Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“This morning’s comments by Justice Minister Naomi Long on the Nolan Show that she would consider a return to a policy of 50/50 recruitment to the PSNI opens many troubling questions – not least for her own party.
“In an Assembly debate on the issue in 2010 Stephen Farry told the Assembly:
“Our party has consistently opposed the use of 50:50 quotas as set out in the Patten report and in subsequent legislation. That has been our long-standing position for the past decade and longer. Despite that, our support for policing reform in society has been clear.
“There are three issues that inform my party’s opposition to the quotas. First, we believe that they are unnecessary; secondly, we see them as being divisive; and thirdly, we believe that they have questionable legality.”
“Dr Farry went on to say:
“I want to focus the debate on the interests of the whole community, rather than making it a Protestant or Catholic issue.
“There is far too much labelling going on in this society. We have people who come from open, mixed and multiple backgrounds who do not see themselves as coming from a single identity, and it is important that we represent their point of view as well. There is a notion in society that our political identities, national identities and religious identities, all reinforce one another. For many people, that is not the case, and we should celebrate that fact, rather than constantly trying to pigeonhole people.”
“The question Mrs Long now has to face is why is she considering the return of a policy which the deputy leader of her own party branded unnecessary, divisive and legally questionable?
“50:50 is overtly and deliberately discriminatory. Indeed it is so non-compliant with human rights that it requires a derogation from European Convention on Human Rights in order to allow it to operate in Northern Ireland.
“It directly discriminates against non-Roman Catholics as it requires them to obtain higher scores in the assessments in order to be appointed. Furthermore it unfairly reserves 50% of places for Roman Catholics and 50% for all others. No policy in the entire history of Northern Ireland has been developed so starkly along such us vs them sectarian lines. This is the very sort of thing the Alliance Party traditionally rails against. Why therefore is Minister Long even considering it?”
The debate from which Dr Farry’s comments are drawn is online here.