Northern Ireland

Can the Northern Ireland peace process be rescued?

In a HARDtalk interview on 23 October Peter Robinson from the Democratic Unionist Party talks to Noel Thompson about the future of Unionism and what the current impasse in the peace process will mean for his party.

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has admitted that the continuing deadlock in the Northern Ireland peace process is far from ideal.

Many would see that as an understatement.

This week Mr Blair flew to Belfast to announce what appeared to be a significant breakthrough, after the IRA announced it had decommissioned more weapons than ever before.

But this wasn't enough for Unionists -they wanted more transparency and proof of what exactly had been handed over. Mr Blair returned to London empty handed.

How much of a crisis is this in the Unionist movement and have they handed the PR advantage to the Republicans?

Noel Thompson talks to Peter Robinson the Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 11:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT, 18:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 03:30 and 23:30