Policing and justice matters

BBC reports that: “The DUP and Sinn Fein have signalled they are moving towards a deal on devolving policing and justice powers from Westminster to the NI Assembly. The parties have agreed there will be a single department of justice with a minister needing cross-community support to be elected.

“The two parties have said they will not nominate candidates themselves. But Alliance, the party most likely to supply a minister, has said it is not interested in taking on the post. Transferring policing and justice has been one of the most contentious issues since devolution was restored to Northern Ireland.

“The failure of Sinn Fein and DUP to agree on the issue has been a key factor in what some have described as a deadlock at Stormont. However, the parties have written a letter to the Assembly Executive Review committee outlining common areas of agreement. But there is still no agreement on when transfer of powers would take place.”

The BBC are also reporting that “The SDLP and Ulster Unionists have yet to say whether they will nominate anyone for the job.”

The SDLP’s justice spokesperson, Alban Maginness, posted a press-release on the SDLP’s site yesterday which accused the DUP and Sinn Féin of performing an “Executive Gerrymander”:

“It seems that the only thing that the DUP and Sinn Fein can agree on is that the SDLP should be denied a Ministry to which we are entitled under the rules. This is yet another example of how both these parties remain fixated on practicing the politics of the past, and as is becoming clear for all to see, they have not got the answers to the problems of today and tomorrow.

“It is clear that the DUP and Sinn Fein are attempting to play a game of Executive gerrymandering that will deny the SDLP a Ministry that would be rightfully ours. The DUPs influence over Sinn Fein continues to grow. So much so that Sinn Fein is now a willing, albeit junior partner, in initiating a policy of Executive exclusion against the SDLP. This says it all about the stagnant and impotent position of Sinn Fein. Happy to insult from the sidelines when the SDLP defended their right to inclusion, Sinn Fein are now desperate to exclude the SDLP at the first opportunity they get.

“The DUP have held up devolution of justice long enough. They should not now be allowed to exclude a nationalist party from taking any new ministerial portfolio which may arise and they definitely should not dictate that a future Justice Ministry should be gifted to the Alliance Party. If that is the outcome it will be proof positive about who is running the country and whose party interests are being advantaged.

“The devolution of Policing and Justice powers to the North is the final piece in the jigsaw of implementing the Good Friday Agreement. Bending and breaking that agreement to serve narrow party political interests is not a basis to ensure a stable and effective ministry. That is what the public want. It is what all political parties should be striving for. What have either the DUP or Sinn Fein got to fear from another SDLP Minister, or a SDLP Minister for Justice in particular? The answer is simply electoral. As the party which delivered the new beginning to policing, we are best qualified to take on the task of a devolved justice ministry. For the SDLP, this is natural territory..."

Maginness's concern that the Alliance Party would take the ministry seem to have been addressed. BBC quote Alliance leader David Ford as giving a "a very definite and a very emphatic no" to taking any policing and justice ministry.