Empey demands four-party talks over devolved justice powers
The domination of the North’s coalition government by the DUP and Sinn Féin must end if the UUP is to support the devolution of policing and justice powers, the party said today.
Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey said his party was one of four that sit in Stormont’s power-sharing Executive and should be included in key negotiations.
But he said the two largest parties had sidelined the Ulster Unionists, as well as the SDLP, and he demanded round-party talks to secure any creation of a new Ministry of Justice for the North.
The DUP and Sinn Féin have been involved in lengthy talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the transfer of policing and justice authority from Westminster to Stormont.
Mr Empey today told his party conference: “We have no objection to these powers coming back to Stormont if the terms are right.
“But I do not believe, and the UUP does not believe, that a deal concocted privately between the DUP and Sinn Féin, a deal dependent on the appointment of a puppet minister and subject to a ’sunset clause’, is the right way to transfer policing and justice powers. There is a better way to do this.”
He warned DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson that all the parties must be brought into talks on the issue.
“The Executive must sit down to discuss what we might do with policing and justice powers to meet the inevitable challenge we will face if there is no agreed vision,” he said.
“While Peter Robinson said this week that he will not do this policing deal without this party, I must tell him that there will be no support from us for any backroom deal.
“We have set out our terms for this devolution, so, Peter, there will be a price. There must be an open and transparent process to reconstruct the Executive and make it work as a full four-party coalition.
“No more dysfunctional meetings. And we must resolve the policy stalemates that are still there. We simply won’t allow things to continue as they are.”
He said the drop in support for the DUP in the European elections earlier this year, when it lost votes to right-wing challengers, showed the party no longer dominated unionism.
Mr Empey added: “Change is coming, Peter, whether you like it or not.”
