Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“While we’ve probably all become accustomed to the dismal failure of Stormont, the onset of cutbacks of basic services, like gulley cleaning and footpath repairs, and the proclamation of serious threat to services by the Justice minister, is a reminder of how woeful a job the executive is making of running this small province.
“We have 14 chauffeur-driven ministers to look after the affairs of just 1.8m people, but they can’t even organise our finances to guarantee basic services! Plenty of cash, of course, for the squander of the sacred cows of North/Southery, but blocked gullies and potholes are to be the price of Sinn Fein induced deadlock on our public finances. If it was happening under Direct Rule the very people who are failing us today would be leading the outcry.
“So long as we have the unworkable system of mandatory coalition and its inbuilt mutual vetoes, nothing will change. It is the system itself which empowers the Sinn Fein intransigence on welfare reform, leading to the present financial stalemate. The people deserve better, but, then, you do get what you vote for and, sadly, a majority endorsed the folly of the Belfast Agreement and elected those now serving them so poorly.”