Police officers in Northern Ireland should have to declare membership of organisations such as the GAA and Opus Dei, according to the leader of the Orange Order.
Currently, police officers must only state if they are members of the Orange Order, as well as six other related organisations, for example the Apprentice Boys, the Freemasons and the Independent Orange Order. This is to make the PSNI more transparent.
Orange Order leader Robert Saulters claimed the rules discriminated against Protestants.
"We feel it is unjust for the orange institution and other loyal orders and others from the nationalist community to be on the list, and yet one of the largest nationalist organisations, the GAA, and also one of the potentially most influential groups within the Roman Catholic community, Opus Dei, are not listed. It is discrimination, plain and simple," he said.
He said Orangemen in the PSNI have to list their membership "like some sort of notifiable disease". "The list has some nationalist organisations and not others, so there seems little rationale to the overall situation and we believe this needs to be addressed," said the leader of the Orange Order. While Mr Saulters recognised there were many genuine GAA members, he said he wanted the GAA to be added to the membership list because "our research has highlighted other links with republicanism".
Mr Saulters was adamant that Opus Dei, a secret society, should be included, despite its low membership in Northern Ireland. A spokesman for the PSNI said the list of notifiable organisations is not exhaustive. Officers are obliged to notify the chief constable of any organisation which they believe "might reasonably be regarded as affecting their ability to discharge their duties effectively and impartially," said the spokesman.
A Sinn Féin spokesman said: "Anybody who is a member of a secret society should have to declare it. Opus Dei is a political society, so they should declare membership, but we would not call the GAA a secret society."