Policing talks still deadlocked

DUBLIN and London were preparing to publish their own route-map out of the policing crisis paralysing power-sharing last night as Sinn Féin and the DUP were again deadlocked over the issue.

The 48-hour deadline for a deal imposed by Taoiseach Brian Cowen and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday looked set to be ignored as the spectre of a collapse of the Executive loomed. A Sinn Féin walk-out would spark immediate Assembly elections. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams insisted devolution of policing and justice and the DUP’s demand for a new framework for deciding on Orange Order parades could not be linked.

“Anybody who thinks the price of policing and justice is a walk down the Garvaghy Road or Ardoyne is just ridiculous,” he said. The DUP insisted it would not be “railroaded” and had not agreed to devolving power over justice and policing to Belfast by May – the option being pushed by the two governments.

Mr Cowen and Mr Brown rushed to the North on Monday and chaired three days of intense talks in a bid to stop Sinn Féin pulling out of power-sharing.

The bid failed to deliver a deal but they promised to publish their own proposals if the parties could not agree by today. Foreign Minister Micheál Martin and Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward have been keeping up the pressure at the talks in Hillsborough Castle. The leaders of Ireland’s four main churches have also urged all the parties to redouble their efforts to reach a deal.