Policing: Policing will be the biggest leap for republicans, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
"It would be a massive step. It's even bigger than going into Stormont. Policing is what it's all about - it's what we fought a war against."
So says a former high-ranking IRA member of the greatest single outstanding issue in the peace process.
No matter what source is contacted, whether in Sinn Féin or in republican communities or in the ranks of the IRA, the policing issue will not be sorted out quickly.
Time is needed, they say, for practical measures to take effect and also for thousands in west Belfast and along the Border to get used to the idea of acceptance of the police service after decades of conflict.
It will take legislative changes but also a quantum leap in the republican mindset.
"If you go from Beechmount [ in west Belfast], to Short Strand to the Border people still call the police the RUC. It's the same faces, the same sneers from the same people. The same people still turning a blind eye to car thieves, still trying to recruit informers."
The arrival of Hugh Orde, new uniforms, new monitoring procedures and the appointment of Nuala O'Loan as policing ombudsman doesn't cut much ice with communities who still complain that the force ignores their policing needs.
"Considerably more reforms are still needed," says one.
But what are they? - a question which is echoed by the SDLP, Denis Bradley of the Policing Board and the plethora of bodies which oversee the PSNI.
Sinn Féin insist that plastic bullets have to be withdrawn immediately. Modified and supposedly less-lethal bullets were used for the first time since Orde took over the PSNI during ugly rioting in Ardoyne on the night of July 12th.
Before this the chief constable prided himself on his clean sheet, although he has always insisted that riot control methods, including plastic bullets, were always needed.
Republicans also insist that local control over policing has to be restored. Strangely, this is not a problem for the DUP - despite the fact that it was over this one issue that the old Stormont was prorogued. What does bother the likes of Peter Robinson is the possibility that a former IRA member, possible Gerry Kelly, could become Northern Ireland justice minister.
Mr Robinson believes he could sell the idea of devolved policing to sceptical unionists but not the idea of Mr Kelly or his like holding the portfolio.
Despite the reform of Special Branch and its incorporation into a combined crime division of the PSNI, republicans remain particularly sensitive about questions relating to intelligence gathering.
"We need local democratic control over that," the IRA leader says. "Control should rest with local politicians not the chief constable and definitely not MI5 [ the British army's intelligence operation]. You can't leave this up to spies, spooks and MI5. They are unionists and they hate us. At the heart of this is the [ special] branch - counterinsurgency stuff needs to done away with. We need local control." Some credit is given to efforts made by the PSNI to even out the imbalance of the service's religious make-up.
Yet there is a sting in the tail. While some applaud the 50:50 recruitment practice which aims to sign up equal numbers of Catholics and "Others" to the PSNI, they say it will still take "10, 20, 30 years before there is a serious impact on the imbalance".
"The people who ran the RUC also run the PSNI. The fact remains that after any conflict you need a new force. You change the five-eighths on the ground as well as the leadership. We need more than Hugh Orde, we need nationalists and republicans in the highest ranks not just Orde and that is a nightmare for unionists."
Another principle problem appears to be that when it comes to policing, republicans and others appear to be talking past each other. The PSNI is currently the most monitored by outside agencies of any force in the democratic world. According to Al Hutchinson, the Police Oversight Commissioner and former Canadian police chief, the Patten recommendations are a blueprint for any police service anywhere. Yet some nationalist and republican opinion ignores this, just as they ignore the calls by Policing Board vice-chairman Denis Bradley for them to "live up to their responsibilities".
The same people say they can easily live what Michael McDowell and Mark Durkan insist in an absurd contradiction which sees Sinn Féin involved in a Stormont Executive and making laws for Northern Ireland, but withholding support for the police service which enforces those laws.
"I, and others like me can live that contradiction," says the IRA man. "I don't care about McDowell and Durkan - when there has been real change then we will join."
Mr Bradley suggests otherwise. "These are all political concerns," he says. "What I hear from many republicans is the same old emotional hurt and damage from decades ago.
"The fact is that things are changing with regard to policing and changing rapidly. People's attitudes are shifting regarding the PSNI." He believes republicans will take the political decision to back policing when it suits them.