More work needed to deliver full devolution, says Woodward
Politicians in the North have more work to do if they are to deliver full devolution to their constituents, Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward claimed today.
In his first speech to the Labour Party conference as Northern Secretary, Mr Woodward said the creation of a powersharing government in May headed by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness was an answer to the cynics in politics.
But with politicians in the North still facing a target date of next May for the transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont, the minister urged politicians to complete the path to full devolution.
“The St Andrews Agreement was clear,” he said. “This is not an a la carte menu for devolution.
“The second, completing stage is as vital as the first. It must be done and it should be done – done because it is the right thing to do.
“Done, because what greater proof will there be to those who we ask to invest in the future of the children of Northern Ireland, than local politicians taking their own responsibility for law and order?”
Mr Woodward paid tribute to the work of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the late Mo Mowlam and his other predecessors as Northern Secretary Peter Mandelson, John Reid, Paul Murphy and Peter Hain in delivering devolution.
He told delegates in Bournemouth that Gordon Brown as British Prime Minister was as clear as Tony Blair about the importance of the North’s politicians completing their task.
With Sinn Féin now involved in policing, Mr Woodward said progress was already being made.
The symbolism of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams shaking hands with the PSNI’s Chief Constable Hugh Orde in public in west Belfast was, he argued, as powerful an image as Mr Paisley welcoming President Mary McAleese to the North earlier this month.
But while Woodward said the political process should look to a shared future for unionists and nationalists, it was equally important the North did not forget its bloody past.
“That is why we have asked Lord Eames and Denis Bradley to head up a Consultative Group to see whether we can find a consensus to deal with the past,” he said.
“It won’t be easy. But if we can find a consensus to create the Good Friday Agreement, it must be the cause of optimists to believe we can find one to ensure that Northern Ireland is not held in its past, but builds on its past.
“The story of Northern Ireland has indeed begun a new chapter. Perhaps even a new book.
“It is a story of leadership and hope. And perhaps there is no better proof, than the conference in Finland held just three weeks ago.
“Its purpose was to bring political leaders together to see what lessons might be drawn to help find a way forward in an area of terrible conflict.
“Among its delegates, Jeffrey Donaldson and Martin McGuiness – two politicians, once locked in seemingly irreconcilable conflict, working together to bring new hope not to Northern Ireland but to Iraq.”
