The Taoiseach has said that Saturday's Ulster Unionist leadership election made the task facing the two governments more difficult. In his first comments on the significantly reduced support for the party leader, David Trimble, Mr Ahern said that what the two governments and the pro-Good Friday Agreement parties had to do now was to try to look at the situation and continue to move forward.
Earlier, the Northern Secretary urged the Northern parties to end the impasse in the peace process. Speaking in Belfast, Peter Mandelson said that people are fed up to the back teeth with political failure. He said that they want politicians to work together for the stability, peace and prosperity that Northern Ireland deserves.
Mr Mandelson warned that, if the northern parties are not prepared to see other people's points of view a little more, then Northern Ireland will continue to be a by-word for political failure. The DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, said that it was time Mr Mandelson faced up to the fact that the peace accord would not work because three quarters of the unionist community were against it.
Mr Mandelson said the Good Friday Agreement was as good as one could get to meet the concerns and interests of both traditions. He said that the people had a choice: either to implement the agreement, broadly speaking as it is, or face many more years of continued political stalemate. The Ulster Unionist deputy leader said that there were just two months left to sell the agreement and added that the onus was now on Republicans to give up weapons by the 22 May deadline. Following events of the weekend, John Taylor denied that there was a split in the UUP.
Peter Robinson has said that the split has already happened. Mr Robinson claimed that the Ulster Unionist Party is no longer a party, he said it was two clear political groups with irreconcilable differences. He called on opponents of David Trimble to leave the UUP and realign themselves with other Unionists who, he claimed, could take on Nationalists rather than appease Republicans. He said that the UUP was no longer capable of negotiating or carrying through any agreement.
