Sinn Féin will move to join the Northern Ireland Policing Board and district policing partnerships "as soon as" the Northern executive is formed, the party president, Gerry Adams, pledged last night.
In an effort to boost confidence among Democratic Unionist Party members just days before the powersharing deadline, Mr Adams said the party "has been supporting the criminal justice system and Police Service of Northern Ireland and will continue to do so".
He made the comments in an interview in An Phoblacht which is not due to be published until tomorrow. However, Sinn Féin appeared keen to get Mr Adams's message out in advance of tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the DUP's executive.
Asked if he believed the DUP would join an executive on March 26th, Mr Adams said: "We shouldn't get fazed about this. We'll know by the 27th. We shouldn't get fixated on it. If the DUP don't do the business, and we sincerely hope that they will, and there is no reason why they shouldn't, then if they don't, then we have to go in with the two governments and get the other partnership agreements in place.
"But that is a very poor second option. Ian Paisley has an unprecedented opportunity to work with everyone else to deal with social and economic issues that are pressing down upon people, in bedding down the peace process and in meeting the wishes of the vast majority of the people who voted in the election," he went on.
"Sinn Féin," said Mr Adams, "will participate fully in policing structures, including the policing board, once reconstituted, and the district policing partnerships.
"I will propose that to the ardchomhairle as soon as the institutions are re-established. This becomes possible in the context of the restoration of the political institutions and the ardchomhairle's satisfaction that policing and justice powers will be transferred away from London," he declared.
Meanwhile, Mr Adams was at the head of a Sinn Féin delegation that met Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern last night about cross-party demands for major investment by the British government in Northern Ireland. He said he wanted the Irish Government to press British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown, who is less than willing to devote extra billions to Belfast, "to pay up for all of the deficit that has been there for so long". He told An Phoblacht: "In my conversations with . . . Gordon Brown he certainly gave the impression that he realises that there now exists a historic opportunity to make significant progress and that he has a role to play in ensuring that is properly resourced.
"If the executive is in place, as expected on March 26th, it is essential that it have the resources to fulfil its obligations.
"It would be disastrous if the incoming administration was saddled with a legacy, on top of all the other problems, arising from the failure of successive British governments to fund public services here," he said.
"Our hope is that these issues can be resolved so that the incoming executive can have the necessary resources to do its work," said Mr Adams, who will travel to London tomorrow to meet the chancellor.
Party chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin said Mr Brown needed to find £3 billion to deal with water supply problems alone. "We are saying that the British government can't simply walk away and leave an incoming executive and expect it not only to cover those legacy issues, but also to rebuild a shattered economy."
