PETER ROBINSON and Martin McGuinness are to meet British prime minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street tomorrow to discuss devolution of policing and justice and the Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS).
The First Minister and Deputy First Minister also broke new ground yesterday by meeting the GAA’s top officials including president Christy Cooney, former president Nicky Brennan and director general Paraic Duffy.
The GAA delegation, which also comprised Ulster Council president Tom Daly and Ulster director general Danny Murphy, first met Mr McGuinness in his office at Stormont, where an official photograph was taken.
The GAA delegation then paid a visit to Mr Robinson’s office. No photograph was available of that meeting. Stormont and GAA sources described the meeting as a “courtesy” or “meet and greet” visit. Over the past two years efforts have been continuing to establish a useful working relationship between the GAA and unionist politicians.
Mr Cooney said it was a welcome opportunity to meet Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness. He said the GAA was “committed to working closely with the various departments of the Northern Ireland Executive to help develop Gaelic games in Ulster and to help maximise the GAA’s contribution to improving society at all levels in Ulster”.
Tomorrow’s meeting takes place against concerns that the poor performance of the DUP in the European elections could prompt Mr Robinson to put back the date for devolving policing and justice powers.
The DUP and Sinn Féin had agreed a sequence of measures that was to lead to the transfer. No specific date was given although there was an expectation it would happen this autumn.
Mr Robinson, when queried about this at the weekend, did not give a date but said it could only happen when the British government guaranteed proper funding for policing and justice, and when there was community confidence for such a move.
Senior DUP politicians had previously indicated the issue of community confidence had been satisfactorily addressed.
Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness are expected to again press Mr Brown for guarantees on police and justice funding tomorrow.
In the Assembly Mr Robinson said he and Mr McGuinness were keen that they could come away from the Brown meeting “with some firm decisions about his government’s intentions” about the Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS). Some 9,500 members of the PMS face losing millions of pounds because of the crisis in the society. The PMS ended up in trouble when there was a run on deposits because it wasn’t covered by the banks guarantee scheme and because of the plummeting value of assets the society had in property.
Mr Robinson indicated in the Assembly that if the British government did not intervene, savers could end up with only 30 pence in the £1 on their deposits.