Ulster Unionist Party Chairman, Lord Empey, has accused the DUP and Sinn Fein of running Northern Ireland`s political Institutions into the ground with a combination of political selfishness and cronyism.
Lord Empey said:
“When devolution was re-established in 1998 there was an atmosphere of hope and expectation that after 30 years of a terrorist murder campaign, work would begin on building a new society, free from the shadow of the gunman and an opportunity to rebuild our economy, shattered as it was after the Troubles.
“While there has been progress in Northern Ireland, and the absence of widespread bombings and shootings, it is the case that the hope that was generated in 1998 has been dissipated and replaced with widespread disillusionment and despair. Stormont has not lived up to the expectations of the people, despite there being many MLAs who wish to do nothing more than improve the lives of their constituents.
“The influence of MLAs has been systematically diluted, with the unilateral decision of 2006 to change the Belfast Agreement resulting in the Assembly itself being excluded from the appointment process for the First and deputy First Ministers being the gravest of mistakes by Tony Blair and his colleagues.'
“The carve-up government which was generated by this change has ruled over us for 8 years, and it has led to stalemate, waste on a grand scale (which would never have been tolerated under Direct Rule) culminating in the financial mismanagement which we have seen before us in recent months.
“For the first time since 1921 Stormont has been unable to produce a balanced budget and live within its means. We all know public finances in the UK are difficult, but successive finance Ministers were in possession of the Treasury totals they were allowed from October 2010 for the period up to March of this year and from June 2013 for the current financial year.
“How can it be that knowing what their budgets were, no attempt was made to produce a local budget that remained within these totals? Welfare reform is cited as the reason for failure, but even if that was resolved, the budget is still not balanced.
“The behaviour of Sinn Fein following the Stormont House Agreement of last year has been outrageous and entirely driven by political self-interest for their ambitions in Dublin, and despite taking the finance Ministry and allowing Sinn Fein to retake the Education Department, DUP Finance Ministers have spectacularly failed in their duty of stewardship.
“The latest wheeze at Stormont, namely Peter Robinson's 'revolving Ministers', merely discredits the Institution further. One could literally not make up a worse and more pathetic scenario. What sort of example does that set for the behaviour of a Minister? Ministers are there to give leadership and direction to their Departments, to set policy and standards and interface with potential investors to tell them the good news story of Northern Ireland. How on earth can they do that when they behave like schoolchildren in a playground brawl?
“Between them the DUP and Sinn Fein have run the Institutions into the ground with a combination of political selfishness and cronyism.
“The Ulster Unionist Party took a decision nearly four weeks ago to leave the Executive and go into Opposition. It was a clear cut and honourable decision.
“The DUP/Sinn Fein experiment has failed; it has failed because the genuine partnership negotiated into the Belfast Agreement was swept aside in 2006, and now we are reaping the whirlwind of that ill thought out idea.
“Our aim now is to deal once and for all with the undercurrent of paramilitarism which continues to hang over our community, from whichever side it comes, and the totally incredible assertion of Sinn Fein in their public comments about the IRA. The police and both Governments on one side of the facts and Gerry Adams on the other, is not a recipe for the stability we are determined to establish.”