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La devolution non è più vicina

Northern Ireland policing and justice deal is ‘no closer’

Giustizia | JusticeDespite continued preparations for the eventual devolution of policing and justice powers, a final deal is no closer.

First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have written to MLAs asking them to select a candidate for the future role of Justice Minister before Christmas.

But Stormont sources said the DUP and Sinn Fein remained no closer to an overall agreement and said the British and Irish governments, who met on Monday, had yet to arrange further negotiations on the issue.

An Assembly source said: “No significant progress has been made on naming a date for devolution of policing and justice powers.

“Despite the baby-steps of the passing of the legislation and the letter to MLAs, there has been no major progress made on the naming of a date.”

As the political wrangles on the devolution issue continued, Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness sent a letter asking party leaders to select a preferred candidate for the new role of Justice Minister by December 11.

The letter, which was leaked yesterday, said: “Following this we would seek to meet with all the party leaders together to consider how best we can establish, as early as possible, which candidates are most likely to be able to command the necessary support in the Assembly.

“At this point we should be able to agree a potential minister who will fulfil this criteria before Christmas.

“While it will ultimately be a matter for the Assembly to determine, upon devolution, who the minister will be, we would expect that the candidate who was selected at this stage will ultimately become Justice Minister.”

While politicians expected the latter, some said they were surprised by the inclusion of the pre-Christmas date for identifying a likely candidate.

But it has been widely predicted the Alliance party will secure the post, with both the DUP and Sinn Fein standing aside.

Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said an overall political deal on policing and justice must be agreed by Christmas, with a date set for devolution early next year.

But DUP First Minister Peter Robinson said his party will not agree a final deal until it believes the time is right.

SDLP Leader Mark Durkan said he would resist any attempt to replace decision-making in the Assembly with a deal in ‘a smoke-free room’.

“We will, of course, be nominating a candidate for the post and I will attend any meeting of party leaders where I will commend our candidate to other parties,” he said.

“Subsequently, I will then commend our candidate to the Assembly at large.

“I would hope that the First Minister or Deputy First Minister are not asking parties to surrender their rights of nomination through the Assembly.

“They said this must be an open procedure with an open vote but today’s letter seems to arrive at something different.

“Having rewritten the laws they should not be re-writing the rules just to suit the First Minister’s choice of minister. The SDLP will not stand for deals in smoke-free rooms. This is not consensus.”

But leader of the hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) Jim Allister went further and claimed the DUP was edging towards agreement with republicans.

“It is clear the predictable roll-over by the DUP on policing and justice is under way,” he said.

“Despite all the pretence and bluster the DUP is well on its way to delivering on IRA/Sinn Fein’s key strategic objective of an end to British control of the two most potent symbols of sovereignty, policing and justice.”

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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