Alliance Council endorse Agreement at Special Meeting

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 2nd May 1998

The Alliance Party Council - the policy decision making body of the Party - today gave a formal andorsement to the Good Frioday Agreement. The Council met at Carrickfergus today for a specially organised discussion on the Agreement. Speaking at the meeting, Alliance Party Chair, Cllr Eileen Bell, welcomed the endorsement of the deal, and hit back at claims by the 'No' Campaign that the 'Yes' campaign has been badly organised.

Cllr Bell said:

"The Party Council had an excellent and very positive discussion of the Agreement, and as the Party's Talks Team we were delighted with the endorsement they gave to what had been achieved at Stormont. The Party has committed itself to working for a huge 'Yes' vote in the Referendum, and to building on the foundation that we will then have for the creation of a new future for Northern Ireland."

"It is amusing to hear the No Campaigners trying to criticise the 'Yes' Campaigners for being disorganised - now that they are losing the argument over the Agreement, they are reduced to arguing over who has the better campaign! We did not have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines for months and months as the DUP and the UKUP had. The parties who forged the Areement were busy directing our time and energies towards moving Northern Ireland forward, not dragging it backwards. But having done so, we now have an Areement which the overwhelming majority of people can and will support."

ENDS.