Call for more Sinn Fein sanctions

IRA guns are standing in the way of progress, says Donaldson

Dissident Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson has again called on his party to table an assembly motion to exclude Sinn Fein ministers from the executive.

Mr Donaldson said his party leader should step up sanctions against republicans in Northern Ireland's powersharing executive in the absence of actual arms decommissioning.

Speaking on the BBC's Inside Politics programme, he said the move was necessary in the run-up to the General Election.

"We cannot continue indefinitely in a position where Sinn Fein/IRA are sitting in ministerial office and holding onto all their illegal weapons," he said.

Jeffrey Donaldson: IRA statements not backed up by actions

"I don't think it is right that one party should hold the whole process to ransom - that everything collapses just because one party has failed to honour its obligations."

Sinn Fein's two ministers - Martin McGuinness in education and Bairbre de Brun in health - have been banned by the David Trimble, as Northern Ireland first minister, from attending north-south ministerial council meetings.

Mr Trimble has kept the sanction in place, because of the absence of decommissioning, despite a successful court action by Sinn Fein on the issue.

Arms report

Mr Donaldson made his call for increased sanctions after the international body set up to oversee weapons decommissioning in Northern Ireland reported this week that no paramilitary guns had yet been destroyed.

However, the body's head, General John de Chastelain, said he believed further progress could be made and that further talks with the IRA were soon to be held.

He said he welcomed renewed face-to-face contact on 14 March with the IRA as a sign of "good faith".

The arms commission is working towards a target date of June for the complete destruction of all paramilitary weapons under the Good Friday Agreement.

The general's report also confirmed more meetings with loyalist paramilitary groups, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) had taken place.

To date, only a handful of weapons have been handed over for destruction and these were from the paramilitary splinter group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

However, Martin McGuinness has challenged Mr Trimble to lift the sanctions on Sinn Fein because of the IRA's renewed contact with the arms body.