The British government has decided to postpone publishing definitive proposals on how community restorative justice (CRJ) schemes should be regulated in Northern Ireland, chiefly because of "robust" concerns by the SDLP and the McCartney family.
And as new figures show that more Catholics are joining the PSNI, the British government has also decided to change its original consultation proposals published at the end of last year so that people running officially-funded CRJ schemes must agree to have direct engagement with the police, rather than indirect contact as originally proposed.
The North's criminal justice minister David Hanson was today due to publish his final proposals for CRJ schemes in the North based on what he had learned from a consultation programme that began last December.
However, sources said yesterday that such was the concern expressed that these schemes could lead to a form of "vigilantism" in republican and loyalist areas that Mr Hanson has decided to embark on another 12-week consultation period to try "to get the issue right".
The main thrust of the opposition to his original proposals emanated from the SDLP, the Policing Board and the McCartney sisters, whose brother, Robert, was murdered outside Magennis's bar close to the Short Strand in east Belfast at the end of January last year.
The McCartneys mounted a Justice for Robert campaign claiming that IRA members had intimidated witnesses from giving evidence that would have convicted his killers. They also warned that the CRJ schemes as originally proposed by Mr Hanson could lead to republican paramilitary policing in republican areas. They said that people associated with their brother's murder were involved in CRJ schemes.
Meanwhile, SDLP leader Mark Durkan and senior members, including policing spokesman Alex Attwood, led a party campaign against the consultation proposals. They ignored Sinn Féin allegations that the SDLP was pursuing a "securocrat agenda".
Official sources admitted that such was the force of the opposition to the proposals that Mr Hanson felt he had no option but to alter his original recommendations and seek further public ideas on how CRJ schemes should operate.
There are now 14 CRJ schemes operating in republican areas and five in loyalist areas. While loyalists will co-operate with the PSNI, republicans will not.
Under the December 2005 proposals, schemes based in republican areas could avoid dealing directly with the police, with the Probation Board of Northern Ireland or the Youth Justice Agency acting as an effective go-between between scheme organisers and police.
However, sources said Mr Hanson has decided that there "must be direct engagement" between those who run the schemes and the PSNI.
It is expected that his latest proposals will not clearly define whether former paramilitaries should be permitted to work in officially-sanctioned CRJ schemes.
Before deciding on this issue, and the vetting procedures for who should be on these schemes, Mr Hanson will seek further advice from his officials, CRJ experts and the public.
Meanwhile, new statistics show that the PSNI is two-thirds of the way towards achieving the Patten recommendations on Catholic membership of the force.
Catholics now account for 20.05 per cent of regular officers in the PSNI, compared to just 8.3 per cent when former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten proposed in 1998 his 50:50 Catholic/Protestant recruitment policy for the force.
Mr Patten recommended that this 50:50 policy should remain in place for 10 years when it was hoped that 30 per cent of officers would be Catholic. This proposal was put in place through the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000.
Mr Attwood, welcoming the figures, said 50:50 recruitment was still pivotal to policing change, and must not be abandoned "to jolly the DUP along" to accepting a devolution deal.
