Sinn Féin make historic policing move

Moves by Sinn Féin leaders to urge their members to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland were tonight hailed as potentially historic on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Downing Street, Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other political leaders, including the Democratic Unionists’ deputy leaeder, Peter Robinson, welcomed a decision by the Sinn Féin national executive to hold a special party conference next month to consider supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “This statement is significant because of the unequivocal support that Sinn Féin says it will offer – if this motion is passed at the ard fheis (conference) – to not just the police but also to those in communities in report crimes to the police.

“For the first time, there is the real prospect of all parties and all sections of the community in Northern Ireland supporting the rule of law in Northern Ireland.”

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams revealed after a six-hour marathon meeting in Dublin of his party executive that a motion would be put to his rank and file members urging them to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland and its counterpart in the Irish Republic, An Garda and Siochana.

The motion will also urge members to support calls for the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont and consider Sinn Féin representatives joining the Northern Ireland Policing Board and local District Policing Partnerships.

Officials in London and Dublin were also heartened that the motion would call for a commitment to actively encourage everyone in the community to co-operate fully with the police services on both sides of the border in tackling crime in all areas and actively supporting all the criminal justice institutions.

Mr Adams said: “We stayed out of policing structures until now in order to bring about maximum change.

“If the ard fheis accepts this motion, it will be about us going into a new political dispensation in order to continue to bring about maximum change and to ensure that the police never again do to our people what they did before.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern identified at the talks that Sinn Féin support for policing as being the key to persuading the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists to enter into a power-sharing government next March.

Mr Ahern welcomed the Sinn Féin executive’s decision.

“Sinn Féin has today taken an important step on the road to support for policing in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“This is clearly a landmark and timely decision.”

There were also positive soundings from the DUP’s deputy leader, Peter Robinson, who said it would be churlish not to acknowledge its historic potential.

The east Belfast MP, however, reminded republicans: “Unionists will want firstly to examine the text of any resolution and, in particular, check whether any conditionality exists.

“Unionists will secondly want to be sure that no price has been paid for this move to the detriment of the unionist community.

“Thirdly, unionists will not be prepared to rely on words alone, but will want to see meaningful delivery on the ground.”

While Sinn Féin outlined the broad thrust of the motion, which will be circulated to party members in the coming days, the party did not specifically state when the special conference would be held.

However, sources said the very latest date for the special conference would be January 27.

Some senior figures in the DUP tonight were sceptical that Sinn Féin could do enough to persuade them to share power within the deadline set by Mr Blair and Mr Ahern for devolution on March 26.

The party’s chairman, Lord Morrow, South Antrim MP the Rev William McCrea, and MEP Jim Allister all cast doubt on whether the March 26 deadline was an adequate testing period to establish whether Sinn Féin’s policing credentials were for real.

Mr McCrea and Mr Allister also insisted that, before their party signed up to power sharing, the British government would also have to address unionist confidence building measures, including a mechanism for expelling Sinn Féin from government in the event of the party acting in bad faith.