An Alliance Justice Minister?
Our politicians are promising to use their forthcoming summer break to intensify negotiations on outstanding matters - principally academic selection and the devolution of justice. The DUP resisted agreeing any timetable for devolving justice during the stand off which preceded Peter Robinson's confirmation as a First Minister. But a senior party source pointed to the end of September as a date by which the politicians might want to announce an outcome to their summer negotiations or, alternatively, tell the people straight that they have not been able to find a way forward.
The source says the IRA army council has to be dealt with and "the sooner the better". The DUP continues to baulk at the idea of a Sinn Fein justice minister. However if they veto a republican candidate, they know Sinn Fein will engage in tit for tat. Some sources have suggested to me that the DUP is again attracted to the idea of passing the job or jobs on to others, perhaps even the Alliance party.
Last time that was floated Alliance did not like the idea of taking a job which would not give it voting rights in the Executive and could make its minister subject to hiring and firing by the FM and DFM. Sinn Fein seemed less than lukewarm about it. In the end the option appeared to have been by Schedule 5 of the
If it is back on the table the Alliance proposal would require fresh legislation. But I am sure Shaun Woodward would rush that through if he thought he had a deal. In Northern Ireland Questions both Mr Woodward and Mark Durkan advanced the argument that the completion of devolution should be expedited in order to ensure that dissident republicans cannot exploit any doubts or difficulties.
I can see that a crisis, stand off or vacuum over devolving justice might play, politically, into the hands of the dissidents. But how much difference would the appointment of a local policing minister make in practice to the kind of people capable of trying to kill a police officer or murdering a pizza delivery man?
I'm 
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