Local Policing Powers Target Date Recedes

While Unionists have insisted the IRA Army Council would have to be completely disbanded before enough confidence exists for the proposed devolution of policing and justice powers, the issue is being discussed at high level today.

PSNI Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, will brief an Assembly committee on the possible transfer of policing and justice powers.

He will meet the Assembly and Executive Review Committee at Stormont amid signs that the proposed devolution of policing and justice powers will not happen by the target date of May.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward has identified the transfer of powers from the Northern Ireland Office to a new Stormont Justice Ministry as a key target during 2008.

However the British Government has also accepted that this objective, which Mr Woodward characterises as the last piece in the devolution jigsaw, may not happen by May.

Stormont First Minister and Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley has expressed doubt as to whether his community would have sufficient confidence to allow the transfer of powers to take place.

They have also been concerned about claims that Provisional IRA members were involved in the murder last October of South Armagh man Paul Quinn over the border in County Monaghan.

Sinn Fein regard the transfer of policing and justice responsibilities as crucial and claim it was a key factor in influencing the party last year to participate in policing in Northern Ireland.

The Assembly and Executive Review Committee is chaired by Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson and has a Sinn Fein deputy chairman Raymond McCartney.

The Ulster Unionists and the nationalist SDLP are also involved on the committee.

(BMcC)