Govts urged to stress power-sharing deadline

The Irish and British Governments were tonight urged to make it clear to Ian Paisley that the March 26 deadline for power-sharing at Stormont is for real.

As Sinn Féin came to terms with the resignation of its Assembly member Davy Hyland over the party’s move to endorse the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), SDLP leader Mark Durkan challenged claims by Paisley that the latest bid to secure devolution and republican support for policing was not about deadlines or dates.

The Foyle MP noted: “Ian Paisley, in his new year’s statement, says that the process is not about deadlines or dates.

“In fact, it is. It’s about a very big date: March 26. That is the date by which we have to get the executive set up for the benefit of all our people.

“Ian Paisley seems to think that he can get away with pretending that the deadline doesn’t exist.

“He seems to think that it doesn’t matter if instead we are lumped with direct rule and all its abuses like water charges.

“That’s why the two governments must make it absolutely clear to the DUP that the deadline does exist and will be strictly enforced, no matter how much the DUP try to duck, dive or delay.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have pinned their hopes of restoring power-sharing by March 26 on Sinn Féin backing the PSNI at a special party conference on policing later this month.

Mr Paisley’s Democratic Unionists are adamant that they will not share power with Sinn Féin until it supports the police, the courts and the rule of law.

No date has as yet been announced for Sinn Féin’s special conference but if it is to happen before the Transitional Assembly dissolves at Stormont it is believed the very latest it could be held is the weekend of January 27.

The party’s Assembly team was today briefed on the outcome of recent negotiations with the British government.

In the run-up to the conference, the party has given a broad outline of the type of motion delegates will debate.

It will call for support for the Garda and the PSNI and for Sinn Féin members to take their seats on the Northern Ireland Policing Boards and District Policing Partnerships.

Mr Durkan welcomed signs that Sinn Féin was edging closer to supporting the police.

But the SDLP leader said the party needed to deliver on policing, no matter what the DUP said or did.

“We will only get the best possible protection against crime when all parties work with the police,” he argued.

“If Sinn Féin refuse to accept policing, they will be leaving nationalist areas with worse protection against crime.

“Nothing that the DUP does or refuses to do can justify leaving nationalist areas more exposed to crime.

“If Sinn Féin refuse to sign up to policing, what they will really be doing is handing the DUP a veto over the right of nationalists to be protected against crime. That would be madness.”

During a radio phone-in dominated by day-to-day policing questions, PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde urged republicans to take their seats on local policing bodies and address the issues they raised with him at a meeting at Stormont last month.

“They were asking similar questions, ironically, to things I am regularly asked at the Policing Board,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

“It was exactly those issues, MI5, not so much on-the-runs, community policing, style of policing, the AEPs (the baton rounds used during public order), all the sort of issues you would expect representatives to talk about.

“That debate has to be public. It has to be on the Policing Board and it has to be at the District Policing Partnerships. I think when we get to that stage things are looking up.”