Northern MPs to join Dail committee

Politicians from the north of Ireland will for take part in Dail proceedings for the first time today.

Westminster MPs from the North have been invited to takepart in a new committee of the Dail set up to help implementthe Belfast Agreement.While unionists are not expected to accept seats on thecommittee, nationalists have welcomed it as a further stepin developing all-Ireland relations.

Northern Ireland representatives to the committee will include the SDLP's south Belfast MP Alastair McDonnell,south Down MP Eddie McGrady, Sinn Fein's Fermanagh/southTyrone MP Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty, MP for westTyrone.They can take part in debates but will not have a right tovote or to move motions and amendments.

Sinn Féin's Dail Group leader Caoimhghin O Caolain said theCommittee was "a very welcome and significant step forward".

Pat Doherty writes for on the next tests for the peace process

Pat Doherty MP, Vice President, Sinn Féin on the next challenges for the peace process in Socialist Campaign Group News.

Next tests for the peace process

There has been huge political progress in the north of Ireland this year. We now have local politicians taking the tough decisions and working relationships people did not believe could be sustained.

We have renewed momentum in working together as equals, both in the executive and the Assembly, and also across the island of Ireland, where new partnerships are emerging; in developing infrastructure, and in health and education. There is an appetite for even greater co-operation. Many in the business sector are leading the debate on economic harmonisation.

But it must be about much more. Already issues such as a new air hub in Belfast has brought up matters such as workers rights and particularly pay and conditions across Ireland as a whole and the need for balanced regional development.

There remains huge levels of poverty, disadvantage, discrimination and under-investment. We need to be able to do more. Some of this will come through the deepening of relationships between the north and south and there is already substantial financial assistance from both Dublin and Europe to tackle the legacy of partition, conflict and under-funding.

Sinn Féin has led the debate on two key issues for the future regeneration of the six counties and also the deeply neglected North West region. We have argued that greater tax varying powers need to be transferred to the Assembly executive, in terms of corporation tax and economic growth, and also to deliver socio-economic justice.

We have also recognised the real potential of handing over former British Army and RUC sites in order to drive forward local regeneration, support social and affordable housing and build community infrastructure.There are other important challenges for local politicians. Deeply ingrained sectarian tensions and distrust remains. There is still a failure to get the required momentum on human rights, although we do now have a Bill of Rights Forum. Equality must underpin all aspects of good governance.

There are challenges in ensuring support for all victims of the conflict and deal with the past. Following the flawed and partisan nature of the first appointment of a Victims’ Commissioner we now have a new process underway free from the interventions of the Northern Ireland Office.

The British government has still to deal with its responsibility for collusion and frustrating closure for families whose loved ones were murdered. The use of legislation to undermine inquiries into collusion represents a failure of political leadership.One fundamental issue is the transfer of policing and justice powers next year. This is no longer a question of if, but of how and when. Given the experience of policing, and particularly the malign role of the political policing of MI5 and British government intervention, this represents the next big test. Sinn Féin has demonstrated our commitment to the new start to policing. This is huge test for the British government, for unionism and for the policing structures themselves.

It is progress that we have firewalled civic policing from MI5 and protected democratic accountability structures in relation to the PSNI. But it is still early days. There are still some with a destabilising agenda. We need further accountability and part of this is the devolution of policing and justice powers.

There has been enormous progress. Difficult challenges lie ahead, but also opportunities for greater change.

Lloyd George statue "a disgrace"

Congratulations to John Pilger and Harold Pinter for branding the new statue of former Liberal Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, "a disgrace."

Their letter to the Telegraph correctly cites his record of ordering British troops to bomb Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran and Iraq during the First World War, something Liberals today are eager to forget.

But more should be said of the role he played in Ireland. As Prime Minister from December 1916 to 1922 he led Britain's role in repressing those struggling for liberty in Ireland and was the Prime Minister who oversaw the country's partition.

Not only did he attempt to force conscripion on Ireland, but during the War of Independence, it was he who routinely locked up Ireland's elected MPs who refused to recognise British rule, and it was he who recruited and sent the Auxiliary Cadets and the Black and Tans who devastated people and their homes in a brutal effort to suppress the struggle for freedom.

