UNIONIST WARNING:DUP MP Gregory Campbell said any deal on policing and justice would have to be put to public consultation.
“We have been saying for about three years that what was required at the conclusion of discussions on policing and justice was community confidence. How would we know if there is community confidence? Well, we go and ask them, the wider community, we go and ask them,” he said.
“If we come to a point where agreement is reached, in our view it would be insufficient for us to say, ‘well, that’s it now, we have agreed. Proceed.’ We say we should put that out to the wider community and say, ‘now what do you think?’”
Mr Campbell said there was a number of ways in which this could be done but he declined to outline what these were. But he stressed there was a pressing need for any deal concluded by the parties to be put to the wider community to see what they thought of it.
Denying this was a delaying tactic by those keen to postpone the implementation of any deal with Sinn Féin, Mr Campbell asked: “Why would we want to delay something that we are in favour of? Because of the historical baggage of Sinn Féin, there has been a problem, particularly in the unionist community but not exclusively so, and we have had to negotiate the situation whereby Sinn Féin do not become eligible for the position of justice and policing minister.
“If we reach a deal and it is a deal that we can stand over, then we would be actively selling the merits of the deal. To do otherwise would be fatal.”
If it was a good deal his party would tell the community there was merit in it for everyone, he said.
Mr Campbell added that he could not foresee a situation whereby senior DUP figures would move forward on a deal without him if he had misgivings. “We are 100 per cent united in saying that community confidence is required.”
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said Mr Campbell was “hiding behind the notion of community consultation”.
He said the DUP was able to settle the question of community confidence in the position of Peter Robinson following the controversy involving his wife, and he could not see why the party could not be decisive in relation to the transfer of justice powers.
“The public will want to see the details of the deal, other political parties will want to see the details of the deal. This is not about show-stopping tactics. The danger is that this is what it is.”
He said community confidence was a fig leaf used by some in the DUP. “People here want devolution to move on, they want this deal concluded because they want an end to uncertainty and game-playing.”
The Ulster Unionists also said the public were “sick sore and tired of the entire process”. Fermanagh Assembly member Tom Elliott claimed people merely wanted politicians at Stormont “to get on with running our country”.