Ulster Unionist Leader, Mike Nesbitt MLA, has expressed exasperation at the latest malfunction by the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, this time over their consultation on proposed legislation to outlaw age discrimination in the supply of goods, facilities and services (GFS).

Briefing the Committee for OFMdFM, departmental officials admitted they had received two legal letters of complaint, including one from the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) complaining about the way OFMdFM have conducted their consultation process.

Mr Nesbitt, who chairs the OFMdFM Committee, said:

“This is a quite extraordinary situation. NICCY is a so-called arm’s length body, sponsored and paid for by OFMdFM. NICCY also has a statutory duty to advise OFMdFM on policy matters affecting children and young people, which they did on this occasion.

“Yet it appears that advice was ignored, so badly that they have issued a pre-action legal letter, embarrassingly on the basis OFMdFM has ignored its own equality scheme. This is giving rise to the possibility that tax payers’ money will have to be used for an expensive legal case between two bodies also funded by the beleaguered tax payer.

“Evelyn Collins, Chief Executive of the Equality Commission which will adjudicate on the letters, said she could not recall a government agency issuing a pre-action letter against their parent department in her fifteen years with the Commission.

“This can all be traced back, predictably, to the inability of the DUP and Sinn Féin to agree. One side wanted to include Under 16s in the scope of the proposed legislation, the other did not. The failure to agree a common position will yet again disadvantage many of those they were elected to serve. Another OFMdFM Programme for Government commitment teeters on the brink.”