North leaders row in public over policing
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Tuesday December 15 2009
THE North's political leaders clashed in public yesterday as the split at the heart of the power-sharing government was dramatically exposed.
As Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness appeared before the cameras at a press conference, their private disagreement over the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Stormont Assembly deepened when Sinn Fein's Mr McGuinness accused his Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) rival of raising roadblocks to a deal.
As the men stood side-by-side in front of the media, a visibly angry Mr Robinson, the North First Minister, effectively reprimanded Mr McGuinness, the deputy First Minister, accusing him of bringing private details into the public domain. The temperature rose as Mr McGuinness continually shook his head in disagreement as Mr Robinson spoke.
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator hit out at DUP calls for a scrapping of the Parades Commission, which rules on Orange Order parades, and said it could not be a pre-condition to a deal on the transfer of policing and justice powers.
Mr McGuinness said: "I move forward against the backdrop of the agreements that I made with Peter Robinson 13 months ago." In a reference to a DUP letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanding "confidence building" measures for unionists before a deal, Mr McGuinness added: "At no stage were people contemplating sending, on solo runs, letters to prime ministers which effectively I had not seen, was not made aware of and was completely surprised by."
Mr Robinson hit back by claiming that republicans had already backed reform of parades, but had now opted to delay the measures as a tactic.
Mr Robinson, who glanced at his adviser and became visibly angry as Mr McGuinness spoke, added: "I regret the tone of the latter remarks.
Victims
"I don't think that it is helpful for us to be going into the finer details of these matters, but nobody is in any doubt that the issue of parades was moving forward and was held back."
The clash came as Taoiseach Brian Cowen led a team of ministers in a session of cross-border talks with members of the Northern Ireland administration in Limavady, Co Derry.
Mr Cowen later met relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims to discuss their concerns over the delay in publishing the report into the shootings.
The families said that they found Mr Cowen to be sympathetic and supportive to their case.
- Steven McCaffery
Irish Independent
