembly Members are sitting in Stormont for the first time since the power-sharing body was suspended over three-and-a-half years ago.

The Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain said the Government was determined to make the parties do their jobs and bring an end to the procrastination in the political process.

Mr Hain said: “The question facing Assembly Members today is will they open the door for a new dawn of self-government? Will they make up their minds in time to open that door, or will they close the door themselves on an Assembly?”

The Government is to stop salaries and expenses in November if the Assembly Members cannot reach agreement on a power sharing regional government.

Under the recently introduced emergency legislation, the 108 MLAs can discuss issues, but cannot legislate.

While some parties are in favour of debating issues in the Assembly, there are concerns that the Government's team of Direct Rule Ministers could simply ignore the opinion of the local politicians.

The Assembly Members' first action was to hold a minute's silence for the 15-year-old teenager killed in Ballymena in what is believed to have been a sectarian attack.

The Speaker Eileen Bell read a letter to the members from Mr Hain.

The only other order of business today is that the parties are required to sign a register of affiliation, which designates their parties as nationalist, unionist or other for the purposes of voting. The Assembly will then adjourn until next week. Then the agenda switches to voting on a power-sharing executive.

However, the politicians have six months, until the Government set deadline of November 24, to reach agreement on the power-sharing executive.

(SP)