Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Today’s statement of self-praise from the DCAL Minister marking the end of her Department is more interesting for what it doesn’t say than what it does.
“The Minister has done nothing to ensure athletes from Northern Ireland can compete for the UK at international level.
“One of the most telling events of the Minister’s time in office was the emergence of serious allegations surrounding the problem of sectarianism in boxing. In November 2012 I brought forward an amendment to a motion which lead to the Assembly calling for the formation of a Northern Ireland Boxing Association.
“To counter the serious issues which where raised in a report produced by Sandy Row Boxing Club and the subsequent call by the Assembly to form a new Boxing Association the Minister set up a working group. Somewhat surprisingly the report didn’t seek to gloss over the issues and found that there were a “number of chill factors that currently create anxiety within the sport” which need to be “eliminated to ensure a high level of inclusivity on bothsides of the community” and found that “The Irish Amateur Boxing Association, along with other sports, should consider what creative ways could be found to enable elite representation of individual Ulster boxers in either Team GB or Ireland teams at the Olympics” and in relation to boxing recommended that progress on the national representation issue be assessed after 12 months.
“That was in December 2013. More than two years later, with the Department set to be cease to exist, they have done nothing to progress this matter. In fact, having met Sport NI with other elected representatives on a number of occasions and repeatedly pressed the Minister on the issue it is clear that the powers that be in DCAL worked against the establishment of a Northern Ireland Boxing Association and sought to bury the findings of a report which the Minister herself commissioned.
“It is a great shame that successive Unionist DCAL Ministers, both DUP and UUP, did nothing to address this issue while in office and that it was left to a single club to put its head above the parapet and force the issue.”