PFNI: 'Dysfunctional' NI devolution has failed officers and citizens

A policing representative group has said that the "dysfunctional manner" and "unnecessary red tape" of the devolved institutions has failed officers and the people of Northern Ireland.

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI), which represents rank and file PSNI officers, has told a Westminster committee that policing has become the "Cinderella" of public services.

In a submission to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the PFNI said it had "lost faith in a system of government that operates in such a dysfunctional manner".

The Westminster committee is examining the operation of the Good Friday Agreement ahead of its 25th anniversary next April.

"On officer numbers alone, the structures set up under the GFA have failed to deliver for policing and, by extension, the entire community," the PFNI said in its submission.

"It is of particular concern that not enough attention is paid to the welfare and wellbeing of officers.

"... Devolved institutions have created layers of unnecessary 'red tape' which hamper delivery in a timely and business-like manner and lead to dissatisfaction and frustration.

"The Northern Ireland Executive - the administration generally - has done more to erode confidence in local government by its failure to take decisions and act expeditiously."

It comes as Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has intervened to cut MLA pay by 27.5% as the Stormont Assembly remains collapsed over a row over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Mr Heaton-Harris has also claimed that householders would be receiving £600 in energy support payments currently if a powersharing executive was in place.

The DUP has refused to engage with the devolved institutions in Belfast in the wake of May's election, meaning it has not been possible to form a ministerial executive.

The boycott is part of the DUP's campaign to oppose the protocol, a set of post-Brexit trading rules aimed at preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The party has said it will not return to powersharing until the UK Government takes action to remove the economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland - either through negotiation with the EU, or unilaterally through domestic legislation.

The latest impasse comes after the collapse of devolved institutions - triggered by the resignation of Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister in 2017.

It would take three years before they were revived again under the New Decade, New Approach agreement in January 2020.

The PFNI added: "We acknowledge that countless lives have been saved because of the GFA and that must be the uppermost consideration.

"However, from a purely PFNI perspective on day-to-day governance, (devolution) has failed to deliver on the promise of the GFA.

"It has, therefore, failed its people. Stop-start politics have hampered devolution and led to missed opportunities to deliver good government."

The PFNI said not approving annual pay awards and withholding incremental pay increases was evidence of the devolved system's failure.

The submission said what should be a straightforward matter on pay has become "bogged down" in a pattern that it described as "tedious, time-consuming bureaucratic box-ticking".

"This is exacerbated by also withholding incremental pay progression without justification," it added.

"The PFNI finds this an intolerable situation. The process is far from user-friendly and needs to be urgently overhauled.

"It is not fit-for-purpose and takes no account of individual needs at a time of rising inflation and a deepening cost-of-living crisis.

"It is a process that is driven by excessive bureaucracy for no good or obvious reason."

PFNI chairman Liam Kelly said: "Our officers are incensed over the way devolution treats them.

"Ministers, when we had them, dragged their feet.

"On top of that, promises on numbers and resources have been broken.

"If devolution is restored, our hope is that it will start becoming more business-like and professional."

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