Demands made by the Police Federation of Northern Ireland for an extra 1,000 officers and an increased budget for the PSNI cannot be met, former Sinn Féin Northern Executive minister, Fermanagh/South Tyrone MP, Ms Michelle Gildernew has declared.
The call for greater numbers and funding was made by Mr Terry Spence, head of the federation in Northern Ireland, who said that the PSNI now has 7,000 officers - 5,500 officers fewer than were in the Royal Ulster Constabulary when the Good Friday Agreement was reached in 1998 'when the security threat was far less than it is now'.
Asked if the federation's demands could be met, Ms Gildernew, speaking at an event organised on the margins of the Liberal Democrats conference in Brighton, said: "Probably not, the cuts that have been made in health, education and other things have been very difficult. I do not think that the money is there. We have to do better with the resources that we have got."
Northern Ireland's Minister of Justice, Alliance Party leader, Mr David Ford said he had secured £200m of extra funding for the PSNI in talks with the Treasury in London last year: "I am not sure that there is an easy way out," he told Mr Spence, at a event organised by CHAMP, a not-for-profit group interested in Northern Ireland issues.
Mr Spence demanded that the Derry-based Republicans Against Drugs and the Ulster Volunteer Force should be immediately proscribed as terrorist organisations, saying that both have been involved in 'murder and various nefarious activities', though he said that the last Northern Ireland
Secretary of State, Mr Owen Paterson had rejected his calls.
Saying that proscription is a power held by London, not by Stormont, Mr Ford said he understood that Republicans Against Drugs has recently been 'incorporated' into a larger body recently. He said he was not convinced that the proscription of the UVF 'is the best thing to do now'.
