The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister has accused the Northern Secretary of "rushing the fences" over the policing issue. Mr Seamus Mallon said the SDLP "will not be hustled" by Mr Mandelson.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland yesterday, Mr Mallon said he believed the Northern Secretary was "trying to hustle people in a way that this business should not be carried out".
Mr Mallon accused Mr Mandelson of laying down "a totally artificial timetable" for nominations to the police board. He also alleged that "it's recognised by everybody and by all political parties that the timetable was more in Peter Mandelson's interest than in the interest of getting a proper police service".
Rejecting Mr Mandelson's accusation that the SDLP's delay in making nominations to the police board was politically motivated, Mr Mallon said: "I think Peter Mandelson is quite new to the North of Ireland, and had he been here for the past 30 years he probably would have realised that the SDLP stands on its own two feet and we will not be dictated to by any other political party and we will not be hustled by Peter Mandelson in the way that I think he is trying to hustle us. "We will make what I believe will be a properly informed judgment when we know that these things are right and we have got the basis for the type of policing we all want." In further criticism of the British government's negotiating strategy, he said: "It is they who deviated from Patten. It is they who, on a number of very serious Patten recommendations, actually devalued and diminished the import of them." He commented that any act of faith on the policing issue should come from the British government.
Mr Mallon said, however, that he was "not without hope", particularly in relation to the policing issue, where he acknowledged that some progress had been made. He confirmed that members of the SDLP had met Mr Adam Ingram and several officials within the RUC, including the RUC Chief Constable, last week and that "there has been some advance in those discussions and some of the issues we are very concerned about, while they have not been resolved, at least we have got an insight into a way in which they may, and I repeat, may be resolved".
Criticising the narrow direct talks formula between Sinn Fein and the British government over the decommissioning issue, Mr Mallon said: "One of the difficulties in the methodology is that in effect where you have an issue such as that of decommissioning then it centres on the party whose associates are in possession of weapons, and one of the difficulties at the present moment of time is that we haven't got the overall comprehensive type of negotiating process we had prior to Good Friday.
"I hope we can get to that as soon as possible, because in my belief this type of very serious negotiations cannot be successfully concluded on the basis of discussions on a very narrow base such as has been taking place."