On Monday the DUP said it was waiting for the Northern Ireland Secretary’s statement before deciding whether or not to engage in the latest round of talks over the crisis at Stormont.
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Both parties had hoped Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers would outline definitive steps to crack down on remaining terror structures in a statement to the House of Commons.
The IMC was set up in 2004 to monitor paramilitary activity and the normalisation of security measures in Northern Ireland.
DUP ministers resigned last week from Stormont in a row over a murder which police think is linked to members of the IRA – a paramilitary organisation that’s supposed to have disbanded.
The claims have revived fears that the paramilitary group is still operating in secret.
Police have said current members of the IRA were involved in the shooting in a suspected revenge attack for the murder of former IRA commander Gerard “Jock” Davison in Belfast three months earlier.
However she appears to have failed to prompt unionists to sign up to a fresh round of negotiations, with Mr Robinson reacting by tweeting: “This delays start of talks”.
Prior to addressing parliament, unionist politicians had stressed the importance of her statement in determining whether they take part in cross-party talks to save power-sharing.
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has warned that there can be no preconditions ahead of cross-party crisis talks in the North.
The British province’s devolved administration was thrown into disarray after First Minister Peter Robinson, leader of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), stepped down Thursday.
DUP leader Peter Robinson has said he will re-nominate DUP ministers and then resign them again for the duration of any talks process in the absence of adjournment or suspension.
Why would Sinn Fein – a party addicted to negotiating but less sure of itself when governing – implement welfare reforms if it believed there was any possibility of squeezing yet more pounds from British taxpayers?
Enda Kenny, head of the Irish government, has said there is only “limited opportunity” to avert the provincial government’s collapse. “This is a farcical situation and it is becoming worse by the day”.
In response, Mr Coaker said his party meant to “pursue a bipartisan approach based on the agreements reached – in particular the principle of consent”. “But it is a process and we are keen to see a resolution”.
Commenting publicly on his arrest for the first time, Mr Storey said: “I absolutely reject the attempts of the unionist parties to cynically use these murders and my wrongful detention to threaten these political institutions”.
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“But if talks are not going to take place and if talks do take place and there is no successful outcome, then, in my view, the next logical step is to an election – and that is my very firm and strong view”.
