Review recommends break-up of Parades Commission

A review of the North's Parades Commission has recommended that the body be split into two organisations, one to mediate between marchers and protestors and the other to rule on disputed parades.

The review was ordered last year at the request of unionists, who accused the commission of being biased towards nationalists.

Its main recommendation is the establishment of a Parades Facilitation Agency to mediate in talks between loyalist marchers and nationalist residents.

A separate Rights Panel would also be established to rule on human rights issues.

Northern Secretary Paul Murphy said the recommendations of the review will not be introduced until the 2004 marching season, if at all.

The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition in Portadown, Co Armagh, was quick to condemn the review, saying it is counterproductive.

"Far from increasing consensus and creating a less contentious atmosphere around the marching issues, [it] has failed in that task and has created the potential to re-ignite the marching issue in Portadown and elsewhere," a spokesman said.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has also condemned the review, describing its recommendations as "totally unacceptable, ill-conceived and unworkable".

Sinn Fein's Dara O'Hagan said the review is a retrograde step.

"Some of its recommendations certainly will make the job of securing a resolution of parades issues harder and may actually breathe new life into disputes that appeared to be subsiding," she said.