TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown expressed confidence in Copenhagen last night that there can be an “early agreement” to facilitate the completion of the transfer of policing and justice powers in “the coming months”.
Mr Cowen and Mr Brown met on the margins of the Copenhagen climate change summit and issued a statement saying “significant progress is being made” on the devolution of justice.
Their joint statement appeared at odds with the public quarrel on policing and justice between DUP First Minister Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in Limavady, Co Derry, on Monday.
However, senior sources said their generally positive assessment of the prospects of a deal was partly based on the fact that despite this row, Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness engaged in “useful” talks since Monday.
While Mr McGuinness has demanded a commitment to transfer policing powers before Christmas with the Department of Justice set up early in the new year, neither Mr Cowen nor Mr Brown mentioned a deadline. Rather they spoke of a potential “early agreement” and a deal in the “coming months”.
They referred to how Mr Brown agreed with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister a generous package worth some £800 million to support the creation of the Department of Justice and to deal with issues such as police deafness claims.
“The financial package will only be available if devolution is completed in the coming months,” they said. “It is clear that all the main Northern Ireland parties support the devolution of policing and justice and want to see this happen. The governments believe that, while there remain issues to be resolved, the parties have made substantial progress over recent months towards the transfer of policing and justice powers,” added Mr Cowen and Mr Brown.
“We believe that there are no differences incapable of resolution and are optimistic the parties can find early agreement,” they said.
Mr Cowen and Mr Brown said they would remain in close contact with the parties over the coming days. They said: “We believe that early completion of devolution is important. We have, therefore, asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [Shaun Woodward] and the Minister for Foreign Affairs [Micheál Martin] to meet at the beginning of January to review progress towards the necessary cross-community vote in the Assembly.”