Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“I’m long contended this form of devolution would never work, because it requires no consensus before entry into government, thus making deadlock inevitable. This is what we are now seeing being played out, fuelled by the fact that Sinn Fein have never been in government to give us good government. Rather, Sinn Fein is happy to bankrupt and destroy Northern Ireland from within. Sadly, others, who falsely claimed they had delivered a “fair deal”, empowered them to do so. Now we are reaping what was sowed.
“As our budgetary situation worsens by the day, we are all paying the price of failed Belfast Agreement devolution. While ministers fiddle the Head of the Civil Service has been forced to act. Soon matters may well be taken out of our hands by the Treasury. Stormont, and its self-inflicted turmoil over welfare reform, only has itself to blame, but, alas, ordinary people, rather than the political elite will suffer the most as swingeing cuts hit every facet of public expenditure.”