Statement by TUV leader, Jim Allister:-
“Just 24 hours after the DUP, Sinn Fein and the Speaker combined to defend the ‘integrity’ of the expenses system at Stormont, all three are scurrying for cover with OFMDFM backing a review and the Speaker calling an emergency meeting of the discredited Assembly Commission.
“Once more public opinion has forced Stormont’s hand. However, it is not cosmetic moves to push this issue past the election which is required, but dismantling of a system of in-house ‘control’ which has patently failed and left unanswered such basic questions as “how, if at all, did the Assembly Commission satisfy itself that the £700,000 it provided for Sinn Fein for ‘research’ in fact produced a single page of research product’?
“The DUP and Sinn Fein had an opportunity to address the issue in ‘A Fresh Start’, but all they produced was platitudes. (Para 64). In fact the parties endorsed the Commission view of their expenses regime that “the fundamental architecture is sound”.
“Now it looks so unsound, the joint First Ministers are forced to relieve the pressure by supporting a “review”.
“The truth is that Stormont has been caught out and once more it is TUV shining the spotlight into its dark corners.”