Alliance say they turned down the chance to run Stormont's Justice Ministry this week because the proposed job is a "carve-up" that would have diminished powers.

Party leader David Ford claimed today that the DUP and Sinn Fein do not want the Minister to be a member of the Executive — meaning he or she would have no role in wider issues like the Budget.

Mr Ford said the proposals for devolving policing and justice are "unworkable and deeply flawed".

Earlier this week the DUP and Sinn Fein announced that they have agreed that a single Minister should take policing and justice powers when they are transferred from London.

They also agreed that the post should be elected by the Assembly on a cross-community basis. In what appeared to be a compromise, both parties said they would not seek to have any of their members nominated.

But in response to the proposals, Mr Ford said today that the"so-called breakthrough over the Department of Justice amounts to very little".

"Apparently all the DUP and Sinn Fein have proposed is a Minister who would not even be a member of the Executive," he said.

"How could anyone fulfil a role as important as Justice Minister in those circumstances?”

He added: "This proposal is as ludicrous as the half-baked carve-up they came up with on the Victims Commission.

“It is unworkable and deeply flawed.”