Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde held a "frank" and "testing" meeting at Stormont yesterday as efforts continue to break the DUP/Sinn Féin standoff on policing.
Sir Hugh and Mr Adams led senior police and Sinn Féin delegations in talks at Parliament Buildings where four years ago a PSNI raid on Sinn Féin offices and allegations of IRA spying at Stormont triggered the collapse of the powersharing Northern Executive.
After the meeting Mr Adams held to his position that there could be no resolution of the policing issue until the DUP agreed a timeframe for devolving policing and justice to the Executive - although he also said it was possible to meet the British and Irish governments' March 26th deadline for restoring devolution.
Mr Adams last met Sir Hugh at Downing Street two years ago, mainly to discuss demilitarisation. Yesterday's meeting was more significant as it was to discuss issues around policing and because for the first time photographers were allowed capture the moment. The governments believe that the photographs and television coverage of the meeting will act as a further signal to republican grassroots of Sinn Féin's conditional preparedness to endorse the PSNI.
Mr Adams was joined by policing spokesman Gerry Kelly and MLAs Michelle Gildernew and Caitríona Ruane. The chief constable was accompanied by his deputy, Paul Leighton and Peter Sheridan, the assistant chief constable in charge of anti-crime operations. There was no handshake, despite one of the cameramen asking Mr Adams and Sir Hugh to make such a gesture. The potential move on policing has caused republican nervousness. Some dissidents have also issued death threats against Mr Adams and other Sinn Féin leaders, using, according to the Sinn Féin president, policing as an "excuse" for the threats.
After the meeting Mr Adams said: "What we have to do is bring the PSNI up to the mark so that those people who are republicans can feel that for the first time ever we have accountable civic policing that they can endorse and subscribe to. But, let's be real about this, there is a lot of work to be done to get to that point," he added.
He said it required a two-thirds vote at an ardchomhairle to call an ardfheis on policing and he wasn't in a position to call an ardchomhairle meeting. "We need to resolve the whole matter of the transfer of powers on policing and justice and a do-able, definitive timeframe to achieve that," he said.
Sir Hugh, who briefed the policing board on the meeting, said the fact that yesterday's discussions were held "in a more public domain" than his talks with Mr Adams two years was an interesting and positive development.
Sir Hugh said Sinn Féin had a right to hold him to account on policing. He said the discussions yesterday were "testing", adding, "I think that's a good thing. I don't want polite conversations. I want to be pushed. I need to push my organisation. We have a job to do which is to convince the whole community that we are capable of protecting them. And these conversations help that." Meanwhile, the Assembly subcommittee on policing meets again at Stormont today with the four parties represented - the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP - each making presentations on how policing and justice powers might be transferred to the executive.