Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“On Monday Stormont departments began receiving questions from MLAs again after the Christmas break.
“Understandably I was keen to probe various aspects of the Stormont House Agreement.
“Accordingly I attempted to table the following questions:
To ask OFMdFM who are “the participants” referred to throughout the Stormont House Agreement.
To ask OFMdFM who has responsibility within the Stormont House Agreement for the establishment of the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.
To ask OFMdFM which department within the Executive will have the responsibility to establish an Oral History Archive, as anticipated in paragraph 22 of the Stormont House Agreement.
To ask OFMdFM what is the application definition of ‘victim’ when the term is used in the Stormont House Agreement.
“I had intended to ask the following questions later this week:
To ask OFMdFM a) who will have responsibility for recruitment of the HIU, as anticipated in the Stormont House Agreement; b) will there be any restrictions on who can be recruited; and c) to which department within the executive will it be accountable.
To ask OFMdFM who will fund the ICIR anticipated in the Stormont House Agreement.
To ask OFMdFM what is the relationship between the IRG anticipated in the Stormont a House Agreement and the other bodies to be established in relation to dealing with the past and in particular in respect of the Oral History Archive and the ICIR.
To ask OFMdFM what will the IRG as anticipated in the Stormont House Agreement do for the first 5 years of its existence.
“Bizarrely I have been advised that the Department jointly headed by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have told the Business Office that “OFMdFM have nothing to do with the Stormont House Agreement”.
“Do Mr Robinson and McGuinness really expect us to believe that they had “nothing to do” with the Agreement? Did we all imagine that they were at the talks?
“How can the public have confidence in the Agreement when basic questions – such as a request to define the term “participants” – will not be answered?”