UUP deputy leader Diana Armstrong has condemned the Alliance Party after its MLAs, including the Agriculture Minister, left the Assembly Chamber during a no-confidence debate.

Armstrong, who chairs the Assembly's Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, said the walkout avoided scrutiny and signalled that the Minister would be questioned at committee stage. She linked her criticism to concerns over the handling of issues in Fivemiletown and departmental transparency.

Diana Armstrong said: "The Minister has avoided scrutiny in the Chamber today, but he will not avoid it at Committee.

"Every Alliance MLA walked out of this debate, and the Minister walked out with them. Not one of them was prepared to stand in that Chamber and defend his handling of Fivemiletown. If his own party will not make the case for him, what exactly are farmers supposed to conclude? "It was only minutes since Alliance were calling for an end to pantomime politics at Stormont. Walking out of a debate about the accountability of your own Minister is not an answer to pantomime politics. It is a demonstration of it.

"This was the moment to answer for what happened at Fivemiletown and for how the Department has behaved since. Nine Freedom of Information requests have been refused. Officials would not tell the Committee how many shots were fired. A calf was found injured three days afterwards and the Department could not say whether it had shot the animal. Today the answer was to leave the room.

"Farmers do not get to walk away. A date wrong on a form, an animal recorded a day late, and there is an inspection, a penalty or a payment withheld. They do not get to choose which questions they will take.

"Confidence is not something that can be voted back into existence. It is earned, and this Minister lost it long ago. If he has given up on being held to account, farmers are entitled to ask the obvious question. Why is he still there?"