Opinion

Issue of PSNI Catholic recruitment needs to be addressed

When the PSNI formed its first GAA team it was seen as a positive sign of a transformed police service.

Along with 50:50 recruitment, the message being sent out to Catholics and nationalists both serving or considering a career in policing was one of inclusion and equality.

It was also hugely significant that the GAA removed Rule 21, which banned members of the security forces from joining the association, in November 2001, two weeks after the newly created PSNI took over from the RUC.

There is no doubt that hopes were high at this time that we were at the beginning of a new era in policing and a wider normalisation of society as the peace process took root.

As it turned out, the transformation of our society has proved much more difficult than could have been anticipated and policing especially has experienced a range of challenges.

And while the news that the PSNI GAC could fold within the next year is not the biggest issue facing the PSNI or the wider community, there is nevertheless a certain symbolism about this development which comes amid concerns over the number of Catholic recruits.

In particular, there have been renewed calls for the return of 50:50 recruitment, a policy introduced as part of the Patten reforms which saw the number of Catholic police officers rise sharply from eight per cent of the overall strength to around 32 per cent.

It was a controversial policy, deeply unpopular with unionist politicians, but it was undoubtedly effective and since it was ended prematurely Catholic numbers have remained static.

There are of course a range of factors that impact on recruitment, not least the dissident republican threat which remains serious and deadly.

It affected the PSNI GAA directly when one of its players, Peadar Heffron, was maimed in a booby-trap bomb attack in 2010. Ronan Kerr, murdered in 2011, was from a GAA family.

And while these horrific attacks stiffen the resolve of some, for others they are a deterrent and have a chilling effect on parents fearful of their children joining the police and becoming potential targets.

If the police GAA team is in decline because of a lack of new members, it is in some ways a reflection of a wider problem facing the PSNI and one that needs to be urgently addressed.