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£17m PSNI cuts 'are unacceptable' PSNI budget 'right down to wire'
(about 4 hours later)
Government demands to slash £17m from the police budget are unacceptable, the Policing Board chairman has said. The acting chief constable of the PSNI has said the police budget was "right down to the wire in terms of what we can cut into".
Barry Gilligan said he had requested a meeting with Security Minister Paul Goggins to discuss the issue. Judith Gillespie was speaking at a meeting of the Policing Board in which government demands to slash £17m from the budget were discussed.
The Policing Board is meeting for the first time since the departure of Sir Hugh Orde as chief constable. Chairman of the board, Barry Gilligan, said the cuts were "unacceptable".
An internal PSNI report saying police are not providing an effective service and have lost sight of what's important to communities is also being discussed. He said he had requested a meeting with Security Minister Paul Goggins to discuss the issue.
Mr Gilligan told the board: "Resources have been a prominent feature of discussions at this board table over the past year and further efficiencies will be sought by the treasury.
"But the board again were unanimous that at this time a cut of £17m is not acceptable to this board and the members of this board."
The Policing Board was meeting for the first time since the departure of Sir Hugh Orde as chief constable.
Acting Chief Constable Judith Gillespie told the meeting: "If we don't have flexibility in our budget we are going to have great difficulty moving forward.
"If we don't have that flexibility there is no doubt that frontline services will suffer, so without that flexibility we are going nowhere."
Political members of the board also spoke out against the cuts.
'Wise up'
The DUP's Peter Weir said the government had to "wise up".
"If they are looking to make progress, making threats to slash police budgets further is not going to be in anyone's interests," he said
Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey said while the board was prepared to make savings where they were practical, it did not want to deprive the public of a professional service.
"We also have to make sure that the officers themselves have the necessary resources to carry out their duties," he said.
An internal PSNI report saying police are not providing an effective service and have lost sight of what's important to communities was also being discussed at the meeting.
The report said officers spend more than 60% of their time in stations doing paper work.The report said officers spend more than 60% of their time in stations doing paper work.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Gilligan said some tough choices lay ahead. An incident at Meigh in south Armagh, when armed dissident republicans were seen operating an illegal checkpoint, was also on the agenda.
"Down the line, a local minister is going to have to make decisions as to whether we have 100 police officers, 100 teachers or 100 nurses, that is the real world and that is where we are heading," he said.
"There is not much in this report that hasn't been put to the PSNI by the board over recent years."
An incident at Meigh in south Armagh, when armed dissident republicans where seen operating an illegal checkpoint, is also thought to be on the agenda of the meeting.
Cuts
The NIO has said the £17m cut in the PSNI budget is needed as part of a government drive to save £5bn in the next financial year.
However, the board said the cuts will mean fewer officers on the ground, when police say they need to improve frontline services and get more officers on the streets.
Members of the board have been angered by the content and tone of an NIO letter requesting the savings.
The letter said: "If we cannot achieve our target then the business performance review team will be asked to review budgets... and recommend ways of securing the required savings."
Policing Board members have said this suggests government accountants will tell the police how to save money.
The NIO has insisted that its letter is not an ultimatum and said the PSNI is not being singled out.