Alliance demands genuine power sharing as it submits its response to St Andrews Agreement

1.44.22pm GMT Fri 10th Nov 2006

Alliance Leader, David Ford

Alliance Leader David Ford has stated that the St Andrews Agreement is a quick fix and that Northern Ireland needs genuine and sustainable power-sharing. His comments come as Alliance today submits their response to the St Andrews Agreement to Peter Hain.

David Ford stated: "The detail within the St Andrews Agreement is unclear and we are concerned that it is aimed solely at producing a quick-fix between the DUP and Sinn Féin which will fall apart as quickly as it was conceived.

"Alliance has been restricted from giving a more definitive view on the St Andrews Agreement because of the unwillingness of the Governments to disclose all 'side-deals', despite our successful bid to secure all-party support for this demand within the Preparation for Government Committee.

"The St Andrews Agreement only addresses the issues and priorities placed on the table by the DUP and Sinn Féin. The changes to the institutions and policy priorities required to build a shared future and ensure stable devolution have not been addressed.

"We need power to be genuinely shared, not divided and we need all parties to firmly commit to policing and the rule of law.

"It is of paramount importance that devolution delivers a shared future, because the tribal parties must stop wasting £1 billion per year on keeping our society divided.

"People are fed up with the delays and breakdowns forced by the sectarian parties. It is now time for them to prove that they can make devolution work.

"People will not take 'government by memo', where the DUP do not talk to Sinn Féin, and will only communicate through civil servants running up and down the corridors of Stormont with bits of paper.

Its time that the sectarian parties stopped playing games with the future of Northern Ireland. If they cannot deliver genuine power-sharing now, they must stand aside."

ENDS