Sinn Fein holds crunch policing talks
Northern Irish politics remains in a state of flux today as Sinn Fein holds a crucial meeting on the province’s divisive policing issue.
While the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) fully supports the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), a proposed body which would be initially controlled from Westminster, Sinn Fein has resolutely opposed the presence of the force, threatening the fragile St Andrews agreement achieved last October.
Before the new year Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams convinced his party to consider the proposals in a specially convened conference on the PSNI, spurred on by encouragement from other parties and Westminster.
Today Sinn Fein’s national executive meets to consider the policing proposals but there are fears that recent accusations of bad faith on the part of DUP leader Ian Paisley could derail the negotiations.
Mr Adams claimed yesterday that the DUP had reneged on a deal made between the two parties before the new year on the policing issue.
“The agreed words were never said which is why there is now a crisis in the process,” he said yesterday.
Mr Paisley rejected this claim, however, saying that “I am not in the business of saying one thing in private and another in public”.
Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain said that he wanted to see progress from Sinn Fein on the issue, telling the BBC that the party faced “make-your-mind-up time”.
He added: “I hope that the DUP will be a little more encouraging of that as well, rather than the begrudging attitude you get from too many DUP politicians.”
