SINN FEIN REP: ROBINSON WANTS DEVOLUTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUBLIN 000453 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EI XT UK SUBJECT: SINN FEIN REP: ROBINSON WANTS DEVOLUTION REF: BELFAST 84 Classified By: Ambassador Daniel M. Rooney. Reasons 1.4(b/d). ¶1. (C) Summary: The Dublin-based Sinn Fein Representative to the United States told us that Sinn Fein believed that Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson wanted to move on devolution, especially since the Secretary's visit, but that fear of rival unionists was holding him back. Sinn Fein was looking for something to "give" Robinson that would lend him the credibility to move on devolution but not undermine Sinn Fein's standing with its own base. End Summary. -------------- ROBINSON WANTS DEVOLUTION, BUT( -------------- ¶2. (C) The Sinn Fein Representative to the United States, Rita O'Hare, told Poloff on October 28 about a conversation she had had the previous week with her Sinn Fein colleague, Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. McGuinness told O'Hare he was convinced Robinson wanted to accomplish devolution of policing and justice as soon as possible. The Secretary's visit had made Robinson feel important. He was buoyed by the "interest of the most powerful country in the world," and encouraged in his desire to show leadership. Nonetheless, Robinson was afraid of backlash from hard-liners in his Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and other rivals in the unionist camp. (NOTE: O'Hare opined that Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Reg Empey's statement, at the October 24 UUP party conference, that the UUP would not support devolution until Sinn Fein and the DUP allowed the UUP and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) into a restructured "four-party Executive" in Northern Ireland, was relatively irrelevant to Robinson's hesitation to move on devolution; more than anything, O'Hare said, Empey's stance simply gave Robinson another possible excuse for delay. END NOTE.) -------------- MCGUINNESS WANTS TO GIVE, BUT( -------------- ¶3. (C) O'Hare said McGuinness wanted to give something to help Robinson, perhaps agreeing to Robinson's demand to abolish the Parades Commission and establish another system for dealing with controversial loyalist parades (reftel),but (1) McGuinness was unsure of how to do so without antagonizing Sinn Fein's base; and (2) he was not sure Robinson would respond positively to a Sinn Fein compromise on the Parades Commission. Communication between Robinson and McGuinness remained minimal, and McGuinness did not know whether a Sinn Fein compromise on the parades issue was really important to Robinson, or whether Robinson was using the issue as an excuse not to move on devolution. If the latter was the case, McGuinness feared a gesture on parades would only result in Robinson's finding another issue to use as an excuse. -------------- -------------- ROBINSON WEAKENED BY OTHER FACTORS -------------- ¶4. (C) O'Hare added that Robinson was politically and personally weakened by other factors. Allegations that he and his wife, fellow DUP member of Parliament Iris Robinson, had claimed unjustifiable and extravagant expenses had weakened Robinson in the unionist camp. "Presbyterians may not mind other wrongdoing, but they hate it when people have their hands in the till," said O'Hare. O'Hare said also that Robinson was preoccupied personally by health problems. (NOTE: It was unclear whether O'Hare was saying that Robinson or his wife was suffering from ill health. Neither did O'Hare specify the nature of the health problem. END NOTE.) ROONEY