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Perverse Effects Of Patten Report

Article 4 ~ March 2003

The devastating effects of the implementation of the Patten Report are still being felt in Northern Ireland.

Officers of the Garda in the Republic of Ireland are being invited to apply for posts within the Police Service of Northern Ireland, a breathtaking departure from the long-established practice of appointing officers who are citizens of the United Kingdom.

No doubt the Garda officers are honourable men, doing a fine job in their own country. But Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom - whatever Labour lawyers may claim - and in any normal country the law and order officers would be appointed from the citizens of that State.

Can anyone doubt the uproar there would be if France decided to recruit for its police from Britain or Germany?

It's a ridiculous situation, but just the latest manifestation of the fall out from the Patten report - the adoption of which had already led to the destruction of the RUC and its replacement with a force whose recruiting procedure is strictly controlled by a sectarian headcount - a situation without parallel anywhere else.

Recruitment of Garda officers, the rejection of Protestants for the PSNI unless the 50-50 recruitment requirements can be met, and the axing of the excellent police band. Meanwhile, some 80 PSNI officers are serving in Kosovo while the streets of Northern Ireland become more dangerous.

On top of that the SDLP, one of the pro-Agreement parties, wants to reduce the number of police stations in Northern Ireland by some 30 stations, and, of course, Sinn Fein cannot see its way to recognise the police force in spite of so many concessions made to republicanism. What a sorry state of affairs and one brought about by the implementation of the Patten report.

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