UUP chief confident Kinahan can retain seat

DUBLIN’S Foreign Affairs Minister has urged Northern Ireland’s leaders to reflect on the 10th anniversary of devolution ahead of talks to restore government.

Charlie Flanagan said the restoration of devolved power at Stormont on May 8, 2007 was an achievement that can be recalled with a sense of satisfaction by all who played a part.

“In the 10 years since restoration, all parties linked to the peace process have had to work through a number of difficult challenges and testing moments,” he said. “It is all the more important, then, that the cumulative achievement of that decade of devolved and representative government for Northern Ireland be acknowledged.

“Over the last decade, the devolved institutions of the Good Friday Agreement have delivered significant and lasting steps forward for Northern Ireland and its people.”

Mr Flanagan said recalling this achievement should encourage all political parties to ensure agreement is reached in the talks aimed at restoring a power-sharing executive set to resume at Stormont next month.

“The Irish government will continue to play its part, working with the British government and each of the political parties, to support the formation of an executive that operates on the basis of partnership and equality and delivers good government for all the citizens of Northern Ireland,” he added.

In May 2007, five years of direct rule ended after DUP leader Ian Paisley — later Lord Bannside — and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness took office at the helm of the Stormont Executive.

Stormont had collapsed in 2002 after allegations of a Sinn Fein spy ring at the heart of government.

But 10 years ago, the new First and Deputy First Ministers were famously pictured laughing together — something that would define their surprisingly close relationship and earn them their ‘Chuckle Brothers’ nickname.

The relationship between Lord Bannside’s successor, Peter Robinson, and Mr McGuinness was frostier, but major hurdles were ultimately overcome or set aside.

However, after the collapse of Stormont in the wake of the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, there has been little sign of pro- gress in resurrecting the institutions.

Mr Flanagan said May 8, 2007 saw “an achievement that can be recalled today with a sense of satisfaction by all who played a part”.

He also hailed the devolution of justice and policing powers from Westminster to Stormont in 2010.

“The formation of a multi-party power-sharing Executive headed by the late Ian Paisley and the late Martin McGuinness as First that Brexit must be a success because if it is a failure, as Juncker reportedly deems essential, then Ireland will be the victim,”

He suggested that Anglo-Irish relationships after Brexit could be considered using a mechanism from strand three of the 1998 agreement which permits the two governments to enter into high level contacts on issues concerning ‘the totality’ of British/Irish relations.

SDLP MP Mark Durkan last night backed Dr Bassett’s approach to the Brexit negotiations.

“We have been calling for the use of strand three of the Good Friday Agreement to discuss the implications of Brexit, in the form of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference as a mechanism for relevant dialogue between the Irish and British governments,” he said.

“We believe that this would allow the two governments to have bilateral discussions under an existing bilateral agreement, without the Irish government breaching any protocols of their membership of EU27.”

Long-serving Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson said he agreed that Dublin has the most to lose from any EU proposals aimed at punishing the UK for leaving. But even if there were UK-Ireland talks, anything agreed at them could be blocked by the other EU member states, the UUP MEP said. and Deputy First Ministers, required determination and leadership by all of the political parties and was achieved with intensive support by both governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement,” he said.

“Restoration brought to an end a period of several years of direct rule in Northern Ireland, and allowed the more representative, power-sharing Executive to govern in Northern Ireland, accountable to the Assembly and to the people.” ULSTER Unionist leader Robin Swann says he believes his colleague Danny Kinahan can hold on to his South Antrim seat.

Mr Kinahan won the seat from DUP veteran William McCrea in one of the surprise seat swaps of the 2015 Westminster election.

The constituency is set to become a key unionist battlefield of the June 8 election, with the DUP planning to run its MLA Paul Girvan who topped the poll at the Assembly vote last year.

Speaking at Mr Kinahan’s campaign launch at the Templeton Hotel in Templepatrick on Saturday, Mr Swann said it had taken hard work to win the seat and it will take hard work to hold on to it.

The 2015 poll was a significant election for the Ulster Unionist Party which gained its first two MPs since Lady Sylvia Hermon left the party in 2010.

Tom Elliott was elected in Fermanagh South Tyrone following the agreement of a unionist pact.

Mr Swann said his party’s MPs have made a significant contribution since their election.

“I know that during his time as an MP Danny has consistently espoused a confident, outward looking pro-Union message in Parliament,” he said.

“Since his election to the Commons in 2015 Danny has achieved an extraordinary amount both at Parliament and in South Antrim.

“From his role on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to co-chairing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Education he has thrown himself into business at Westminster. Danny set up the APPG on the Union and has been able to inform members from both sides of the aisle on the issues that matter to Northern Ireland, not least around Brexit and his recent work on the Hyde Park Case.

“I wish him and his team every success on the campaign trail and I hope we will be celebrating success once again come the ninth of June.

“But let us take nothing for granted. It took hard work and determination to win this seat and it will take hard work and determination to keep it, so I ask you all to vote Kinahan on the June 8.”