Ulster Unionist Party Leader Mike Nesbitt MLA has highlighted that Arlene Foster has again contradicted the DUP claim that they ‘fixed’ the issue of Ministerial accountability and stopped solo runs 10 years ago in the St Andrews Agreement.
The Leader of the Opposition said:
“This morning Arlene Foster finally caught up and expressed support for the position the Ulster Unionist Party were first to take - that Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir should step aside while the issue of the NAMA coaching saga is investigated. However, she continued by stating it was not her call, he was not her Minister and that was the end of the matter.
“What an odd position for someone heading a devolved government to take. So much for the DUP’s boast post St Andrews that they had fixed the Belfast Agreement in terms of Ministerial accountability and solo runs. In their 2007 manifesto they stated ‘Ministers will no longer be able to act alone, in narrow party interests.’ Today, and not for the first time, that has proved to be baloney. The Finance Minister and any other Sinn Fein Minister will stay in position and remain in position entirely at the behest of Sinn Fein, and joint First Minister Martin McGuinness. That is the reality of the Sinn Fein/DUP coalition.”