Former MEP and Northern Irish leader bows out of office

Ian Paisley has stepped down as first minister of Northern Ireland after just over a year in office.

The 82-year-old Democratic Unionist politician, who during his tenure helped to secure €1.1bn in EU funding for Northern Ireland up to 2013, announced he would resign several months ago.

His successor, former finance minister Peter Robinson, paid tribute on Thursday to the man known as ‘Dr No’ for his previously staunch opposition to sharing power with nationalists.

“He has been a leader without equal. His contribution has been immeasurable and no man laboured more faithfully than he to secure the political agreement that now shapes the future,” Robinson told deputies in Stormont, the Northern Irish assembly.

“He has laid the foundation for this new era, and now it is up to the rest of us to build upon it.”

Deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, who has shared power with Paisley since the restoration of the Northern Irish institutions in May 2007, said, “Over the past year the institutions have been bedded down under the leadership of Ian Paisley and myself.

“It has indeed been a remarkably historic year. From the beginning both of us treated each other with respect, and I wish to pay tribute to Ian Paisley for his role in this.”

Paisley served as an MEP for 25 years, a post he used on more than one occasion to heckle the EU because, he told the Parliament Magazine, it “failed Northern Ireland very greatly at a time when they could have been more helpful”.

Last spring, commission president José Manuel Barroso announced the creation of a task force on Northern Ireland, with the aim of advising the country on how to make better use of EU funding. It released its first report in April, recommending Northern Ireland focus attention on improving infrastructure and creating private investment.

Robinson is well aware of the need to consolidate the peace process, as he told Northern Irish deputies. “A year on, the settling-in period is now over. We must secure the peace that has been achieved and remove, once and for all, the last vestiges of all paramilitary organisations and activity that has for too long marred our province.
 
“We must grow the economy and build the prosperity that can help the lives of all the people who live here. We must address unresolved issues in a way that commands the confidence of our community.

“And we must work to transform the institutions to ensure that we move smoothly to democratic normality in the years ahead.”

Sinn Féin’s McGuinness said, “I am conscious that leading the executive along with Peter Robinson brings a high level of expectation. We must deliver a real and marked improvement in people’s lives. How we conduct our business and resolve our differences impacts directly on this task.

“I am an Irish republican. I want to see a reunited Ireland created by peaceful and democratic means. I want to see the unity of the Orange and the Green.

“I am committed to working these institutions with the new first minister, a committed unionist. Delivering for all of our community, for citizens and for the most disadvantaged and bringing about change does not impact on our respective political ideologies.

“The eyes of the world have been upon us in the course of recent years, as regions have looked to Ireland and our peace process as an example of conflict resolution. I have no doubt that this will continue into the future as we seek to continue as a society moving forward in partnership.”

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