Sinn Féin backs dual ministers of justice

Sinn Féin would favour two ministers of equal standing taking charge of any future Department of Justice at Stormont, a senior figure in its Assembly team revealed today.

John O’Dowd (Sinn Féin) told colleagues on the Assembly and Executive Review Committee that his party favoured a joint ministerial arrangement which would be reviewed after four years.

Mr O’Dowd declared his party’s position as committee members gave their initial impressions of the ministerial model which could be adopted at Stormont.

He told the committee: “Sinn Féin’s view is that we should have two ministers acting jointly as the way forward in relation to the ministerial model.

“Obviously when discussing any such matter you cannot ignore costs and the effects on costs.

“But our primary concern has to be the safeguards built into the system to safeguard community confidence.

“The community is going to have to have confidence in the system as it is run.

“However we do see after four years the justice ministry being run under D’Hondt like any of the other ministries.”

The Assembly and Executive Review Committee, which consists of the four parties on the power sharing executive, has under the chairmanship of Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP, Lagan Valley) been tasked with producing a report next February on the devolution of policing and justice.

Committee members have been presented with a number of options as to the ministerial model.

These are: a department with a single justice minister, a department with two ministers of equal standing like the Office of First and Deputy First Minister and a department with a senior minister and a junior minister with the positions rotating at intervals.

It is possible the new department could come at the expense of an existing government department whose functions would be broken up and given to other ministries.

With the Office of First and Deputy First Minister yet to announce details and embark on its efficiency review examining the number of government departments, committee members today decided to seek clarification on how this could affect their inquiry before making a definitive decision on the ministerial model.

Following speculation that the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister could assume the justice powers Alan McFarland (UUP, North Down) and Alex Attwood (SDLP, West Belfast) registered their unease about such a move.

Mr Attwood (SDLP, West Belfast) said in more normal circumstances there would be a strong case for a single minister in charge of the department, given the fact that a lot of policing powers were already devolved.

But in the event of there being two ministers, he claimed they should have joint and equal status and be in their own department independent of the Office of First and Deputy First Minister.

The SDLP Assembly member also warned if a time limit was placed on a department run by two ministers, as Mr O’Dowd proposed, it could be used by some bodies to unpick the joint nature of the First and Deputy First Minister’s office.

Mr McFarland raised the cost implications of having two ministers in a department.

“There is an argument which says if there is sufficient community confidence (for the devolution of policing and justice powers) then what is the problem with a minister run under D’Hondt?” he said.