Power-sharing assembly nears collapse

Today was the first assembly meeting since police raids against republican terrorism last week, and it could prove to the last as pressure mounted on the authors of the Good Friday Agreement to collapse Stormont.

In a move designed to exert pressure on the First Minister David Trimble, the DUP leader Ian Paisley handed a post-dated letter to the Speaker of the House Lord Alderdice notifying him of the DUP's intention to pull its ministers out of the executive – but only in the event that the UUP walk out of the power-sharing assembly first.

However, First Minister David Trimble, who is to meet the British Prime Minister tomorrow, has said that he will not make a decision on whether to leave the executive before he has spoken with Mr Blair. Nevertheless, the DUP have placed the onus on Mr Trimble to act – and with an election still on the cards, Mr Trimble now carries the expectations of pro and anti-agreement unionists.

For his part, Mr Trimble will hope that the final decision over the future of the assembly comes from No10. As the agreement has the fingerprints of both Blair and Trimble on it, neither will be keen to take responsibility for its demise.

Mr Trimble said that whatever the options available in regard to the future of the assembly, the UUP would be "asking other parties and government to think hard and carefully about what they do".

However, he reflected that the scale of the problem facing the devolved government, after Friday's IRA spy-ring allegations, was now "10 times worse than Watergate".

He added: "We may be asking other parties to stretch themselves but the likelihood of them stretching themselves is diminished if the impression is given that the demand has been made on behalf of people who want to put an end to these institutions and destroy the Agreement."

The Alliance Party has already called for the exclusion of Sinn Fein from government, and the end of the power-sharing government. Seamus Close has said that the Secretary of State now has "no option" but to act.

Mr Close said that, in the absence of such a motion, the assembly should be suspended to forestall a collapse.

"In this situation, suspension would be the least worst option as it leaves us with the potential to rebuild the Assembly in the near future," he said.

Sinn Fein have said that they bear no responsibility for the political crisis and have strongly denied any involvement in allegations of republican terrorist activity.

(GMcG)