Row threatens policing funds

More than £1bn (€1.1bn) of UK Treasury funding for devolving policing and justice powers to the North is under threat if there is no cross-party agreement, deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said today.

Amid a deepening rift between Sinn Féin and Democratic Unionists over the controversial move, the senior republican told DUP leader Peter Robinson he had to let people know exactly why he was still refusing to agree a date for the transfer of justice responsibilities from Westminster.

Sinn Féin has warned that any further delays will render the power-sharing administration unsustainable – a claim that has been dismissed by the DUP as a bullying threat.

And today the Alliance Party, tipped to take over the justice portfolio, threatened to scupper the move if there is no movement on a government plan to tackle sectarianism.

Mr McGuinness told the Assembly: “These proposals are solely and explicitly in the context of the transfer of powers to a local minister so the offer outlined in the letter (from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in October to the local parties) will not be implemented in the event of a failure to agree to the transfer of powers.”

While both parties have agreed a £1bn funding package with the Treasury, Mr Robinson is understood to have sent an eight-page letter to Mr Brown outlining a number of other so-called ’confidence building’ measures his party want to see implemented before devolution takes place.

Among them are commitments to retain police officers currently employed in a reserve unit that is being axed and changes to how contentious parades in the region are managed.

But the DUP has denied this amounts to a shopping list of preconditions, insisting that the only precondition is the attainment of confidence within the unionist community for the move.

Last night Mr McGuinness told an audience of republicans in Derry that the letter needed to be made public.

“The DUP keep harping on about community confidence. Fair enough, but I must make it crystal clear that the eight-page letter which I believe is loaded with preconditions and sent by Peter Robinson to the British Prime Minister, was neither seen or agreed by me, his partner in government, as part of our agreed process paper,” he said.

“Therefore I believe that publication of this letter is both reasonable and essential.”

Mr McGuinness’ remarks came hours after Mr Robinson rejected Sinn Féin claims that he and his party were not governing on the basis of equality.

Although the row continues, Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness last week sent out a joint letter to all Assembly members outlining the procedure for electing a future Justice Minister.

Both main parties have agreed not to nominate a candidate for the role, but have said the occupant must secure cross-community support in a vote at the Assembly.

That marks out the non-aligned Alliance party as the clear favourite to take the portfolio. But while the deadline for nominating candidates is next Friday, Alliance has indicated it will not do so until a policy programme for the Justice Ministry is set out.

David Ford said: “We cannot nominate a candidate for minister until a policy programme for the new department is agreed and there is real and public progress on a new community relations strategy.

“There must be an agreed policy programme so that the new minister can deliver immediately. Policing and justice are far too important to have them becoming issues around which political games are played."