Sinn Féin seats row 'could wreck police board'
Peter Hain could wreck Northern Ireland’s Policing Board by guaranteeing Sinn Féin seats will remain in nationalist hands if the party turns them down, he was warned tonight.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey told his party‘s Westminster Association in London the Northern Ireland Secretary’s refusal to reallocate any seats Sinn Féin may reject to other parties was a political crisis in the making.
The former Stormont Economy Minister insisted: “Under the Hain proposals the democratically elected majority on the board would no longer be guaranteed and a Northern Ireland Office appointed quango would replace the presently agreed system.
“This is totally unacceptable to the Ulster Unionist Party.
“To push ahead with these proposals would be to destroy the one body, which is actually working. The Policing Board has been engaged in good work. It should continue to be accountable and democratically controlled.
“Instead we are facing the reality of a Policing Board, which is made up of a majority that does not represent the voting intentions of the public. This is a crisis in the making.”
On Friday Sir Reg threatened to withdraw his party‘s representatives from the next board if Sinn Féin‘s seats were not reallocated.
The board is made up of 10 political appointees and nine independent members and holds the Police Service of Northern Ireland to account for its actions.
It will be reconstituted on April 1 next year to reflect changes in the political climate in Northern Ireland.
The Reverend Ian Paisley‘s Democratic Unionists, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s largest party, which has three seats will be offered four next year.
The Ulster Unionists, who have four members of the board, will be entitled to two.
The nationalist SDLP will also be offered two seats, down one on its current figure.
However if Sinn Féin again turns down the two seats it was offered, the British government has signalled it will make those seats independent and offer them to people from a nationalist background.
Sinn Féin’s two seats in 2001 were reallocated to the Ulster Unionists and DUP after the party turned them down.
Sir Reg accused the DUP of mishandling negotiations on the Policing Board.
The East Belfast Assembly member said: “The DUP’s clumsy negotiating skills have resulted in the Police Board being transformed from a body made up of politicians with a unionist majority to another government quango made up of a majority of government appointed independents.
“In their haste and greed to have a DUP majority on the board they have helped the (British) government agenda to facilitate Sinn Féin’s entry to the board by stripping away it’s unionist majority.
“It should be noted that at the time the structure of the board was being negotiated the leaders of the UUP and DUP insisted on there being a unionist majority. This was successfully negotiated.
“What the DUP have now done is replace an overall unionist majority with a DUP majority but at a terrible cost.
“They should hang their heads in shame. What was a win-win situation for unionism as a whole is now lost. The true cost of their ineptitude will become apparent in the months ahead.“
