Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“DUP MLAs not turning up for debates in the Assembly chamber and withdrawing from question time shouldn’t fool anyone.
“Due to their shameless backpedalling on the pledge to leave the executive they sustain Sinn Fein/IRA Ministers in office. In fact, had the Business Committee agreed to an adjournment as requested by the DUP last week all Ministers would have remained in office – the only difference being that they wouldn’t be subject to the scrutiny of Assembly questions.
“No amount of DUP stunts will obscure the reality that a party which they themselves acknowledge is inextricably linked to the IRA remains in the government of Northern Ireland because they failed to resign all their Ministers from the executive.
“Unionists who have witnessed the graduated response, the threatened resignation over the OTR issue and numerous other shams will not be fooled by the latest playacting.”