Sinn Féin damands a native Justice Minister

Sinn Féin is pressing for a local politician from the North rather than a Westminster MP as the new Minister for Justice and Policing in the Northern government.
A party spokesman says that a Northern minister was part of the power-sharing deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

This morning the new First Minister Peter Robinson (photo) told a group of international lawyers that he supports the principle, "but with strings attached".
Robinson's problem is that many of his unionists would not support a Sinn Féin justice minister, even though Sinn Féin is now urging support for the police.

He indicated that the DUP might back a justice minister from the modestly nationalist Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP) or the liberal cross-community Alliance Party. Such a move may come within the next twelve months.

The Emerald Islander