PETER ROBINSON and Martin McGuinness met Gordon Brown in Downing Street last night against a growing sense that the British prime minister will provide the necessary funding for the PSNI to try to facilitate the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive.
First Minister Mr Robinson has repeatedly warned that unless there are British government commitments on proper funding of the proposed new policing and justice arrangement that he will not agree to the transfer of these powers.
Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness said after the meeting that progress was made but that there was still no overall agreement on a budget.
The First Minister and Deputy First Minister are to meet Mr Browne in New York tomorrow to try to conclude a deal.
It is understood that Mr Brown, under prompting from Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward, has sought to meet the concerns of Mr Robinson over how policing and justice would be funded.
“I think agreement is quite close,” said Mr McGuinness in Belfast yesterday afternoon. “I think it is make-your-mind up time.”
The meeting between Mr Robinson, Mr McGuinness and Mr Brown was the second such encounter in the past six days.
Unionists in particular have argued that the PSNI faces a financial shortfall of up to £600 million, with up to £380 million of that figure resulting from potential police hearing loss claims in the coming years.
Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office in conjunction with the British treasury are seeking to devise a mechanism whereby there could be commitments to meet any shortfall, according to senior London sources. The sources said Mr Brown was determined Mr Robinson should have no financial excuse for refusing to agree to the devolution of policing and justice powers. Mr McGuinness said that even before last night’s meeting Mr Brown had given a “commitment that finance would not be an obstacle to the transfer of power on policing and justice – so, we are keeping him at his word”.
Mr Brown and Mr Woodward, according to sources, have attempted to impress upon Mr Robinson that any hold-up would not only cause political problems but would undermine opportunities to win significant inward investment from the US.
Mr McGuinness made the same point yesterday. He said the new US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Declan Kelly, privately had made it very clear that if transfer of policing and justice powers did not happen then “effectively the prospect of investment from the US is dead in the water”. Mr McGuinness said he was saying this in the context of the expectation of a very important economic announcement from the US.
Both the British and Irish governments have concerns that failure to move on policing and justice could trigger another round of serious deadlock between Sinn Féin and the DUP, similar to the four-month stand-off last year.
There is anxiety that if there is no speedy agreement on setting up a Northern department of justice such plans will have to be postponed until after the British general election.