Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that the concerns of the DUP about the Windsor Framework are “sincere and need to be addressed”.
However, Mr Ahern has reassured unionists that the question of Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom is not affected by the agreement on the Northern Ireland protocol, having been settled in the Belfast Agreement 25 years ago.
Writing in the unionist-supporting News Letter in Belfast this morning, Mr Ahern says that the Agreement recognised that while Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom, it is different from the rest of the UK.
“In 1998, we established that ‘balanced accommodation’ on the status of Northern Ireland,” Mr Ahern wrote.
“This meant, in effect, while by virtue of the principle of consent, Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom, the way the sovereignty associated with that status was exercised made it different from the rest of the UK.”
Mr Ahern continued: “The reason I mention this issue now is that I recognise that a major residual source of concern for some unionists around the Windsor Framework is precisely this question of the status of Northern Ireland and how it is perceived to be affected by the framework.
“What I am seeking to do in this column is respectfully put on the table the reality that we addressed these questions 25 years ago and came to an understanding on them. In my view, we all accepted what I would call ‘The Principle of the Balanced Accommodation’.”
“I repeat that I acknowledge fully that the concerns of the DUP and others within unionism and loyalism around the Windsor Framework are sincere and need be addressed. But I ask that in doing so, due account is taken of the Principle of the Balanced Accommodation, a principle endorsed by the people of Northern Ireland in that historic referendum of May 22 1998 as their settled will,” he wrote.
The powersharing institutions at Stormont have been suspended since the DUP pulled out last year in protest against the Northern Ireland protocol, the part of the agreement between the UK and the EU which governs Brexit and which requires some EU laws to apply to the North to avoid a hard border on the island.
The protocol was renegotiated earlier this year by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a deal – known as the Windsor Framework – that saw the amount and intrusiveness of checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain greatly reduced. But the DUP and some hardline unionists and loyalists still have objections to the Framework because it applies different rules to the North and the rest of the UK.
Mr Ahern’s argument in the News Letter today is that the Belfast Agreement always recognised differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. This, he says, was part of the deal which saw the Republic give up its constitutional claim on the North and explicitly recognise the principle of consent.
Mr Ahern – who has excellent relations with many unionist politicians – stresses that he understands and respects continuing concerns about the Windsor Framework.
“While I have made no secret of my desire to see the Stormont institutions restored, let me make equally clear that I do appreciate that the concerns which have prevented the DUP from agreeing to their return are deeply and sincerely felt. I respect those concerns,” he says.
