Ahern: what Sinn Fein need to do…

Broom of Anger has snipped an interesting section of the Dail debate yesterday, in which the Taoiseach lays out the conditions for the beginning of any resumption of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland.

After re-iterating the importance of the principle of inclusion, he gave an idea of the metrics required from the Republican movement to come back into the large tent it had so lately deserted:

…there is no possibility whatsoever of making progress on the peace and confidence that leads to an inclusive working executive and administration in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement unless the Sinn Féin leadership comes back to both the Irish Government and the British Government, as requested, to give us answers about the three areas on which we asked for answers, that is, paramilitarism in all its effects and particularly the issues of decommissioning and criminality. I do not think, even if we get answers, we will be able to move fast, but we certainly cannot move in the short term without those answers.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.