DAVID Cameron must take a “much more vigorous” approach to the North of Ireland if a solution is to be found to the issues that divide the province, Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin has said.
The Dublin Central TD was part of a party delegation that met the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband in London earlier this afternoon.
Also present at the discussions was Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
The talks had been planned for Downing Street but at the last minute Mr Cameron's office changed the location to the House of Commons, denying Sinn Féin the iconic image of the famous front door.
Speaking to The Irish Post ahead of the meetings, Ms McDonald said that it was “notable” that the meeting marked the first between David Cameron and the Sinn Féin leadership.
“If you want a measure of the disengagement of the British Government on the process in the North, I think that is as good a measure as any," she said.
“We intend to say to say to him that we are pleased we are finally meeting, but we need a much more vigorous and attentive British administration.
“It would be entirely wrong for anybody to assume that the North of Ireland is sorted out and that we are home and dry. We are not. We have big issues we need to resolve, not least issues around the past, parades and flags.”
Party leader Gerry Adams described the discussions with the Prime Minister as “a good meeting” and said that another would be held in the autumn.
He reiterated Ms McDonald’s complaints over the lack of talks that Mr Cameron has held with the party and insisted that the Prime Minister was failing to live up to his obligations under the Good Friday Agreement.
The Sinn Féin leaders also raised the subject of a long-delayed agreement on dealing with the most divisive issues in the North of Ireland; the past, flags and parades.
The party backed proposals made by US diplomat Richard Haass in December last year after negotiations ended without agreement due unionist objections.
First minister Peter Robinson said that the plans presented by Dr Haass were unbalanced and required further work.
But Ms McDonald urged Mr Cameron to listen to the suffering of families who lost loved ones in the Troubles and take on a more active role in brokering a deal on the issues.
Underlining the need for a mechanism for those families to learn the truth about the killing of their loved ones, she said: “Those people in particular deserve the dignity of a process that is decent and fair and agreed.”
Ms McDonald also criticised the British Government for blocking one family’s pursuit of the truth earlier this year.
Relatives of the 10 people shot dead in Ballymurphy by the British Army in August 1971 had asked the British Government to hold an independent inquiry into the massacre.
But Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland Secretary, rejected their proposals in April.
She judged that a new inquiry would not be in the public interest because it would not provide answers that “are not already in the public domain or covered by existing legal processes”.
Ms McDonald said: “Those families were told very recently by Theresa Villiers that it would not be in the public interest to investigate the behaviour of the SAS and the killing of their loved ones. That is not an acceptable position.”
For the full interview with Mary Lou McDonald, buy next week’s edition of The Irish Post
