NORTHERN PARTY leaders are due to meet today to discuss who should be the North’s minister of justice, as a working group to consider how to tackle contentious parades was formed at Stormont.
The leaders’ meeting was due to take place yesterday but was postponed because First Minister Peter Robinson was attending the House of Commons, where British prime minister Gordon Brown described the Hillsborough Castle Agreement as a “significant and defining moment”.
While the agreement’s schedule on policing has now fallen behind by a day, Mr Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness’s joint office was ahead by a day in last night selecting the six-member working group which is to report on how to address the issue of parades.
The six are members of the Assembly and only the DUP and Sinn Féin are represented. They are, for the DUP: Junior Minister Nelson McCausland, Jeffrey Donaldson and Stephen Moutray; and for Sinn Féin: Minister of Agriculture Michelle Gildernew, Junior Minister Gerry Kelly and John O’Dowd. They are due to meet this morning.
So far no major difficulties have emerged in pressing ahead with the agreement, although today’s meeting of party leaders is unlikely to conclude with an agreed candidate for the justice post.
The new SDLP leader, Margaret Ritchie, had previously been selected by the party for the position but yesterday she said she was now putting forward North Belfast MLA and lawyer Alban Maginness for the job. The UUP has yet to decide whether it will put forward a candidate.
Alliance leader David Ford again made clear yesterday he would not be nominating anyone for the position from his party at this stage. Mr Ford, who is favourite to be the minister of justice, said he still needed clarity on how the justice department would operate and firmer commitments about tackling sectarianism.