Police on both sides of the Border should form an all-Ireland intelligence agency to combat crime and terrorism, a new SDLP document proposes.
The SDLP, in a 24-page document entitled North-South Makes Sense, also calls for an all-Ireland Criminal Assets Bureau to target criminals and paramilitaries who have been profiting from cross-Border crime and an all-island sex offenders' register to prevent criminals from exploiting different jurisdictions.
The document claims the all-Ireland intelligence agency, involving Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda personnel, would be an effective tool to take on criminals and terrorists throughout Ireland.
The SDLP argues it would also play a crucial role in the development of all-Ireland policing, and the party also proposes all-Ireland police training for officers.
The SDLP's document covers a range of areas, with proposals for closer cross-border links in education, farming and fisheries, the environment, health, housing, transport and the economy.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan insisted the proposals were reasonable as well as radical. At the publication of the paper in Belfast, the Foyle MP insisted his party was not trying to whip up unionist fears or stir up nationalist emotions.
"People who are unionist, nationalist or neither should have nothing to fear from dynamic North-South co-operation," he said. "We are all losers without it."
Among the other proposals in the SDLP document are:
- An all-Ireland Law Commission to study and promote the harmonisation of laws on both sides of the Border;
- Joint co-operation between the Human Rights Commissions in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, completing work on an all-Ireland rights charter as envisaged by the Belfast Agreement;
- Full implementation of the North-South Criminal Justice Treaty and more exchanges of personnel in the policing and criminal justice sides, including prison officers, court clerks and even members of the judiciary;
- A cross-Border economic development zone covering the Border counties of the Republic, the midlands and the west, and the western counties in Northern Ireland.
PA