Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland
The PMOS reminded journalists that this meeting had been a "stock-taking" meeting and it was a way of setting out a work agenda for officials to take forward over the next few weeks. That was so we would be in a position to move things forward as quickly as possible in the autumn. We would of course like to see the postponed elections held as soon as possible, but we also wanted to be in a position where those elections would provide us with a viable Executive. Today had been about sitting down and thinking through how we could make that happen. Asked what issues were being looked at in particular the PMOS said that the overall thing that we had to do was create confidence that there would be an end to paramilitary activity and that there was going to be a situation where the Executive would be able to act normally. What was important was to find the proper mechanism to achieve that and make sure all parties played their part. The PMOS said that the other important thing was that as everyone knew it was the marching season, but it was worth pointing out that so far there had been a constructive attitude to the marching season in Northern Ireland. That may have resulted in less news this side of the Irish Sea but that had a positive impact in Northern Ireland itself. Of course it only took one incident or one event to change that picture but it was the underlying picture. Asked if elections to the Assembly would definitely take place before the end of this calendar year the PMOS said that we had made it very clear at the time of postponement that our strong preference was for elections to take place as soon as possible to a viable Executive. We had to create the conditions for that and that was the basis on which we wanted to operate. The whole point of today had been to set out the work agenda for that to happen. Questioned further the PMOS said that in terms of why we had postponed the elections everyone knew the reasons that we set out at the time. The important thing was to change the context as we had said at the time of postponement. Asked about whether the split with the Ulster Unionist party would effect the negotiations the PMOS said that what happened within the UUP was a matter for them, but equally the Prime Minister has put on the record his view of David Trimble on many occasions.
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