Policing devolution caution as election looms

The devolution of responsibility for policing and justice in the North looked little closer tonight after talks between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the North's First and Deputy First Ministers.

Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness are going back to London again next week to meet Brown.

While Robinson and McGuinness said some progress had been made, it was not enough for responsibility to be switched from Westminster to Stormont.

How much money they are given to run the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the justice system remains the sticking point - with the two ministers said to be seeking funding for a shortfall of some £600m (€672.2m).

Mr McGuinness wants everything done and dusted by Christmas, but Mr Robinson said that with an election looming it would be irresponsible to make a deal without David Cameron giving approval to any financial package offered by Brown to achieve the final piece in the devolution jigsaw.

He argued that there was no point in making a deal with one government when another might soon take its place.

After meeting Brown, Robinson said: "I think everybody recognises it is important that we get these matters right.

"No one should be rushing towards the devolution of policing and justice in circumstances that leave us without the necessary funding."

McGuinness made it clear he was anxious to forge ahead. "I don't know what the next government is going to be. Is it going to be a Labour government; is it going to be a Conservative government?

"What we have to do as politicians is conclude a deal now."

Conservative Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson made clear Conservatives could not give any guarantees about the funding.

He said while they strongly believed in the devolution of policing and justice they had not been involved in the detailed discussions on any financial package.

He said: "When a detailed proposal is published we will comment."

But he warned: "Given the dire economic position it would be irresponsible to make any major financial commitments without knowing the detail."

However, he told the people of the North: "All I can assure you is that we will do the right thing for Northern Ireland and that we will be responsible."

Patterson, who makes weekly visits to the North, was present when the party's newest member, Ian Parsley, launched the Ulster end of the Centre for Social Justice think-tank set up by former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith.

Parsley announced last week he was defecting to the Conservative Party from the Alliance Party where he was a local councillor and their unsuccessful candidate in the recent European elections.

Meanwhile, five men arrested in Co Antrim and questioned for 24 hours about alleged dissident republican activities were released without charge today.

In Co Fermanagh a security alert which prompted the evacuation of several homes while police searched for a bomb, allegedly planted by dissidents, was called off after nothing was found.