PETER ROBINSON and Martin McGuinness are due to hold further talks this week in an attempt to break the deadlock over policing and justice that has prevented the Northern Executive from meeting since mid-June.
A meeting of the Executive is listed for Thursday, while a plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council is scheduled to be held on Friday. Against the continuing stand-off between Sinn Féin and the DUP it remains uncertain whether either meeting will take place.
In north Antrim on Saturday, First Minister Mr Robinson followed up on his comments the previous night in Fermanagh that these powers "will be" transferred, but only at a time when there is confidence in the unionist community for such a move.
"I have no problem with policing and justice functions being devolved in the right circumstances, but I have every problem with policing and justice functions being devolved to a Sinn Féin minister," he said during a debate in Kells in Co Antrim on the topic, "The Siege Has Lifted".
"It is foolish and counter- productive for Sinn Féin to say that unless they get their way on this party political agenda item, they will stop Ministers carrying out their political, moral and legal responsibilities. If republicans have learned nothing else over the past decades I would have thought that they would understand that having refused to be bombed into submission, unionists will not be bullied into submission," said Mr Robinson.
"I want to see the devolution of policing and justice functions to the Assembly and I want to see this take place as soon as possible," he added. "In principle, all unionist parties want it to happen, but it will not happen until the right modalities are in place and there is widespread confidence in the community for it to happen."
In the absence of Mr Robinson providing a "timeframe" for transferring these powers Sinn Féin was holding to its position that it will continue to block meetings of the Executive. Deputy First Minister Mr McGuinness said there was no point in having an Executive if it was "a charade". The DUP had to accept that if operating the Executive was "not on the basis of partnership then it isn't going to work", Mr McGuinness told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme on Saturday.
He criticised Mr Robinson for refusing to issue a joint statement congratulating the Tyrone team after they won the All-Ireland football final and said a similar situation arose during commemorations for the Omagh bomb victims.
"We had the ludicrous situation during the summer where there was a proposition that a joint wreath would be laid by the First and Deputy First Ministers at the commemoration in Omagh and the DUP refused to participate in that," said Mr McGuinness.
"These are important pointers to the difficulties the DUP face in coming to terms with the whole issue of engaging in a partnership government based on equality."
SDLP finance spokesman Declan O'Loan warned yesterday said that devolution was in danger of being defined as a period of missed economic opportunity because of the stand-off. While there was an economic downturn all around, the message from the Executive was to "do nothing".
Meanwhile, the head of the Orange Order, Robert Saulters, has confirmed he received a letter from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams seeking a meeting. At the first meeting of the Orange Order Grand Lodge in the Republic since partition, in Co Cavan, Mr Saulters said he did not accede to the request, but instead sent Mr Adams literature about the Order.
