DUP parades call 'unacceptable'

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said the DUP parades call was 'unacceptable'

DUP calls to make the abolition of the Parades Commissions a precondition for devolving policing are unacceptable, the Sinn Fein president has said.

Speaking in London on Tuesday the DUP leader said the commission should be abolished to "increase confidence".

Gerry Adams said the speech was "not a sincere, genuine or a serious effort to resolve the issue of Orange parades".

The DUP said Peter Robinson's comments were "consistent with the party manifesto".

Mr Robinson, speaking in the House of Commons, said the abolition of the commission would "increase confidence in devolved policing and justice powers".

Speaking on Thursday Mr Adams said: "Any attempt to put the resolution of that issue, in front of and as a precondition for the transfer of policing and justice powers is totally and absolutely unacceptable."

Ashdown proposals

Mr Robinson, who is Northern Ireland's first minister, had told MPs the commission was "not a solution to problems, but part of the problem itself".

He said he strongly supported the work of former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown, who is heading a review into parading in Northern Ireland, but he questioned the delay in the final report.

The DUP leader said the delay was not the fault of Lord Ashdown but was down to Sinn Fein seeking "to extract a political price to deliver that which has already been agreed".

In a statement on Thursday the DUP said Sinn Fein's representative on the Strategic Review of Parading group had signed up the the Ashdown proposals.

"Mr Adams is now distancing himself from (that) position and trying to extract a price for something which has already been agreed," the statement continued.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown published budget proposals for the devolution of policing and justice.

Sinn Fein has already approved the deal but the DUP say the unionist community must have confidence in any proposed arrangements before devolution happens.