New Northern Secretary Visits U.S.

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Irish Voice News

New Northern Secretary Visits U.S.

July 19, 2007

By Cahir O’Doherty

THE top priority for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is the devolution of policing and criminal justice to Northern Ireland, the new Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward told the Irish Voice.

May 2008 has been set as the target date for the transfer of powers, and Woodard indicated that they would occur on schedule.

“Northern Ireland remains a majority priority for the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the government,” Woodward said during a visit to New York last Thursday.

“Part of the reason for my being here in the United States so soon after being appointed is to make that message very clear to everybody who’d been so important in helping the peace process get to this stage. The prime minister wants the United States to know that his support for the prosperity and success of Northern Ireland under the devolved administration is as strong as his predecessors.

“That’s the message he wants me to make clear on Capitol Hill. I am also here to outline the tasks that lie ahead between now and May 2008, to ensure that people here have certainty that Gordon Brown is committed to this as Tony Blair was.”

Woodward acknowledged that America has played an important part in creating the conditions for a devolved Assembly in Northern Ireland.

“To see the new working relationship between the First Minister Ian Paisley and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness is very impressive, it’s an amazing achievement. This is a substantial change; this is not just presentation, and anyone who sees Paisley and McGuinness together as I did within the first few days of taking the job can see the working relationship between these two men runs very deep.

“There is genuine cause for considerable optimism about the future. People are going to want to make the new Assembly work, because people can see it’s here for the long term. This is not for the short term. This is real.”

Acknowledging that the timetable for devolution was “tight but realistic,” Woodward acknowledged the significance of Sinn Fein joining the Policing Board. “Hugh Orde, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) went to meet Gerry Adams in West Belfast recently, so there are transformations taking place.

“In Crossmaglen the local leaders have asked the Police Board to look at community policing there. Two years ago this would have been unimaginable, today it’s happening.

“By the end of this month the British Army will have no part – in any shape or form, officially or unofficially – of policing. The police can now go into any part of Northern Ireland and do policing.”

Asked about the proposed cut in corporate tax in Northern Ireland to compete with the rates offered by the Republic of Ireland, Woodward replied, “Two factors apply here, one is stability, the other is labor costs. Office rents in central Belfast are two and a half times less expensive than in Dublin. Northern Ireland has highly skilled young people, and outstanding universities.

“Corporate tax is something we should look at certainly, but I think there are other factors that are as important. You don’t want to attract companies that are just there to take advantage of your tax rate and then migrate. What matters is to build a sustainable future in Northern Ireland – sustainable in every way. That’s what the new Executive has got to figure out, and we’re there to help them.”

Woodward asserted that his current focus as secretary of state would be on the transfer of powers and on securing stability in Northern Ireland. “When you’re making investments, as opposed to donations, you’re looking for security. My role as secretary of state is to develop and nurture that enabling environment,” he said.

“My principle focus is driving through the second stage of the St. Andrew’s agreement – the May 2008 deadline for the transfer of powers – in the timetable that was part of that agreement.”

Woodward, 49, who was previously under-secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office and then the U.K.’s film minister in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, crossed the floor from the Conservative Party to Labor in 1999.

He is married to Camilla Sainsbury, daughter of the wealthy U.K. supermarket Sainsbury family.

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