Sinn Féin 'must back police'
The Rev Ian Paisley is right to insist in crucial talks on devolution for the North that Sinn Féin comes on board over policing, a senior British government minister insisted today.
As he prepared to travel with British Prime Minister Tony Blair today for three days of intense negotiations in St Andrews in Scotland, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he was cautiously optimistic about a deal.
But he admitted the success or failure of the talks, also involving Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, would hinge on whether Mr Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party was ready to share power with Sinn Féin and republicans were able to give their backing to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
“The police (in Northern Ireland) have been transformed. There have been one in five police officers who are Catholic and it is rising,” Mr Hain said.
“It will rise to one in three within a few years and probably beyond that. We are now finding the police accepted in South Armagh (a republican stronghold) where they have never been accepted before.
“So the transformation has been in policing as well but Sinn Féin have yet to support the police and the rule of law.
“Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin’s leaders, have made encouraging noises recently but they need to actually sign up.
“I think Ian Paisley is quite right to say that he will be up for a deal, as he has told me, provided he is sure that criminality has been eradicated from Northern Ireland politics and Sinn Féin are supporting the police.
“Then, on the other side, Sinn Féin will want to know that he is really up for sharing government with them and then I think things can move forward.”
The North’s politicians have been given until November 24 by the two premiers to remove the barriers to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists.
Devolution in the province has been suspended for almost four years.
But with last week’s Independent Monitoring Commission report declaring the IRA has made substantial progress in dismantling its terrorist structures and disassociating itself from crime, optimism has been growing in British and Irish government circles about the prospects of a deal at St Andrews to resurrect power-sharing.
Mr Hain told GMTV today: “If Ian Paisley agrees to a deal and makes an agreement in these next few days in St Andrews he will deliver upon it.
“There is one thing for certain – he has said no for a very long time.
“If we don’t get a 100% deal by midnight on November 24, then we will shut Stormont down.
“The politicians there have been paid for four years not to do their jobs. They are the only group of people who get paid not to do their jobs whilst the Assembly has been suspended.
“We have to have closure on this one way or the other.”
