SDLP
Senior Negotiator Sean Farren said Sinn Fein is putting the whole restoration
process at risk by refusing to allow progress on important issues through the
Assembly and Restoration Committee.
He said: “If we are to get things moving we need to make progress
in both the Restoration Committee and where appropriate in the Assembly. For
two years Sinn Fein has worked with other parties in the Business Alliance to
put together an Economic Regeneration Programme that is essential for
under-pinning the restoration of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement.
Now, when we could actually do something to take all that work forward, they
are blocking it from going to the Assembly.
“It is plain silly to block business which is so pertinent to
restoration solely for the reason that it is not being taken in the Restoration
Committee alone. This is important business that we need to develop and
finalise as a package to go to the two governments. This is in fact restoration
business and it must be pursued.
“Sinn Fein is turning more and more into the mirror image of the
DUP, cultivating intransigence for its own sake. It could be easing the path of
progress it could be looking at the impediments to progress in its own corner,
instead of insisting on having its own way on how business is done. In the last
analysis this has the same frustrating effect as the DUP trying to impose
endless preconditions.”