91Èȱ¬

The Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has taken on Shaun Woodward over his assertion that devolving justice is the key to attracting further US inward investment. She says that, having met hundreds of potential investors, "not one single business figure has ever said to me: 'I am holding off investing in Northern Ireland because the devolution of policing powers to the Assembly has not happened yet'."

I spoke to the US Economic Envoy Declan Kelly a couple of hours ago and he tried to steer a middle course through the matter by arguing that political stability and progress in the Stormont institutions was important, whilst adding that there is no reason progress cannot be made on the economic front as the political process continues.

Incidentally we had expected the Envoy to announce Hillary Clinton's visit, but by the time he spoke to us he'd already been beaten to the punch by the UK Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward. Maybe Mr Kelly should announce when Gordon Brown is likely to visit here as a tit for tat.

So do you buy the "devolve justice, get investment" argument?

Here's another one I'm not entirely convinced by. If we don't devolve justice then dissident republicans will fill the vacuum by intensifying their violence.

At the margins I suppose you could argue that achieving the transfer of powers might bolster Sinn Fein and therefore stop some leakage of support to dissident groups. But set against that aren't the dissidents more interested in ending partition and following the example of 1916 than analysing which areas Stormont exerts power over? Much as I might hope that having a local Justice Minister might dampen down any dissident violence, I cannot convince myself that it will make such a great difference.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?