Sir Jeffrey said,
“We seek to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly by finishing the job of fully restoring Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. We stand ready to work with the Prime Minister and his Government to ensure that stable devolution is delivered through sustainable and balanced outcomes that have solid foundations based on the support of unionists as well as nationalists.
We welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has this afternoon made clear that progress cannot be made by ‘trying to get around’ one community or another and that institutional reform cannot happen in the absence of support from both unionists and nationalists.
Whilst the Alliance Party and others, under the guise of reform, want to exclude unionists, this will not work and will not be acceptable to us. Now is a time for realism. History should teach everyone that sustainable devolved government will not be possible if the views of unionists are ignored, excluded or demonised.
We must get the foundations right. Short term fixes will lead to short term devolution and will do a disservice to those trying to make the institutions work. We are in the business of finishing the job and ensuring that NI’s position within the Union is not continually undermined.
Northern Ireland will only ever move forward if we all move forward together.”