Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“For years hasn’t Peter Robinson boasted that at St Andrews he and his party fixed the Belfast Agreement. Now, it seems not. Is the reality that TUV has long proclaimed slowly dawning on the First Minister?
“But it is not a sticking plaster approach which Stormont needs, but root and branch change, whereby mandatory coalition and its crippling mutual vetoes are ditched.
“It is inevitable that one day the present unworkable Stormont will implode. The system of mandatory coalition is bound to fail. Only the glue of parties’ love for a semblance of power holds it together. But, ultimately this unnatural system of government will collapse. Voluntary coalition and an Opposition are the only route to durable devolution.
“The financial stalemate and resulting pain for those Stormont misgoverns saps the public’s will for it to survive. The evident and colossal failure of this Stormont makes the case for a workable alternative stronger with every day of failure which passes.
“It is indeed time that Mr Robinson pulled the plug and put his chronically failing government out of its misery.”