War of words deepens between NI ministers
Divisions in the North’s power-sharing ministerial Executive deepened further today when one minister branded another a liar.
Extending the public slanging match, Finance Minister Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionists Party, turned his guns yet again on the SDLP Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie.
The war of words between the two follows Ms Ritchie’s announcement to the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday that she was cutting £1.2m in funding to loyalist groups from the Conflict Transformation Fund.
The announcement came after a 60-day deadline she had given the Ulster Defence Association to start decommissioning its weapons after violence during the summer passed without action.
DUP ministers have been critical of Ms Ritchie over the way she made the decision, accusing her of breaching the ministerial code by ignoring legal advice from the Executive and an undertaking to consult them before acting.
She in turn has challenged their version of events, accused Mr Robinson of being a bully and the DUP and Sinn Féin of trying to control other parties’ ministers.
Mr Robinson deepened divisions today accusing Ms Ritchie of having lied about passing him the legal advice she obtained prior to making her decision to cut funding.
He quoted Ms Ritchie of stating on BBC TV: “I am very clear that I agreed and the Executive agreed on Monday night of last week that I was to obtain legal advice and share it with the First and Deputy First Minister and also the Finance Minister.
“As soon as I was in receipt of that legal advice, both external and internal, I supplied it to those three individuals.”
But firing his fresh broadside, Mr Robinson said: “This is a lie.
“Firstly no legal advice was handed over to be me before it was announced on Monday that the DSD minister was making statement to the Assembly. I first heard she was making a statement through the press.”
He said that on hearing she was making a statement he sent her a letter asking for the legal advice she had undertaken to supply, and claimed “some” pieces of the advice was passed to his office.
Mr Robinson said the dates on the documentation showed Ms Ritchie had been holding some of the advice for a week without passing it on.
“This was contrary to her claim that ’As soon as I was in receipt of that legal advice… I supplied it to those three individuals’, ” said Mr Robinson.
A quick glance at what had been supplied on Monday made it clear Ms Ritchie was still withholding other legal advice, he claimed, and his officials asked for the substantive legal opinion to be delivered – it had been sent to him the next day just before the minister rose to make her statement.
Mr Robinson added: “Now I have discovered that still further legal advice had been withheld by the Minister”.
Shortly before 6pm last night Ms Ritchie’s office had forwarded to his office an e-mail containing yet more legal advice – dated October 14 – which he said had been withheld until that point.
Questioning whether he had now seen all the legal advice he said: “Even by her understanding of what was agreed at the Executive she did not fulfil the requirement – and , who knows, still may not have done so.
“While the Executive minute she disputed shows glaring breaches by the DSD Minister of her responsibilities, even on her own interpretation of what took place, she was in breach of the agreement she made.”
Ulster Unionist Party leader, Reg Empey, a minister in the Executive has backed Ms Ritchie, saying he would not let the DUP and Sinn Féin hang her out to dry on the issue.
Today the SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, rode to her defence as well, insisting the party would not be forced out of the Executive.
