Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has outlined the requirements the party says it needs if it is to hold a special party conference to debate the endorsement of the PSNI within the timetable envisaged in the St Andrews plan.
In an article published in today's edition of An Phoblacht, Mr Adams said he needed a definite date for the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont, agreement on the type of devolved government department that would handle them and MI5 to be excluded from any civic policing role.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams
He also offered to meet PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists in a bid to break the political impasse.
Mr Adams stated: "I am committed to calling a meeting of the Sinn Féin ardchomhairle immediately when these issues are resolved.
"This ardchomhairle meeting will be for the purpose of convening a special ard fheis within the timeframe set out at St Andrews. However, let me be equally clear that I will not go to the ardchomhairle to seek a special ardfheis unless I have the basis to do so," he wrote.
Mr Adams welcomed Dr Paisley's signal last Friday that he would take up the post of Stormont first minister and share power with Sinn Féin if all outstanding issues in the peace process were resolved and the electorate wanted him to.
Mr Adams said while he did not underestimate the challenge this presented to republicans and nationalists, he was also aware of the challenge it presented to Mr Paisley and the DUP.
However, he insisted all the obstacles to power sharing could be removed, including policing, if the political will was there.
Insisting his party wanted a new experience of policing, he said what would be central to achieving that goal would be the ability of locally elected politicians to exercise power and accountability at a devolved government level.
It was unreasonable, he argued, to expect politicians to take responsibility for policing and justice and have no real authority over the issues. "Local politicians would not agree to run the health service without authority over it," the Sinn Féin leader argued.
"This isn't rocket science. It is about parties taking straightforward and practical decisions."
Mr Adams said it was unsustainable and bogus for senior DUP negotiators to argue the devolution of policing and justice powers could not be resolved for several political lifetimes because there was no trust. None of the political parties trusted each other, he claimed.
Very few nationalists or republicans, he said, trusted the agencies of the North, including the police. However Mr Adams acknowledged significant progress had been made in making the PSNI more accountable.
Nevertheless the Sinn Féin president insisted the PSNI still had a lot to do to gain the confidence of nationalists. "We need to take control of policing and justice away from London," he argued.