Alliance Hits Out At Executive Over Paramilitary Activity Funding

The Alliance Party has slammed the Executive over its "lack of detail" on paramilitariam.

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir unveiled the October Monitoring Round on a section named 'Funding to Address Paramilitary Activity'.

Former Justice Minister David Ford described the plan as "utterly weak" and said he understands why the UK Government withheld its part of the funding.

He said: "The Executive response to the independent report on paramilitarism was first released long after its deadline. When it was finally made public, it was full of non-specific language, no timescales, no clear targets and little detail about funding. It was an utterly weak document.

"I have therefore submitted urgent questions to the Executive asking when they were first advised they would not be receiving the UK Government funding and when do they expect to agree a more detailed plan to fulfil the Treasury's expectations.

"If we are to truly remove the poison of paramilitarism from our society, we need a robust plan to tackle it and subsequent actions from all parties against those still exerting criminal influence over our community."

(CD/MH)