Party accusations fly over justice report
UNIONISTS are sparring bitterly over the meaning of a leaked Assembly report which lists detailed recommendations about how policing and justice should be devolved.
The Assembly and Executive Review Committee (AERC) report, obtained by the News Letter, contains a series of proposals – some of which were passed with DUP and Sinn Fein support against UUP and SDLP dissent – about how policing and justice will be devolved.
The document recommends cross-community support for a justice minister be reviewed by May 2012 at the latest, something Jim Allister said raised the prospect of Gerry Kelly being justice minister after that date, but the DUP insisted did nothing to remove its veto over any future candidate.
And, in a series of other recommendations, the report, which crucially does not give a date for the transfer of powers, proposes that:
n the new policing and justice ministry will be called the Department of Justice and will become a 12th Stormont department;
n the Judicial Appointments Commission, which appoints judges, will become the responsibility of – and accountable to – the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister;
n the Public Prosecution Service will be a 'non-ministerial department';
n a 'sunset clause' will end the block on a DUP or Sinn Fein minister in May 2012 and will also remove the need for the justice minister to be appointed by a cross-community vote, meaning the parties will have to "agree a way forward by this time".
The report also hints at the possibility of the justice minister not sitting as a full member of the Executive, something it says needs more consideration.
Should the minister not have to sign up to collective Executive responsibility, it may make it easier for an Alliance minister to take the hotly-contested role while still allowing the party to attack perceived failings in other Executive departments.
The News Letter understands that next week's Assembly vote on the report is likely to see a rare split in the Assembly: UUP and SDLP members filing into the 'No' lobby to cast their votes while Sinn Fein and the DUP enter the 'Yes' lobby together.
Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy, who sat on the committee, said he was deeply unhappy at aspects of the final report and hit out at the initial decision to limit Assembly debate on it to 90 minutes.
"I remain astonished at the political hypocrisy of the DUP – Nigel Dodds was saying 'never in a political lifetime' would these powers be devolved," he said.
"There is insufficient public confidence for this to happen now – the Executive has yet to prove itself in working constructively for all the people."
TUV leader Jim Allister said: "The report was railroaded through the committee on the strength of joint DUP/Sinn Fein votes, with every contested and recorded vote seeing the DUP side with Sinn Fein to provide a majority."
But a DUP spokesman said the party had been "open and transparent" about its intentions, discussing it in public session at the committee.
And he attacked the “pure and utter hypocrisy from the UUP who were prepared to devolve these powers in 2005 with no veto in place”.
DUP MLA Nigel McCausland said that it was “sad when we have negotiated a good deal to bring policing powers back to Stormont that some so-called unionists have been doing the work of republicans” by attacking the deal.
Meanwhile, the SDLP MLA Alex Atwood, claimed the report meant a nationalist could be excluded from the justice ministry until 2016 if a minister was appointed for a full term after the 2011 Assembly elections.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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