British government ministers faced Unionist and Tory anger in the House of Commons in London today as they moved to allow former paramilitaries to sit on district policing partnerships.
Northern Secretary Paul Murphy said at present no one who had ever received a custodial sentence was allowed to serve as an independent member of a district policing partnership.
Introducing an amendment to the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill, he said the British government wanted to change this, providing instead that someone could be considered five years after their discharge in respect of an offence.
He said this brought rules for independent members into line with those that already applied to political members.
But he faced cross party criticism over proposing the change in advance of the resumption of devolved government and the initiation of "acts of completion" by the paramilitaries.
In report stage debate on the Bill, Mr Murphy told MPs additional safeguards were to be built into the legislation.
The amendment could not come into effect until an order had been laid before both the Commons and the Lords and voted on by MPs and peers.
He dismissed Democratic Unionist claims that these safeguards did not add up to "a row of beans" for Unionists and that the legislation was being "manipulated" to help the IRA.
The move was aimed at building trust and restoring devolution to Northern Ireland, Mr Murphy insisted.
Independent members would also be required to make a declaration against terrorism and clauses in the Bill dealing with these issues were conditional on "acts of completion" by the Provisional IRA, he said.
PA