The Northern Ireland Police Bill will not deliver the prospect of a new beginning to policing, the Agriculture Minister has warned.
During a debate on policing, Mrs Brid Rodgers claimed the Patten report had offered "the real possibility of the required new beginning.
"The problem we now face is that the Patten report has been gutted by the Bill - not my words, but the words of Clifford Shearing, director of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto and one of the authors of the Patten Commission," she said.
"The Bill as constituted does not, I repeat, hold out any prospect of the much hoped-for and much needed new beginning."
The justice spokesman, Mr Alex Attwood, attacked the "embedded fingerprints" of the Northern Secretary on the Bill, but indicated that the party still hoped to be able to say Yes to a final package. He said the party wanted the certainty of "proper policing - and we want it now".
Creating that certainty would involve the "relocation and purging of Special Branch. That force within the force must be fragmented," as well as firm North-South co-operation proposals and the end of repressive legislation.
Mr Tommy Gallagher, the Assembly member for Fermanagh, said he recognised the suffering of many RUC officers and their families, but policing arrangements which did not have genuine accountability and impartiality built in would not work.
"There are many who have had genuine complaints and grievances in relation to RUC abuses [and] have not had adequate means to have them thoroughly investigated," he added.
Mr John Fee, Assembly member for South Armagh, said he would walk the streets of his area to advocate a new policing service "only when and if I believe it will work for my community".
Mr Kevin Carlin, vice-chairman of SDLP Youth, said the compromise of the Patten report meant giving in to one community at the expense of another. "The police should belong to unionism no longer," he said.
Mr Carlin asked what entitled Mr Mandelson to "casually rubbish" the key recommendations of Patten?
That the new oath for officers was to be sworn only by new recruits was also an issue, Mr Carlin said. "I would argue it is probably more vital for existing officers to take the oath, judging by their past records."
A North Belfast delegate, Ms Jolene Connolly, warned unionists and the British government that in making concessions on the Policing Bill they risked making the same mistakes as in the past and creating a police service that could never retain the respect of the people.