Peter Robinson on... devolving policing and justice powers
MR Robinson gives one of the clearest post-election indications that his party will press on with devolving policing and justice, contrary to speculation that the European election result would drastically delay the measure.
"The election won't have any bearing on it whatsoever because having asked all of our elected representatives following their discussions with colleagues during the election, the issue of policing and justice was one of those thing's which did not come up on the doorstep," he says.
"Nobody could judge that we should be backing away from the issue of policing and justice because of the election because it simply wasn't an issue during the election.
"Our judgment on policing and justice is based on what we have consistently said: It is something that is a unionist aspiration; our forefathers fought to get policing and justice powers into Stormont; Faulkner resigned because they took policing and justice away from Stormont and therefore policing and justice is a unionist thing to have.
"But it has to come in the right circumstances, with the right controls and with the right people in charge of it."
Mr Robinson says that there has been "massive concern" at the potential for Sinn Fein controlling the police and the courts but that will not happen, he says.
Now, he says, the key issue is securing sufficient finance from London for the roles to be administered locally, and his party will test whether there is confidence that Stormont can administer
the role.
On who could be Justice Minister, he says: "David Ford's name is mentioned – I haven't refuted that. It would be up to the Assembly ultimately to decide and people may well determine whether they think that Paul Goggins does such a swimmingly great job with policing and justice that he would do better than someone like David Ford."
Laughing, he adds: "In my view, David Ford could do no worse than Paul Goggins."
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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