Alliance urges quotas change

David Ford said his party would be an "effective opposition"

Catholic-Protestant policing recruitment quotas in Northern Ireland should be replaced with a fairer system, the cross-community Alliance Party has said.

In its manifesto for the Northern Ireland Assembly election on 26 November, the party called for the replacement of the 50:50 quotas which have also been criticised by unionist parties.

The Alliance Party, which has re-affirmed its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement, also called for the phased devolution of policing and criminal justice responsibilities from Westminster to Stormont.

Party leader David Ford said Alliance would work as an effective opposition in the assembly.

He said some of the larger parties who are now calling for free personal care for the elderly voted against it in the last assembly. He said such a U-turn was "a political scandal".

Mr Ford also said his party had taken risks for peace and would prove an effective opposition in the assembly.

The main points of the Alliance Party manifesto include:

Introducing hate crime laws in Northern Ireland

Creating specific offences over the erection of flags and other emblems and painting of paramilitary murals

Replacing the voting system at Stormont with one based on a simple weighted majority

Placing a duty on all agencies in Northern Ireland to promote community relations, the promotion of secure mixed housing areas and the development of a Single Equality Act

Amending fair employment monitoring regulations to stop people being labelled Catholic or Protestant against their will

Giving the executive tax varying powers to enable it to offer incentives to increase jobs and income

Scrapping the regional rate, replacing it with a local income tax based on people's ability to pay, a reduction in bureaucracy and regulations for small businesses and the introduction of the euro

Implementing the Vision Action Plan for modernising farming and rural development and a strategy for organic food production

Rural development is important to the Alliance Party

On the issue of education, the manifesto calls for a nursery school place for every child who wishes to have one and the allocation of additional resources to the education of children with learning difficulties.

It wants to see the abolition of the 11-plus and its replacement with a common middle school curriculum for children aged between 11 and 14.

It also wants the setting of a target of having 10% of all children in integrated schools by 2010 and the abolition of all tuition fees for Northern Ireland universities.

The manifesto also calls for:

More of GDP (gross domestic product) to be allocated to bring health services up to average European Union levels

The introduction of free personal care for those in nursing and residential homes

The abolition of eye and dental check charges, and provision of free digital hearing aids

The establishment of an Environmental Protection Agency and creation of a Green Economy Taskforce as well as the introduction of a levy on plastic bags

An increase in funding for public transport including free travel for all pensioners and the expansion of the railway system in Northern Ireland

Support and promotion for Cantonese and other minority languages as well as Irish and Ulster Scots