The Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, has set a November deadline for widescale public consultation on the report of the Patten Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, which was published yesterday.
Dr Mowlam said some of the recommendations of the commission chaired by Mr Chris Patten could be in place in a matter of months, while others would depend on the political and security situation. "This is the chance for a new beginning to set the standard for policing in the new millennium," she said. "I urge everyone involved to read the report, reflect on it and to seize the opportunity it offers for the whole community".
The report proposes the most radical overhaul of the police service in the history of Northern Ireland. The RUC, it says, should not be disbanded, but should be named the Northern Ireland Police Service.
There should be a new badge and symbols entirely free from any association with the British or Irish states, and the Union flag should no longer be flown from police buildings.
The report triggered an initially hostile response from the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble. But while Mr Trimble described it as "shoddy", he nonetheless pledged to carefully consider the proposals.
Other key figures central to the prospects of a successful implementation of the proposals, such as the RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, and Sinn Fein representatives, were more measured in their reaction.
After issuing his 128-page report containing 175 recommendations, Mr Patten made strenuous efforts to reassure the UUP in particular that their anxieties about former IRA members being involved in policing and the RUC Special Branch being "emasculated" were ill-founded. He said the RUC was being transformed, not disbanded, and he challenged Mr Trimble and his party to devise a better alternative to his document. There was "pain and gain" for both communities in the report. The entire community would benefit by its implementation, he added.
Representatives of rank-and-file police officers were angry at the proposals to drop the RUC title and badge, and cease flying the Union flag at police stations. But chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan indicated he may be able to endorse crucial elements of the report, and said his officers were prepared to take up the challenge of the Patten paper.
He acknowledged that the proposals dealing with the RUC name, symbols and ethos, and the plans to dramatically reduce the size of the full-time service to 7,500 would cause anxiety and distress to his officers. He added, however: "If that hurt brings about the true new beginning that Patten envisages, then perhaps the pain has to be endured by us."
The SDLP was quite enthusiastic about the report, while Sinn Fein said it would carefully consider the document before issuing a response. However, Mr Martin McGuinness warned that republicans would not accept any changes that were merely "cosmetic".
Mr Trimble described the Patten document as the "most shoddy piece of work I have seen in my entire life". When this remark was put to Mr Patten on British television last night, he responded: "When he considers that remark . . .I don't think he will regard that as the wisest thing he has ever said."
Mr Trimble said he found the name change a "gratuitous insult" and warned that the unionist community could be so outraged by this proposal that it would not properly consider the other recommendations.
He and other senior unionists focused their attack on the proposed merger of the Special Branch with the Criminal Investigation Department(CID), and a system whereby local district police boards could "buy in" extra services. This was tantamount to allowing IRA members a policing function "by the back door", Mr Reg Empey, UUP Assembly member, said.
Mr Patten said his report was about more effective, "de-politicised" policing. "I was saddened that Mr Trimble said what he did. But I hope that if he thinks that there are more sensible ways of implementing the (Belfast) Agreement which he signed, he will say what they should be," he said. See also pages
He also stated emphatically that there was no intention to create a system where former paramilitaries could have a policing responsibility.
