Trimble envisages IRA members joining PSNI

The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, has accepted that former members of the IRA could join the PSNI if Sinn Féin endorses the current policing arrangements.

In a new book, David Trimble - The Price of Peace, the Ulster Unionist leader holds to the line that people with criminal convictions must not be allowed join the PSNI, but effectively acknowledges those IRA members who were never convicted could join.

The book, written by the London editor of The Irish Times, Frank Millar, focuses on the career of Mr Trimble from his election as UUP leader in 1995 through the period of the Belfast Agreement three years later, the formation of the Northern Assembly and Executive and the subsequent upheavals within unionism.

In a chapter on policing, "Losing the RUC", Mr Trimble accepts that if all strands of Provisional republicanism endorse non-violence, there would be no basis for objecting to IRA members, who have no convictions, joining the PSNI. He did not see a problem if republicans pursued a united Ireland "lawfully", he said.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, is launching the book in Dublin today.