Ford poses first challenge to power-sharing deal

David Ford

07/02/2010 - 15:40:23
The deal to save the North’s power-sharing government faced its first significant challenge today when the politician tipped to be the new justice minister cast doubt on whether he would accept the post.

Leader of the Alliance Party David Ford said the Sinn Féin/Democratic Unionist coalition would have to do more to tackle sectarian divisions before he would put his name forward.

As part of the broad-ranging agreement on law and order devolution and parade management announced on Friday, DUP First Minister Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are to meet Stormont’s minor parties tomorrow to consider applications for the justice ministry.

Both main parties have agreed not to nominate candidates from within their own ranks.

And while the UUP and SDLP have greater electoral strength within the Assembly, the non-aligned Alliance party is considered the only one that could achieve the necessary cross-community backing of both the DUP and Sinn Féin in a vote.

But Mr Ford today said his party was not yet in a position to apply for the post, claiming policies for the new ministry have not been properly outlined.

He is also unhappy that Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness have still not published a long-delayed strategy to tackle division in society in the North.

“On the basis of a leaders’ meeting tomorrow there would not be an Alliance nomination,” he told Radio Ulster.

“If things change then things may change. But the current position is that we have not seen enough movement around a community-relations strategy and around getting all the policies that we believe should be implemented by a department of justice.”

Both the UUP and SDLP have criticised the notion of Alliance being the DUP and Sinn Féin’s preferred choice, accusing the main parties of gerrymandering the selection.

The current 11 ministries in the Executive were allocated using the D’Hondt system.

If that process were re-run, instead of the cross community vote in the Assembly, the SDLP would be given an extra ministry. However, in that case the justice post may well end up in the Ulster Unionists’ hands as they would pick their preferred portfolio before the nationalist party.

Both the UUP and SDLP favour retaining the D’Hondt system.

Under the terms of the Hillsborough Agreement, justice powers are set to be devolved from Westminster to Stormont on April 12.

However a number of matters, including the selection of a minister and proposed changes to parade management process, need to be resolved before that can go ahead.