Police Federation chair Liam Kelly says Justice Minister Naomi Long needs to do more on the police funding crisis.

Watch Police Federation chair Liam Kelly says Justice Minister Naomi Long needs to do more on the police funding crisis. - News Letter on Dailymotion

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00:00Yeah, I mean, I think our local politicians, they have got off the hook on this one because

00:05they're clearly not happy that the Chief Constable has taken this step, but I welcome the fact

00:12that he has, and I hope that it brings some much-needed money in to pay us an idea and

00:19enable us to grow as an organisation.

00:21Well, the newsletter was the first newspaper to break the story about the letter from the

00:25Chief Constable to the Prime Minister, and then that was followed by a letter which was

00:29then leaked from the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Justice to the Chief

00:34Constable, basically slapping him down for having written to the Prime Minister.

00:45What was the reaction among PS&I officers to the way the justice system and the Justice

00:51Minister responded to the Chief Constable?

00:55I think at first instance, the letter, when I first saw the letter, I was annoyed, I was

01:02astounded that what was in the letter was actually committed to the paper, really, and

01:08it had been shared with such a wide audience as well, so I mean, much as the Justice Minister

01:14came out to say it was private correspondence, there was nothing private about that letter

01:17whatsoever, and I'm still waiting, because one of the things I've asked for is what was

01:23the motivation behind copying in so many people to what was termed to be private

01:28correspondence, and we still have yet to get any sort of response to that from the Justice

01:32Department or Mr Wittes himself, but it's something that we are still asking to be done,

01:38because it's important, I think, that people understand, and if Mr Wittes has made a

01:43mistake, then if he's big enough to admit that, then that's really good, but I don't

01:47expect that he will.

01:49That letter would have been sent without the approval of the Justice Minister, it seems

01:53inconceivable, she certainly hasn't distanced herself from it. Do you have confidence in

01:58the Justice Minister that she is doing everything she can to deliver for police officers?

02:03I think she needs to do more, and I've said that before, and I'll say it again, the justice

02:10family that she's responsible for, PS&I, takes up about 65% of her budget, so we're the biggest

02:18stakeholder in all of this, and we're also the biggest sufferer in relation to having

02:24definite subpunctions, so we do need her to stand up stronger, and I used Meg Nesbitt

02:31as the comparator in health, where when the budget was allocated, he made it abundantly

02:36clear that he wouldn't support that, and she could have done likewise, and unfortunately

02:41she didn't.