ARE WE BEGINNING TO SEE THE OUTWORKINGS OF ST.ANDREWS SIDE-DEAL ON DEVOLUTION OF POLICING AND JUSTICE? ASKS Sir REG
Ulster Unionist Party Leader Sir Reg Empey today posed the question as to whether there was some choreography going on to lay the ground for the early Devolution of Policing and Justice powers, linked to an amnesty for terrorists and the standing down of the IRA army council. Sir Reg asked whether Northern Ireland could be witnessing the outworking of a side-deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein made at talks in St. Andrews.
In a statement Sir Reg said,
“Before Christmas we saw Gerry Adams calling for the early devolution of Policing and Justice powers, followed by Ian Paisley Jnr. suggesting that the DUP were prepared for it provided that the IRA army council ceased to exist, followed by speculation that there could be amnesties for terrorists and an expunging of records and a redefinition of ‘the troubles’ to ‘a war’. All of this has a whiff of choreography about it.
Are we witnessing the outworking of a side deal made between the DUP and Sinn Fein at St. Andrews?
The question of the devolution of Policing and Justice is not only a matter of the standing down of the IRA Army council. Whether to devolve or not covers a whole range of other issues including confidence in the community, which does not exist at present. This choreography, if indeed it is choreography, is unhelpful and has the capacity to destabilise our fledgling institutions. ”