UUP DEFIANT OVER POLICING POWERS STANCE

8th March 2010

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) stood firm today over its claim that the Northern Ireland Assembly is not ready to take over political responsibility for policing and justice.

Only 24 hours ahead of a crunch Assembly vote on the devolution of the powers, the party attacked the Government after it unveiled an opinion poll that indicated sizeable public support for the move.

The survey published last night by Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward showed three-quarters of people wanted law and order functions transferred to Stormont as recommended in the Hillsborough Castle Agreement brokered by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein last month.

But senior Ulster Unionists, who will meet tonight to decide how they will handle tomorrow's Assembly vote, said they would resist pressure to support the devolution plans.

"The polling conducted contained leading and irrelevant questions," claimed UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy.

"I want to see local ministers in charge of policing and justice and, had I been a respondent to this poll, that would have been my answer.

"But if asked whether I think we should devolve policing and justice in the current conditions, that answer is categorically 'no'.

"The public agree with our position that this Executive has not shown the maturity to have responsibility for justice.

"If this Executive can't transfer children from primary to secondary school, how can it be expected to transfer people from society to prison and back again?"

While Sinn Fein and the DUP have the electoral strength to push the vote through, a rejection from the UUP will deprive them of the unanimous support they have sought.

The UUP has so far refused to shift its position, despite criticism from the DUP and Sinn Fein, as well as an intervention by the pro-deal US administration in the shape of a phone call from secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

The Hillsborough agreement, signed after nearly two weeks of round the clock talks at the Co Down venue, promised delivery of the republican demand for the devolution of policing and justice powers, plus the unionist call for the creation of new systems to oversee loyal order parades.

The deal was aimed at providing greater stability to the power-sharing administration and avoid a threatened collapse in the institutions.

But with Ulster Unionists characterising Mr Woodward's intervention as an attempt to pressurise the party, he was attacked by leading figures in the UUP.

Senior Ulster Unionist David McNarry was highly critical of Mr Woodward, while others in the party called for the Secretary of State to stand down from office after he signalled that a split in tomorrow's Assembly vote would give succour to dissident groups violently opposed to the political institutions.

But Sinn Fein junior minister Gerry Kelly said it was the UUP who were playing political games.