NI minister warns over fuel poverty plans
An SDLP minister in the power-sharing the North's Executive warned today that the party would have to consider its continued participation in government if she is prevented from doing her job by fellow ministers.
Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said there had been difficult scenes around the Executive table over discussions of her proposals for tackling fuel poverty.
The minister – who has been under fire from the two largest parties in government, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin – insisted: “I won’t be bullied by anybody.”
She said she and her nationalist party were committed to doing a job in government and on the floor of the Assembly.
But she added: “If there comes a time when Executive colleagues and others deliberately stop me from delivering, then that will give my party an opportunity, and myself, to consider our role in government.
“But at this particular point we haven’t reached that point – we’re still in government.”
Ministers meet again on Monday to put the final touches to a package of economic aid aimed at softening the effects of the credit crunch, to be announced by Finance Minister Nigel Dodds later in the day before Stormont packs its bags for the Christmas holidays.
The energy regulator is also expected to announce a significant reduction in the prices of both gas and electricity which will go some way to redress massive increases in recent months.
However, it remains uncertain how many of the proposals put forward to the Executive by a fuel poverty action group set up by Ms Ritchie will be included in the ministerial package.
She told BBC Radio Ulster’s 'Inside Politics': “What I want to protect is that there is no smash-and-grab raid on my department to prevent those who are fuel-poor and homeless from getting what they are entitled to – simply to serve up a good PR day for others.”
