Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The announcement of a panel to make recommendations on a “strategy for paramilitary disbandment” has zero credibility, not least because of the comments made by one of those appointed to serve on it.
“Less than a month ago Lord Alderdice was widely reported as being critical of the so-called “Fresh Start” proposals for the establishment of the group on which he now serves!
“Lord Alderdice said he took that view because it would have “much less power” than the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) of which he was a member.
“A former leader of the Alliance Party and a former leader of the Women’s Coalition are odd choices indeed for a robust panel to deal with paramilitaries.
“Of course, these appointments shouldn’t surprise anyone as Sinn Fein – a party who Arlene Foster recently told us was “inextricably linked” to the IRA – had a key role in making them!
“This will be marked down by many as simply more evidence of the farce that Stormont has become. We have a form of devolution which far from being democratic is so perverted that even a panel supposedly investigating paramilitarism is appointed by a party linked to that very paramilitarism!”