Haass/O’Sullivan: We are disappointed that all five have not [endorsed the agreement]

Richard Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan haven’t quite gone away you know … In a statement released this afternoon, the chair and vice-chair of the five party talks say: We note that all five parties participating in the Panel of Parties in the Northern Ireland Executive have put forward views on the draft agreement of 31 December, 2013. This draft was the product of their intense engagement with one another and with the two of us over the last six months …

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Jim Allister issues TUV’s Twenty-Two Theses critiquing the Haass/O’Sullivan draft agreement

Jim Allister has nailed the TUV’s 22 point analysis of the Haass/O’Sullivan draft agreement to the wall their website. In amongst the reiteration of TUV policy and ideology, Jim Allister does raise good points about: the exclusivity of political representation on the proposed quangos (restricted to parties remaining in the Executive); the difficulty some current politicians would have to commit to support every decision of the present Parades Commission; the potential for the replacement parading bodies and process to reduce …

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Will the panel of parties now publish their final draft proposals?

While not a surprise, it is still disappointing that the five parties in the Executive – and in particular the big two – who arranged The Panel of Parties in the NI Executive were able to identify three problem areas but were not confident enough to compromise enough to agree a way forward. Given the distance between DUP and Sinn Fein and their nearest rivals in terms of electoral support, there was surely room for big compromise, for putting themselves …

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