Commenting further on the deplorable announcement of the closure of Lisburn Courthouse, Lyle Rea, TUV Lagan Valley Assembly candidate calls into question the competence of the Justice Minister, David Ford:
“During the debate on the devolution of policing and justice matters, an interesting briefing took place on the 18th February 2010 when the then Secretary of State, addressed the Assembly and Executive Review Committee.
“The Secretary of State assured the committee that the necessary finances were in place to ensure that when policing and justice powers were transferred, the Justice Department would have a secure and sufficient financial base. The total sum to be transferred to the Executive was £1.328 billion with a number of further financial packages one of which was for £132 million for the Northern Ireland Court Service. In addition, the Executive were to be gifted an additional £800 million which had been agreed by the Prime Minister in October 2009.
“David Ford was appointed Justice Minister in April 2010. Like other members of the Stormont Executive he has thus far managed to pass the blame on to others but at the end of the day, the buck stops with them. In any other administration underperforming or incompetent Ministers would be gone; however the flawed system of mandatory coalition seems to provide protection to them.
“Lagan Valley has also fared particularly badly on the policing front with the closure of Dromara, Dromore and Hillsborough Police stations. Now with David Ford announcing the closure of five Northern Ireland courthouses, including Lisburn; we are entitled to ask: Where has all the money gone?”