UTV News - Policing talks continue in US

Subscribe to the News Feed Newsback to News

Policing talks continue in US

Text Size:  A  A |  POST A COMMENT |  PRINT |  SHARE 
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness
The First and Deputy First Ministers are in New York on Wednesday to continue talks over the devolution of policing and justice powers.

Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, along with a delegation of NI politicians, are on their way to attend a conference hosted by former US president Bill Clinton.

The gathering in New York will include Declan Kelly, Northern Ireland's new economic envoy from the US, Secretary of State Shaun Woodward and the Irish Republic's Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin.

Read Ken Reid's blog: America calling


It forms part of the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, with discussions focusing on how to attract more investment and jobs to the region.

First Minister Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and the panellists will also discuss how local businesses can reach US markets.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, and will meet with the Stormont leaders in a bid to finalise the devolution deal.

UTV's Political Editor Ken Reid believes there will be few surprises in the deal itself. The question is whether or not the DUP will buy into it.

"Peter Robinson has already said that whatever the deal, he'll have to take it back to his party. Yesterday, worryingly for the government, a number of DUP MLAs in the Assembly said that it wasn't going to happen in the short term," Ken Reid said.

"So you can see that actually we could be facing some quite difficult political times," he added.

On Tuesday night, the second stage of the Justice Bill was passed in the Assembly after a marathon debate.

Discussions on the bill lasted eight hours, but it was finally voted through by the DUP, Sinn Fein and the Alliance Party.

© UTV News

Send to a friend

Email To
Your Name
Comment
Close
Comments
0 Comments
Be the first to comment
Post a comment
Name:
Email Address:
Location:
Your Comment:
Verification Code: Captcha Code  Get New Code
POST COMMENT
[Before posting, please take a moment to familiarise yourself with our house rules. All comments are moderated and will not appear immediately. Any information you enter, including email and web addresses, will be displayed on our site if passed by our moderators.]