Extracts from a Transcript of an Interview with Ulster Television (UTV) by Tony Blair, about issues in Northern Ireland, London, (26 April 2006)[Key_Events] [Key_Issues] [Conflict_Background] POLITICS: [Menu] [Reading] [Articles] [Government] [Political_Initiatives] [Political_Solutions] [Parties] [Elections] [Polls] [Sources] [Peace_Process] Extracts from a Transcript of an Interview with Ulster Television (UTV) by Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, about issues in Northern Ireland, London, (26 April 2006)
Interviewer: Prime Minister, it is obviously a positive report [IMC 10th Report] from your perspective, but do you think there is enough here for the DUP to share power with Sinn Fein?Prime Minister: (Tony Blair) I think there is surely enough for the DUP to say well this is positive and a significant step forward. Now in the end they have got to make their own judgment as to how we get the institutions back up and running again, but this is a big step because we have been asking for this to happen. Now as I say I think it is very important that people study the report and study the facts in it. People aren't going to be persuaded overnight and want to go into government tomorrow, but on the other hand it is clear that from last July when the IRA made their statement there has been real progress, so they should be as there has been progress.Interviewer: We have had the incident of Dennis Donaldson who was murdered and the report does say that individual Republicans are still involved in crime and outside the control of the IRA. You can see the DUP do have problems here.Prime Minister: I do, but in the end the best way of responding to that is to prosecute with the full force of the law and the proper institutions of the law anyone engaged in any criminality, and I think we can see from recent events the law authorities are prepared to do that. And you have got a different situation now, so if any member, or previous member of the IRA or any other body commits criminal offences they should be prosecuted properly.Interviewer: But who murdered Dennis Donaldson?Prime Minister: We don't, at the present time, have any information at all that leads us to believe that the IRA either authorised, or encouraged, or incited that murder. Now in the end, as the IMC report says, there will be incidents that happen and we have got to try and investigate those. But the important thing so far as we are concerned, and this is what the IMC report found today, is that the undertakings that have been given by the IRA have been carried through. Now again I completely understand why in the light of the history of all of this there is a lot of mistrust and uncertainty and doubt, there is bound to be. But the very reason that we set up the Independent Commission was in order to say look we, the government, won't judge this any more. I could see what was happening, you know something would happen, Unionist opinion perfectly understandably would say this, Republican opinion understandably would say the opposite. The purpose of having the Independent Monitoring Commission was to give to an independent body the ability to make a pronouncement of whether the undertakings that were given were being fulfilled, by the government incidentally as well as others.Interviewer: But Michael Dodds in the House of Commons today said how would you expect any other party in the United Kingdom to share power with a party that doesn't support, or even recognise, the current police force?Prime Minister: Well that is precisely why we want to overcome the remaining difficulties in respect of policing, and I want everyone to support policing in Northern Ireland. Now we can't start setting a new criterion for people to come into government or not, but obviously the situation in Northern Ireland will be a lot more stable when everyone is behind the police and supporting them.Interviewer: Come November 24 once you have introduced legislation, if you get to the situation where there is progress and the prospect of the institutions being restored after that, would the thing just collapse?Prime Minister: Well I just think that between now, end of April and end of November, which is about 6 or 7 months, if it is not clear that people are coming together then I don't think it ever will be. This thing, if it maintains what has been now significant and benign progress then I hope very much that we can get the institutions back up and running again. If for any reason it has slipped back, I think you are beyond the point at which you know a few more weeks or even a few more months are going to make a difference. People have got to make up their minds now. There has got to be absolute clarity. There will be further IMC reports up until the end of November about whether paramilitary and criminal activity is or is not being authorised or engaged in by the Republicans. Indeed if anybody is in any doubt it is only exclusively peaceful means that will do. But if that happens, I hope very much that we can be in a situation where the institutions get back up and running again so that decisions can be taken by people in Northern Ireland. Now I can't make that happen, but I think there is no point in believing that if you push it a few weeks on it is really going to make all the difference, it doesn't seem to me as if that is likely to happen.
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