A former priest who secretly acted as a contact between the Provisional IRA and the British government from 1972 to 1994 last night said that Sinn Fein's objections to joining the North's Policing Board "lacked enough meat to make a sandwich".
Broadcaster and writer Denis Bradley was speaking in Derry at the first public debate between Sinn Fein and the SDLP since the SDLP gave its public backing to the Policing Board. The debate will be broadcast at noon today on BBC Northern Ireland's Talkback programme.
Mr Bradley, who spoke in favour of the motion that "This House says that Nationalists should now join the new Police Service" told a packed auditorium in the Foyle Arts Centre that Sinn Fein's objections to the Policing Board had neither substance nor validity.
"One of the objections is about the lack of an oath for serving members of the RUC. I'm afraid I'm too sceptical. In my opinion, 10 oaths do nothing in turning a rogue copper into a good copper", he said.
Proposing the motion, the North's Finance Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, said that his party's decision to support the new Policing Board had not been taken lightly. "I believe that Sinn Fein agreed with us that no public office in this country should be out of bounds for nationalists or republicans. I look forward to the day when they agree with us that no area of public service, not even policing, is out of bounds for nationalists."
Sinn Fein's national chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, opposing the motion, said that SDLP support for the Policing Board was based on the promises and word of the British government.
"Great effort was expended by nationalists and republicans to bring a reluctant British government back to the Patten template", he said. "Tony Blair's policy, when it came down to it, was `take it or leave it', and the SDLP regrettably, and not for the first time, decided to take it. I think nationalists and republicans will take a different approach."