The difference between the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Féin on this issue is that we are not in denial about the existence of any paramilitary organisation. When we withdrew from the Northern Ireland Executive, we explicitly called on the UDA, UVF and the rest to go away, taking their paramilitary flags off our lamp posts.
For the UDA, or any other such grouping, to claim they exist to protect their community is outrageous in 2015, when it is clear members of all these groups are involved in community control and oppression and organised criminality. We have consistently demanded an end to paramilitarism be top of the agenda in these Talks, which are an opportunity to rid Northern Ireland and the island overall of this blight.
Regarding our engagement with community leaders last summer, it is worth recalling we delivered the most peaceful 12th of July in recent years. More broadly, there has never been a consistent, common approach from political leaders to engagement with community representatives who have influence over these paramilitary groups. From the Hume Adams Talks which began in the late 1980s to the current day, leaders have done what they thought right, rather than work collaboratively. Again, these Talks are an opportunity to develop a policy and protocols for encouraging former paramilitaries to embrace an inclusive political process and leave paramilitarism and associated crime behind.