SF meeting:The Sinn Féin ardchomhairle agreed after a six-hour meeting in Dublin on Saturday to hold an extraordinary ardfheis on January 28th to seek support for policing and the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams announced after the meeting that an immediate process of consultation would begin with grassroots members through a series of public "parish hall" type meetings between now and January 28th, which will be open to everyone, to explain the motion to be put to the ardfheis.
He also said the party would be consulting people who have been victims of bad policing, families and campaigning groups on the ardfheis motion.
Mr Adams described the ardchomhairle agreement to hold a special ardfheis on policing as "a courageous and historic one", which will "ensure that the process continues to move forward".
The decision to hold the ardfheis on the basis of the motion agreed by the ardchomhairle on December 29th came despite the DUP's failure to respond positively to those proposals.
"Sinn Féin has said very decisively that we will not be paralysed by rejectionist elements in the DUP.
"We're moving on in the hope that positive elements of unionism, including those in the DUP, will see this as an enormous step forward," he said.
The motion to be put to the ardfheis will include a commitment to support for the PSNI and criminal justice system, that the police and criminal justice systems will be fully held to account both democratically and legally and the appointment of party representatives to the policing board and district partnership policing boards.
Mr Adams said the ardchomhairle was proposing that the ardfheis adopts the motion and "gives the ardchomhairle the responsibility and authority to fully implement all elements of it."
"The necessary context for this motion is the re-establishment of the political institutions and confirmation that policing and justice powers will be transferred to these institutions or when acceptable new partnership arrangements to implement the Good Friday agreement are in place," he said.
He refused to expand on what he meant by "acceptable new partnership arrangements" or on whether the motion is conditional on the establishment of the political institutions.
When questioned, he said if the ardfheis agrees the motion then the ardchomhairle will be mandated to implement it "and that will be a matter for the ardchomhairle". He said there was a lot of talk about a "Plan A" and a "Plan B" but the project was "Plan A" and he was not giving up on that. "Let's not give up on Plan A and let the governments not give up," he said.
Mr Adams added that it would be entirely wrong to allow the most negative elements of unionism a veto over republican and nationalist efforts to achieve the new beginning to policing promised in the Belfast Agreement.
The objective was to secure a proper policing service and to hold that policing service, once achieved, fully to account, he said.
"We have already achieved enormous progress on the issues of democratic accountability, human rights protections and the ending of political and repressive policing," he said.
He added that he welcomed progress on the key issues of the removal of MI5 from local policing structures and on the use of plastic bullets.
"I believe that the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement is now within our grasp. Sinn Féin wants to get policing right.
"The extraordinary Sinn Féin ardfheis is the important next step."
Mr Adams said he did not for "one second" underestimate the huge step this was for republicans and said he appreciated the destabilising effect since December 29th that the DUP position had in republican and Nationalist communities.