22/10/2007
Committee Showdown on UDA Funding Row
Assembly Minister Margaret Ritchie and her most senior civil servant are to go before the Assembly’s own social development scrutiny committee today to explain the funding decision which has so seriously split the Executive.
The Social Development Minister and her Permanent Secretary, Alan Shannon, are both due before the committee to discuss her decision to cut off of £1.2 million funding to loyalist projects.
Ms Ritchie has been insisting she took legal advice about cutting off the funding because the Ulster Defence Association had not responded to her 60 day deadline to begin decommissioning its weapons, and that she shared it with the First and Deputy First Ministers and Mr Robinson before making her announcement to the Assembly last week.
However, the DUP deputy leader responded on Saturday: "This is a lie".
He said no legal advice was handed to him before it was announced last Monday that the first he heard Ms Ritchie was making a statement the following day had been through the media.
He accused his Executive colleague of showing glaring breaches of her responsibilities and of being in breach of an agreement to share legal advise on cutting off the money with colleagues before making her announcement.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, the Minister for Employment and Learning has sprung to the defence of Ms Ritchie’s who insists Mr Robinson will not bully her into quitting.
(BMcC)
The Social Development Minister and her Permanent Secretary, Alan Shannon, are both due before the committee to discuss her decision to cut off of £1.2 million funding to loyalist projects.
Ms Ritchie has been insisting she took legal advice about cutting off the funding because the Ulster Defence Association had not responded to her 60 day deadline to begin decommissioning its weapons, and that she shared it with the First and Deputy First Ministers and Mr Robinson before making her announcement to the Assembly last week.
However, the DUP deputy leader responded on Saturday: "This is a lie".
He said no legal advice was handed to him before it was announced last Monday that the first he heard Ms Ritchie was making a statement the following day had been through the media.
He accused his Executive colleague of showing glaring breaches of her responsibilities and of being in breach of an agreement to share legal advise on cutting off the money with colleagues before making her announcement.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, the Minister for Employment and Learning has sprung to the defence of Ms Ritchie’s who insists Mr Robinson will not bully her into quitting.
(BMcC)
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