US embassy cable - 04DUBLIN1566

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBLIN 001566 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/14/2014 
TAGS: PINR, PTER, PGOV, PREL, EI, UK, NIPP 
SUBJECT: (C) NORTHERN IRELAND: UK AND IRISH TO HOLD TALKS 
WITH DUP AND SF 
 
 
Classified By: Charge Jon Benton for reasons 1.4 b and d 
 
1.  (C)  The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs confirms 
that proximity talks with the DUP and Sinn Fein will begin 
Friday October 15 in London.  Senior officials from the two 
governments will shuttle between Sinn Fein and DUP 
representatives.  The Irish government wants to keep this out 
of the press and believe they can, given that Gerry Adams has 
a separate reason for being in London. The Irish say it is 
time for both parties to show what is on offer, and then to 
see if they can come to terms on a comprehensive package, 
including modalities of decommissioning, DUP commitments on 
devolution and policing, and the issues surrounding how the 
institutions would work.  Substance would be agreed 
first,then sequencing and a time line.  Irish officials 
believe the elements of a deal are achievable, but caution 
that it always comes down to political will. 
 
2.  (C)  Sinn Fein officials in Dublin have told us they are 
optimistic about the London talks, and cite one basis of 
their optimism to be a comment FM Ahern made to the press, to 
the effect that it is "only a matter of time" before Sinn 
Fein is in government in the south (see transcript, para 3). 
Sinn Fein has long wanted such a statement, arguing that the 
Irish government is not in a position to put pressure on DUP 
to work with Sinn Fein if it continues to say Sinn Fein 
cannot be in government in the Republic.  DFA officials say, 
however, that there was nothing planned about the foreign 
minister's remarks.  Rather, he responded to a question from 
the press in the same way he always responded before becoming 
foreign minister, and in a way consistent with longstanding 
Irish policy.  Indeed, the day after Ahern's statement, the 
government emphasized that paramilitarism must end, 
decommissioning of weapons must take place, and private 
armies eliminated before Fianna Fail (the largest party in 
government) would review its current opposition to Sinn 
Fein's participation in government. Education minister 
Hanafin added that Sinn Fein had "a long, long way to go." 
These statements aim to calm the Progressive Democrats, the 
junior party in the government coalition.  Privately, some 
Fianna Fail party members have told embassy that they are the 
last party that would ever form a government with Sinn Fein. 
Opposition parties, predictably, are making hay out of the 
foreign minister's remarks. 
 
3. (SBU) Remarks by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot 
Ahern, October 12 
 
Journalist:  "Minister Ahern, if the question of IRA weapons 
is sorted conclusively, definitively, if the DUP are asked to 
accept Sinn Fein as potential coalition partners (in Northern 
Ireland), what does that say about Fianna Fail's attitude 
about Sinn Fein down South?  Will there be a change in those 
circumstances as well?" 
 
Minister Ahern:  "Well we have a particular stance as you 
know well but obviously if the circumstances change, the view 
in relation to SF going into government will change and I 
believe it is a matter of time, it is only a matter of time 
that SF will be in government in the future.  But until such 
time as the IRA demonstrably show that they have put down 
arms forever and a day, there cannot be two armies.  That the 
reality and it's the same in the north as it is in the 
republic....Obviously, circumstances will change.  There will 
come a time, I envisage, where Sinn Fein will be in 
government in the repbulic as they will be in the north and I 
hope that happens in the future." 
BENTON