And he should perhaps be best remembered by his statement to the Irish people in 1921 that they should accept partition or face "immediate and terrible war."

David Lloyd George - a liberal? Perhaps a liberal use of the term. An imperialist, and a particularly ruthless one at that, is more fitting.

Saturday 17th November, Irish Unity Conference, Camden

Six County MPs to attend Dail Committees

Northern Ireland's 18 MPs are to be allowed to attend committee meetings in the Dublin parliament whenever they want for the first time. One of these is the newly-formed Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. MPs will not be allowed to vote. The privilege is likely to be used by nationalists but ignored by unionists.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said attending committees was "an additional means of engagement on a north/south basis". He warned it should be no substitute for a north/south parliamentary forum, as envisaged by the Agreement.

Oireachtas committees are cross-party parliamentary bodies made up of Dail and Seanad members. They shadow various departments and deal with a range of investigations to advise the government.

Sinn Fein has made longstanding calls for speaking rights for Westminster MPs in the Dail and Seanad.
This was backed by an Oireachtas committee in 2002, but the process to implement this has stalled.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has welcomed the establishment of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and has noted his party's intention to build on this initial step towards 32 county representation in the Oireachtas. Ó Caoláin said: "The establishment of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement is welcome. That said, the establishment of the Committee represents a step forward. The participation of MPs from the Six Counties will give the Committee an essential All-Ireland character."

However he added, "We have called for representation in the Dáil for citizens in the Six Counties. We maintain this call and we do not see the new Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement as a substitute for Six-County representation in the Dáil."

Gerry Adams book launch in London

The President of Sinn Féin discusses the last two years of momentous political developments in Ireland, Spain and the Middle East as we launch his new book An Irish Eye.
6pm, Thursday 20th September
The Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC1

ALSO
1-2pm, Friday 21st September
Gerry Adams will sign copies of An Irish Eye at Waterstones, Gower Street, London WC1 Free entry

New hearings into killings by RUC unit

New hearings are to be held into six deaths at the centre of an alleged police shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland 25 years ago. Coroner John Leckey confirmed yesterday he will begin examining the cases in Belfast next month. They involve the shooting of three IRA men, Seán Burns, Gervaise McKerr and Eugene Toman, INLA suspects Peter Grew and Roderick Carroll, and Catholic teenager Michael Tighe.

The killings, by a special RUC unit, provoked controversy and led to former Greater Manchester Police deputy chief constable John Stalker being brought in to investigate. But his report was never published and demands for a fresh inquiry into the Burns, McKerr and Toman deaths have been resisted. The IRA men died when the car they were travelling in was fired on near Lurgan, Co Armagh in November 1982.

Earlier inquests into the killings were abandoned amid legal wrangling and deepening controversy. Peter Madden, solicitor for the men's families, claimed yesterday police officers involved could be brought to give evidence. He said:

"The surviving RUC men responsible for firing more than 100 rounds at the car containing the deceased will now be compellable witnesses at the inquest and shall be cross-examined by the families' lawyers. The coroner's verdict can make explicit factual findings pointing towards a conclusion that criminal or civil responsibility exists."

Mr Leckey's decision to hold preliminary hearings has reignited demands for full publication of the Stalker dossier. He also probed events surrounding the shooting of Michael Tighe (17) at a hayshed near Craigavon, Co Armagh, the same month. IRA explosives had been stored there, but Tighe was not connected to the organisation. In December 1982, Grew and Carroll were shot dead outside Armagh after being followed across the Border by a police surveillance unit.

Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd demanded full disclosure at the hearings in a bid to close to the cases. He said:
"It's 25 years on and the families of these men just want to know the truth. They have also called for the publication of the Stalker report. The British government and Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde can move on if they publish it and people can examine what happened then. It will give the same closure to them." He added: "I certainly hope that no barriers will be placed in the way of John Leckey this time and I urge Hugh Orde not to sanction public immunity certificates as this would not be appropriate."