PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
ROYAL ULSTER CONSTABULARY GC (20 January 2000)

That this House salutes the professionalism of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, its dead, its wounded and their relatives; recognises its consistent efforts to achieve progressive changes, including the installation of better IT equipment and the establishment of a police college - withheld by successive governments because of financial constraints; welcomes the positive steps which the RUC has put into human relationship and community awareness training; regrets that neither the Patten Commission nor the Government has addressed the problem of Republican/Nationalist unwillingness to recognise Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom; notes that Sinn Fein continues to campaign against the RUC and its attempts, through school visits, to encourage members of the Roman Catholic community to seek a career in the RUC; rejects the politicisation of the RUC through the proposed Police Board; and repudiates the slur cast upon the good name of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC by its proposed replacement with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Sponsored by:
The Rev Martin Smyth (Ulster Unionist Party)