Stephen Farry stated: “Alliance has had a longstanding and consistent objection to 50:50 quotas for police recruitment from a liberal perspective.
“We remain strongly committed to a representative and professional police service. The use of quotas in recruitment is a major breach of the critical merit principle.
“The use of a bicommunal quota has reinforced arbitrary division in our society. It was also a blunt instrument failing to reflect the diversity that exists within the presupposed communities and also works against the interests of other under-represented minorities. The British Government had to obtain exemptions from European equality law in order to pursue 50:50.
“Alliance has maintained that there were other alternative means of affirmative action to address the serious underrepresentation within the police in Northern Ireland rather than a rigid quota. The changed political, policing and security context has been instrumental in achieving a more balanced police service.”
ENDS