Paul Murphy - secretary of state for Northern Ireland

Question: What's at stake for Northern Ireland and the peace process in this election?

Paul Murphy: I don't think the election on this side of the Irish Sea is something that will have a huge effect, in the sense that we have a bipartisan policy on it.

I don't think any party going into government would fundamentally change the way in which we have dealt with the Northern Ireland situation over the past eight years. All parties are committed to the Good Friday agreement and to continued negotiation.

From my own point of view, and from the government's point of view, we've got to make it clear that of course we want an inclusive executive in Northern Ireland, but that depends upon resolving the criminality issue on the part of the IRA.

I've got no doubt that we won't get the unionists sitting in government with Sinn Fein until that issue is resolved, so that's the big issue facing an incoming government: how do we deal with criminality and decommissioning, and rebuild the confidence that's necessary? So that hasn't in any way changed.

So far as the election on the other side of the Irish Sea is concerned, we'll have to wait and see what happens obviously, but there could well be a change in who represents different constituencies there too.

I don't think there's going to be any change to the four big parties remaining the four big parties, but within those parties there could still be a shift, so we'll have to wait and see the result of the election.

But whatever happens obviously will have an impact on the post-election scene in Northern Ireland.

Question: The Conservatives have been more and more critical of your approach in recent months; you don't feel they've departed at all from the cross-party consensus?

Paul Murphy: Well I hope not. If you read their manifesto, which I suppose at the moment is the best insight into what they're saying, they agree that we should tackle the issue of criminality, and there shouldn't be an inclusive government unless the issue of criminality and paramilitary activity is resolved.

Now there may be a different emphasis that they put on it and obviously you'd have to ask them that, but I don't think for one second that there is a breakdown in the bipartisan approach to it; but of course different parties have different emphasis.

The Good Friday agreement is the basis of development, but we have to resolve paramilitary activity, criminal activity and decommissioning. The Irish government feels exactly the same way. I think every party agrees that we have to resolve it before we can get an inclusive executive. As I say they may have a different emphasis.

Murphy on the 'moderate' parties

Question: Are you concerned that the 'moderate' parties seem to be heading for an even bigger defeat than in previous elections?

Paul Murphy: Well I wouldn't want any of the parties who I've been dealing with off and on for the past 10 years not to have a significant role in a post-election process. The Ulster Unionist Party, and the SDLP, to which you obviously referred, have played a hugely significant role in bringing about peace in Northern Ireland in the same way that other parties have, so I wouldn't want them to be out of the picture, but obviously I can't comment on who should win or all the rest of it.

It's not for me to interfere with the politics of Northern Ireland for one second, but I wouldn't like to see any of the parties out of that picture because I think they all genuinely represent different points of view in Northern Ireland, which have to be brought to the table. And it was those four parties, plus the Alliance of course, a smaller party but a significant one, and the PUP, which drew up that agreement.

So I've worked with them intensely over this period and I hope they still have representation.

Murphy on Sinn Fein

Question: Are you surprised at all that according to all indications, Sinn Fein don't seem to be taking any sort of electoral knock from the fallout from the Northern Bank raid and the McCartney killing?

Paul Murphy: I think we'll have to see before we can definitely say what impact that's had on them.

I think all the parties will retain their core vote in Northern Ireland - I'd be very surprised if they didn't. But I think that like in the last assembly elections, where there was a turnaround so that Sinn Fein became the leading party by way of numbers on the nationalist side, DUP on the unionist side, it didn't mean that the other two parties didn't retain their core vote.

I think there will be a core vote still for Sinn Fein. What happens in terms of floating voters, as I suppose you might call them in Northern Ireland, I just don't know at the moment. We'll have to wait and see.

The only opinion poll that I've been aware of indicated on the nationalist side that there was 20 per cent - 20 per cent equal split for the SDLP and Sinn Fein. I don't know, but we'll just have to wait and see on that one. I don't want to predict, to be honest.

Murphy on future talks

Question: What are the prospects of resuming any kind of talks fairly quickly after the election, given what the DUP has been saying about not sitting down with Sinn Fein?

Paul Murphy: I think first of all you have to talk, but we will not be in a position to go into detailed negotiation-type talks before we have resolved the issues of criminality, decommissioning and paramilitary activity, which is what our manifesto says.

Those issues have to be addressed before we can consider setting up that inclusive objective. Obviously the unionists won't sit around the table until we do.

So yes, of course we have to talk, but we have to understand that the main issue which faces us is an issue of confidence, which has collapsed because of what's happened over the last number of weeks since Christmas and just before.

The only way we deal with it is to address that issue. That is, I guess, what Gerry Adams has been referring to in his statements. What he's saying to the IRA is that he would like them to consider these different issues.

So it hasn't changed really. But from the unionist point of view, of course they've made their position clear. They're not prepared to share power until those issues are resolved. That's not actually all that different from what they were saying before Christmas when we came out with that 29-page document which almost made it but didn't. What they did say then if you look at that agreement, was that power-sharing was dependent on no paramilitary and criminal activity.

So that's still there. I suspect they've hardened up their position, obviously, since Christmas, but again it's for them to put across their own points of view rather than me, but that's what they appear to be saying.

Question: Have those statements from Gerry Adams made you more positive about the prospect of the IRA ending criminality?

Paul Murphy: What we've said is that we welcome, obviously, any statement that tries to move the process forward, and so far as Sinn Fein is concerned, we have to see the backing up of the statement with acts so that it's not just the words but the deeds that have to match it.

It's a start.

Murphy on exclusive administration

Question: In the past you haven't ruled out having some kind of devolved administration excluding Sinn Fein. Is that still your approach?

Paul Murphy: Well our approach is that we will consider any proposals put to us by the parties, which try to address this democratic deficit.

Our aim, which I'll repeat, is that we want the Good Friday agreement to be the inclusive executive that all of us wanted when we signed that agreement.

In other words, we'd prefer all parties to be in it, but we understand that until we resolve the issues I've just described to you, more work must be done.

What happens in the meantime? The SDLP has put forward an idea of restoring the assembly but instead of ministers running departments in Northern Ireland it would be several commissioners.

Some others have suggested that we have a scrutinising assembly in the interim period.

All those things of course depend on people agreeing to actually go into those institutions, for instance, the voluntary coalition which is the unionists' suggestion at the moment, could only work if there was a nationalist presence on such a body because you can't have a one-sided coalition, whether it's voluntary or mandatory.

They would obviously have to persuade the SDLP to join them on that. So far, I see nothing which has changed their mind, the SDLP won't agree with that.

So that can't be a runner unless you have a nationalist component on it. But we're not dismissing anything because I'm the first to admit that direct rule is less than good in terms of accountability.

However well we might think we might be dealing with the issues over there, nevertheless we're not from Northern Ireland, we don't represent Northern Irish constituencies and there is a democratic deficit which we need to address. So we'll look at whatever the proposals are, but of course they have to be agreed by people.

Murphy on the Barnett formula

Question: What do you think is the future of the Barnett formula? Do you think it's sustainable in its present form?

Paul Murphy: Yes I do. I think that it's a method that has been very carefully worked out to finance all three devolved institutions and I can't think of any better one.

In all three cases they don't raise a tax, although Scotland has the power to use that, but Wales hasn't got it.

It is actually a rating system in Northern Ireland which is historical thing that is used by central government, so that the source of finance is through a grant system. I can't think of any system which could replace Barnett because it's based on a sophisticated formula.

And though people have grumbled about various aspects of it, no-one's really come up with a better answer I think. There could well be ways in the future in which you could modify some of the formula, but that's for negotiation between the different institutions and central government.