Talks go on to reach policing deal
The quest to achieve a so-far elusive breakthrough in political talks to transfer law and order powers to the North will continue at Stormont today.
Democratic Unionist and Sinn Fein negotiators will meet for the eighth day out of the last nine in an attempt to hammer out a deal.
Though hopes of an agreement to end the two-year wrangle over the contentious issue have been mounting over the last week, a senior DUP figure insisted yesterday his party would not be rushed.
East Derry MP Gregory Campbell, who is considered to be on the hard-line wing of his party, said a timescale was less important than securing community confidence in the move.
“It doesn’t matter what the time is, it doesn’t matter if it’s tomorrow or in a decade – the important thing is to get the conditions,” he said.
Over the weekend both parties expressed optimism that an agreement could be struck that would see law and order responsibilities transferred from Westminster to the region’s powersharing government.
According to the DUP, there remain three issues to resolve – who will be the new justice minister, how he or she will work with Executive colleagues, and how controversial parades will be managed in the future.
Acting First Minister Arlene Foster, who has taken on troubled DUP leader Peter Robinson’s duties as he copes with the fall-out from the sex and money scandal involving his wife Iris, assured the other parties in the Assembly yesterday that they would be involved in the current round of talks.
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