Trimble slams recruitment criteria for PSNI

In the House of Commons yesterday, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble slammed a move to exempt officers on secondments to the PSNI from 50:50 requirements as a “huge inconsistency” and once again attacked the "discrimination" engendered in current policing recruitment.

During a debate in the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill, the Upper Bann MP expressed his "surprise" at a government amendment which he said was “drafted in such a way that the 50:50 rule on police recruitment will not apply to secondments”.

Mr Trimble said the new clause “exists for the purpose of facilitating secondments from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland", adding that "the Garda Siochana cannot be regarded as reflecting that society”.

Mr Trimble said: “Privileging entry for the Garda Siochana and failing to apply a rule that is designed to ensure that the police force in Northern Ireland is representative of society is profoundly unbalancing.”

However, the former Northern Ireland first minister restated his opposition to the current 50:50 recruitment policy on the grounds that it is "discriminatory" in a society which arguably need more equality and human rights.

Mr Trimble added: "The Prime Minister, in the peroration of his speech in Belfast last October, said that any form of discrimination is totally abhorrent, and that the days of making excuses and justifying discrimination are gone – but they are not gone for the government, who continue to discriminate and try to provide justification for discrimination.

“That is simply wrong. It is a disgrace to the House of the Commons that, in this day and age, it should be enacting legislation to legalise discrimination.”

(GMcG)