SDLP attacked over 50:50 recruitment response

The SDLP has been criticised, for differing reasons, after it welcomed today's decision by the Policing Board to accept a temporary scrapping of the 50:50 recruitment policy for PSNI officers.

The decision was taken because of a lack of experienced detectives on the force. The new provision will allow 65 officers be brought in from police units across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood, described the move as a step forward and said it would "enable gardai (Irish police) to join the police service" as well as accelerating the "creation of a representative police service because the recruitment goes beyond the 50:50 process and will enable recruitment on a basis that could see, for example, a higher Catholic recruitment rate".

Following this statement Sinn Fein's Policing spokesman, Gerry Kelly lambasted Mr Attwood for such support describing the move as a "retrograde step".

He said: "This sets a dangerous precedent both is terms of the recruitment policy but also in terms of the wider implementation of changes necessary to deliver the beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement".

The DUP's Sammy Wilson, meanwhile, described Mr Attwood's comments as "amazing".

He said: “I welcome the amazing u-turn by the SDLP on the hated and discriminatory 50:50 rule for police recruitment. Behind doors at yesterday’s meeting of the Police Board the SDLP representatives supported a proposal to permit the recruitment of detective constables from other forces without the 50:50 rule being applied.

"It is good to see that when faced with the reality of rising crime the SDLP can display the odd streak of commonsense and break loose from rigid dogma and detach themselves from the coattails of IRA/Sinn Fein.”

Mr Wilson, who is the DUP's Policing spokesman, described the decision as "a triumph for the arguments which we have been putting forward for years.

"If it can be dropped on this occasion then it should be scrapped altogether. The only criterion which needs to be applied is that the best and most qualified people are appointed to the police," he added.

(MB)