28.03.1998
Notes from a meeting between the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, 28 March 1998, Catalogue ref: PREM 49/410
Transcript
CONVERSATION WITH THE TAOISEACH, 28 MARCH
The Prime Minister and Ahern spoke for about 20 minutes this morning. Ahern began by saying he had been out and about selling the idea of change to Articles 2 and 3. It was a tough debate at times, but civilised and worth having now. He understood there had been a good Liaison Group meeting the previous day. For his part he was trying to bring Sinn Fein along into Strand 1. But it was not easy keeping the nervous horses of Sinn Fein and the SDLP on side, not least with the Hume/Mallon strains. The North-South bodies were his main concern, as a counterweight to Articles 2 and 3. There was a widespread fear that if they depended for their functioning on going back to the Northern Ireland Assembly regularly for agreement, Paisley and McCartney would team up with other troublemakers to ensure they never got off the ground.
The Prime Minister agreed this was the toughest area. The Unionists feared things would be agreed in the North-South Council against their will. He had been putting pressure on them to accept actual implementation bodies up front in 5 or 6 areas, but they wanted a guarantee that the North-South Council would not become a kind of independent, self-standing body, which is why they wanted the Council itself to be consultative, with a work programme. He had told them there had to be an all-Ireland dimension and thought he could get them to agree to this (although some said he was over-optimistic). But they could not budge on the importance of the Assembly mandate.
Ahern said he had made clear he did not envisage a third government. But a body in say the Arts or Heritage area should not have to go back to the full Assembly every time it wanted to move forward. He thought in practice there would not be these problems of obstruction, but these worries were real, and unless they were met, he could not sell Articles 2 and 3.
Ahern said he was working hard on Sinn Fein to be a constructive part of the Assembly. There had to be some voting safeguard to avoid the old Unionist monolith. The Prime Minister agreed, although Trimble would naturally be hard to persuade of Sinn Fein good faith. In any case he saw his own task as persuading Trimble to accept that North-South bodies, once established, could function, and that the Assembly could not be a Unionist ramp. Policing and prisoners would also be very difficult, and might have to be left to last. We had to be careful on policing. The immediate priorities were to get in the right areas on Strands 1 and 2. Mitchell wanted an overall text down on Wednesday but that was almost certainly too soon. He might have to talk to Mitchell to persuade him of that. Meanwhile he proposed that the Taoiseach should come to London a little early for ASEM and have dinner on Wednesday night, with just Teahon and myself there. (Comment: I had prewarned Teahon of this idea). Ahern said he would be delighted to do this, but he might want another official there, to keep his team in the picture.
We should not publicise the idea for now.
CONFIDENTIAL