Lord Empey has accused the Alliance Party of being in denial.
Lord Empey said:
“As the Haass process was moving towards a conclusion, all parties were subject to condescending statements from the Alliance Party. The implication was that Alliance was the only party which was working for a positive solution and the other parties were not. How ironic therefore that it was the Alliance Party that was first to say no on New Year's Eve!
“The issue for them was flags and to a lesser extent parades. These are of course very important issues, but Alliance is in complete denial that it was their actions on 3rd December 2012, when they joined a Sinn Fein led coalition in Belfast City Hall to pull down the Union flag, that provoked over a year of damaging and sometimes deplorable demonstrations and rage amongst some loyalist communities in Belfast and elsewhere.
“Alliance must now acknowledge its part in contributing to our present situation. Not only are they in denial about the consequences of their actions but the Haass process showed that they are obsessed by flags. In fact they are obsessed about the Union flag. The more they go on about these flags and support completely unworkable proposals to licence the erection of flags, the more flags will appear.
“Ulster Unionists deplore the inappropriate display of flags of any kind as well as the fact that flags are often left to rot on lamp posts, but we also know that this problem can only be resolved by working with local communities and seeking local voluntary agreements to deal with their inappropriate use.'