Alliance Party proposals for future devolution in Northern Ireland have met with a mixed reaction from other political parties in the North.
Alliance proposed a weighted majority voting system - rather than the current nationalist-unionist cross-community method - in the Assembly that could result in the exclusion of either Sinn Féin or the DUP from the Northern executive.
Party leader, Mr David Ford met the Taoiseach in Dublin yesterday. During their discussions, Mr Ahern suggested January 29th could be the date for the start of the review of the Belfast Agreement, reliable sources said.
In their proposals, the Alliance Party also called for a reduction in the number of Assembly members from 108 to about 80. Mr Ford proposed an end to the 50-50 Catholic/Protestant police recruiting system, to be replaced by affirmative action and specific recruitment targets for Catholics, and a diminution in the power of the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Mr Ford, when publishing his proposals for the review of the Belfast Agreement argued the voting system laid down in the Belfast Agreement only entrenched sectarianism.
He called for the removal of the system whereby MLAs designate themselves as unionist, nationalist or "other" and said key matters should be decided by a weighted majority of either 60 or 65 per cent in any reinstated Assembly and executive.
For instance, if the newly established Independent Monitoring Commission ruled that the IRA was still engaged in paramilitary activity then Alliance could not support Sinn Féin in government.
This proposal meant that an executive could be formed without either the DUP or Sinn Féin if the DUP refused to share power with Sinn Féin, or if the IRA did not cease activity.
He acknowledged that Sinn Féin's exclusion would require the SDLP signing up to such an arrangement, which it has refused to do in the past.
Were the current review to opt for a weighted majority of 65 per cent or more it could hold appeal for the British and Irish governments because it would remove the DUP's effective veto on progress, which it enjoys by dint of its successes in the Assembly election and the defection of the Mr Jeffrey Donaldson and two others from the Ulster Unionist Party to the DUP.
At the weekend Mr Ahern hinted that he would be open to tinkering with these rules of the Belfast Agreement. However, such a system could provoke unionist opposition and anger.
While the DUP opposes any mechanism that would exclude the party from government, its deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, welcomed "the fact that the Alliance Party now recognises that the old Belfast Agreement has failed".
An SDLP Assembly member, Dr Sean Farren, said the Alliance document sought to destroy inclusive government. "It opens up key parts of the agreement for renegotiation. It plays right into the hands of the DUP," he added.
The Alliance document also called for:
• the abolition of the d'Hondt system of appointing ministers, to be replaced by a system where the ministers would be selected through negotiation
• a review of whether the executive requires 10 ministries
• granting power to the Assembly to negate ministerial decisions
• greater North-South co-operation
• the creation of a North-South parliamentary body
