29.10.1998
Extracts from a letter between the UK Prime Minister’s Office and the Northern Ireland Office, October 1998. Public Record Office Northern Ireland CENT/3/268A 1998-10-29
Transcript
10 DOWNING STREET
LONDON SW1A 2AA
29 October 1998
PS/SCSBAL
PS/Mr Murphy Bal
PS/ Mr Ingram BAL
PS/All Bas
PS/Mr Semple Mr Hill
Mar Watkins
Mr Jeffrey
Mr McCabe
Mr Leach
Mr Walker
Mr Scholfield
Mr Bell
Dear Nick
ALL PARTY MEETINGS, 29 OCTOBER:
TRIMBLE’S VIEWS
When I spoke with Trimble about the LVF, I took the opportunity to ask him about today’s
meetings. Trimble confirmed that the morning session on departmental structures had gone well,
and had resulted in a focussed discussion. Eleven key points of difficulty had been identified, but
many of them were simply a question of making decisions.
In contrast, the afternoon session had been messy. Many of those around the table did not
understand the distinction between areas of cooperation and implementation bodies. They had
wanted to transfer functions to implementation bodies, and retain them at the same time. Part of
the problem had been that. perhaps because of the presence of Sinn Fein, the SDLP had raised
their sights. This did not make things any easier. So the meeting had been unsatisfactory. They
had ended up with a list of areas where more technical work was needed.
Trimble said that he hoped that they could have a more focussed meeting on Monday involving
the UUP, SDLP, Irish and British. I said that I did not think the Irish and the SDLP would be
keen on this format, because of their desire to be inclusive. Trimble claimed to be unaware of
this difficulty. He was willing to make some side arrangement to keep Sinn Fein involved but he
could not attend a meeting with them but without the DUP. He added that, when he had spoken
to Ahern earlier in the week, Ahem had focussed on training and the Irish language, and had
acknowledged that economic development was difficult for Trimble. Ahern had also promised to
send a full list of possible implementation bodies, but this had not yet turned up. Finally, Trimble
said that he had had discussions at the beginning of the day with Mallon. They had agreed that
they should try to reach a private conclusion on the implementation bodies, but park this. They
would say in public that they had not yet sorted this out, but were confident they could do so
quickly, and use this to put pressure on Sinn Fein.
Comment
We clearly need to work hard on Trimble to take a more positive line on North/South, and get
across that the quadripartite meeting be has in mind poses huge difficulties for the Irish and the
SDLP, if Sinn Fein are not there. I will try to get the Prime Minister to speak to him about this,
probably over the weekend, and to encourage further all party meetings on North/South issues,
or at least some alternative process to the same effect.