Government Ministers have raised concerns that there has not been "a sufficient translation of the dynamic of peace on the streets" with the British government, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said yesterday.
She said this was the perception among nationalists in Northern Ireland and the Government had made representations to the British on this issue at last week's intergovernmental conference. "That is something the British government is listening to and is something which is part and parcel of the negotiations," Ms O'Donnell said, after discussions at Stormont on the issues of justice, rights and safeguards.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, also stressed the need for change, saying it was very important that "the dynamic of peace" was understood and seen by the public to be working.
"The confidence that the people have in the peace process affects the political process, so if there isn't change or if change comes rather too slowly, they are opening up the possibility of getting disenchantment, whereas in fact we want to have the opposite. We want to have confidence."
The deputy leader of the SDLP, Mr Seamus Mallon, said he would be raising the issue of security levels in nationalist areas such as south Armagh with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, when he meets him tomorrow.
Earlier in submissions to the negotiations, the SDLP and Sinn Fein called for fundamental changes in the justice system. However, the Ulster Unionist Party said it would oppose "any attempt to build a false confidence by leaving society defenceless".
Submitting the SDLP paper, Mr Mallon said "a major and comprehensive review" of the legal system was long overdue, and such a review should be part of the negotiations. "A settlement must contain a firm commitment to legal reform which would put the era of `emergency' legislation finally behind us."
The case for real change in security and policing levels, which was being articulated by the two governments, "was not being translated into action on the ground". The SDLP also demanded progress on human rights.
A submission from the Ulster Unionist Party paid "the highest tribute" to those in the security forces and involved in the administration of justice. It said if the threat of violence was lifted, the party "sees the current police service and justice structure operating as police and courts do in every other region of the United Kingdom".
It said this would mean that "powers and procedures adopted to deal with organised terror may not prove necessary in a totally peaceful situation". However, such "normalisation" could only occur when there was a genuine commitment to pursuing political ends by exclusively peaceful means. Until then, the party would oppose any attempt "to build a false confidence by leaving society defenceless against the bomber, the assassin or the terrorist godfather".
Sinn Fein, in its submission, said nationalists had suffered a compound set of denials of rights, and that the root cause of these violations had been partition. It said unionists could not be held solely responsible for the fact that the state of Northern Ireland had never been able to afford its citizens justice and equality. Britain's policy created a sectarian state, and since the collapse of Stormont, the British government had failed to effectively tackle economic and structural political discrimination against Catholics.