The British government Bill setting up the new police force in Northern Ireland goes directly against the wishes of the Patten Commission, according to one of its members.
Dr Gerald W. Lynch, president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the University of the City of New York, told The Irish Times the Bill would discourage Catholics from joining the new police force. The commission, he said, had taken the matter of the naming of the police force "very seriously" and decided that a new name was absolutely necessary.
Senior Dublin Government sources last night accused the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, of handling the RUC Policing Bill in a shabby manner and said it had caused anger in the Government. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, are expected to discuss the matter by telephone today.
A call was received around 8 p.m. on Tuesday from British officials who said Mr Mandelson had decided to retain the RUC name in the formal title of the new police service.
Dr Lynch, who was appointed to the Patten Commission by the Government, said he believed the people of Ireland, North and South, had voted for a new beginning. "We believed it was necessary to have a beginning, not a continuation, not just to skip a beat and do the same thing . . . After many struggles we decided that we had to call the RUC a new name. If we slightly changed it, then the unionists would always quote the RUC and the nationalists the other name. It would be another way of causing divide."
Dr Lynch said if the Patten proposals were not fully implemented on this, it would be "back to square one" and the number of Catholics in the RUC would remain at low levels.
"I don't want to make it sound self-centred, but we did feel it would come down to Patten in the end. It is so fundamental that people can have a belief in justice in society and that the police force is seen to be just and fair. They may win the parliamentary battle with this but they will lose the war," warned Dr Lynch.
Senior Government sources said that when it was made known at the last minute that it was planned to withdraw an amendment defining the "operational purposes" of the new name as including "all working, legal, ceremonial, administrative, presentational and recruitment purposes", some efforts were made to try to change the decision, but it was made clear to them that it was a matter for the Northern Secretary of State.
A statement issued in Dublin by the Government after yesterday's Cabinet meeting said it was imperative that discussion take place urgently on the issue and that the Government had been assured by the British this would be the case.
It was "crucial" that young nationalists and republicans would feel in a position to join the new service and it was against this backdrop that the new Police Bill would be judged.
The Police (Northern Ireland) Bill will be formally introduced to the House of Lords next week, where it will pass through various stages. If it was decided to amend it, the Bill would be returned to the House of Commons, where it would be accepted or rejected, towards the end of November.
Following the remarks of the deputy leader of the SDLP, Mr Seamus Mallon, that the British government had been involved in "political chicanery" over the issue, SDLP Assembly member Mr Alex Attwood said this was only matched by its short-sightedness.
"Their stopgap deals with unionism on the name of the new police service is representative of the enduring damage that they have inflicted on the prospect of a new beginning for policing."
Mr Pat Doherty, vice-president of Sinn Fein, said his party had found that 89 of the 175 Patten Commission recommendations had been undermined - and there was insufficient information concerning a further 75 to see how they would turn out, and only 11 had been accepted.
"What Mr Mandelson seems to be doing is trying to create a compromise with his Policing Bill, entirely ignoring that Patten itself is a compromise document."