Crisis At The Helm Of The DUP

A spokesman for the Northern First Minister has revealed Iris Robinson is receiving "acute psychiatric treatment" from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

The information was disclosed amid speculation surrounding her health and her whereabouts.

According to party sources, Iris Robinson is expected to leave Westminster, Stormont and Castlereagh Borough Council in the coming days.

Mrs Robinson announced over Christmas that she was quitting politics because of severe depression.

But she and her husband have since been plunged into crisis after it emerged that Mrs Robinson had secured £50,000 (USD$80,000) from two wealthy developers to help her 19-year-old lover, Kirk McCambley, set up a restaurant business in south Belfast.

On Monday, the pressure on the First Minister intensified after his predecessor David Trimble and a Free Presbyterian Minister suggested he should step down following the exposure of his wife's affair with her teenage lover.

The Rev. David McIlveen, a Free Presbyterian minister and a confidant of former DUP leader Ian Paisley, said Mr Robinson should consider standing aside temporarily. But, he later clarified that he was not speaking on behalf of Mr Paisley.

Meanwhile, Lord Trimble said the DUP leader had "lost his authority" within the party and the system.

Lord Trimble claimed: "To sit as leader in a party where the party summarily expels his wife without giving her any hint of due process or a soft landing is someone without authority in his own organisation."

He said he expected Mr Robinson to step down within the next few days. But DUP Finance Minister Sammy Wilson insisted Mr Robinson was still commanded support.

"As far as I am concerned he has got support, the stories about Iris don't impugn him," he said as he went to church in north Belfast, where Mr Robinson also attends.

On Friday, Peter Robinson called in independent lawyers to investigate his conduct.

He is due to hold a crucial meeting with his assembly team at Stormont on Tuesday.

The British and Irish governments are maintaining high-level contacts to ensure the personal and political crisis affecting the Robinson family and the DUP does not collapse the Stormont powersharing administration.

DUP members are discussing a number of scenarios should Mr Robinson permanently or temporarily step down to allow him address the claim that he should have reported his wife's financial dealings to the parliamentary standards authorities.

Among the proposals, according to a party source, was that former leader the Rev. Ian Paisley could temporarily assume leadership and the First Minister post while Mr Robinson deals with the allegations, or pending the election of a new leader and first minister. The source said while many DUP members viewed this suggestion as outlandish is should not be discounted.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown are concerned the drama affecting the Robinsons could topple the Northern Executive and Assembly.

With the Stormont institutions already under pressure from the DUP/Sinn Féin stand-off on policing and justice, Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward is due to hold talks in Dublin tomorrow with Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.