More details of the arrangements connected with the expected Northern Ireland Executive meeting on Thursday may, or may not, emerge after the Assembly and Executive Review Committee’s closed session [Adds FairDeal has some details here], but for now the BBC political editor Mark Devenport’s report from yesterday’s Newsline is online here.
“This stand-off, Noel, was all about the fact that Sinn Féin wanted a definite date for the devolution of justice. I think tomorrow we’ll learn that they haven’t got that definite date, but they have got a process, a series of steps pointing to when and how this will be achieved and they’ve settled for that.”
[Another ‘target date’? – Ed] Maybe not even that. [Adds On TalkBack Mark Devenport described the arrangements as “a date-free zone”]. And the suggested process was what the DUP had been arguing for in parallel with continuing NI Executive meetings. Update Official statement by First and deputy First Ministers, letter to the A & E Review Committee [pdf file] and the associated Process paper [pdf file].Peter Robinson interviewed by Noel Thompson.
“All of these issues have to be dealt with and I want to deal with them. It doesn’t mean that one has to be taken out of synch with the others. It doesn’t mean that one has to take a greater priority than all the others. But I have said publicly that I want to see the devolution of policing and justice, but they must be devolved in the right manner, in the right way. with the right structures and with the right people who can get the confidence of the community in charge of them.”
RTÉ predicts, “They are not expected to give a specific deadline for completion of the work.”
So what was that 152-day stand-off about, again?
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