As dark clouds gathered yet again over the future of the fledgling political institutions, there were divergent views yesterday on the depth of crisis facing the Good Friday agreement. In the corridors of Stormont there was a growing air of uncertainty about how the different mounting pressures over policing and decommissioning, and UUP internal difficulties, would impact on the overall political process.
Work goes on apace on the vitally important programme for government.
They failed to deliver the first time we had the executive and the consequence of that was suspension in February. We are now in a situation where it was clearly understood that these responsibilities, these obligations would have been delivered during September. At a party press conference Mr Adams argued that a bogus crisis over the arms issue was taking attention away from issues like policing and criminal justice. Its overall commitment to the peace process is a matter of public record. It said it would allow regular inspections of arms dumps and would re-engage with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.