Following the Northern Ireland Secretary of State`s statement to the House of Commons today, Ulster Unionist Party Leader, Robin Swann MLA said:
"For months the Ulster Unionist Party has been urging the Secretary of State to take action. However, this looks like another holding statement from Karen Bradley MP. It`s only a sticking plaster on a huge political mess in which Northern Ireland finds itself, and the blame for that lies squarely with Sinn Fein and the DUP.
“What we need is a fully functioning Assembly and Executive where locally elected MLAs can hold local Ministers to account and get to grips with the crisis in the health service, in Education and take the whole range of decisions that have been put ‘on ice’ in the absence of Executive Ministers.
“I welcome the fact that the Secretary of State has finally decided to implement the Reaney recommendations. This is the inevitable consequence of the ongoing political impasse which has prevented the formation of a fully functioning Assembly and Executive. The cut to pay should be linked to a meaningful and productive talks process.
“I note that the Secretary of State plans to deliver some clarity with regard to how civil servants might be empowered to ‘take decisions in Northern Ireland in the public interest and to ensure the continued delivery of public services.’ I would urge the Secretary of State to get on with it as soon as possible in providing that clarity. The devil will be in the detail. She should consider the call from my colleague Lord Empey to repatriate Health powers to Westminster on humanitarian grounds, regardless of Sinn Fein`s stance.
“Her move today to introduce legislation to provide for ‘a limited and prescribed period in which there will be no legal requirement to set a date for a further election’ topples another piece of the St Andrew`s agreement. The only reason this is needed is because the government acceded to Sinn Fein demands at the time. If she can do this to facilitate good will in talks, then she should also remove another shameful edifice of the St Andrews Agreement and that is how the First and deputy First Minister are elected which has embedded sectarianism at the heart of our political system. She should revert back to the position as stipulated in the Belfast Agreement.
“When speaking to the Secretary of State before her announcement to the House of Commons, I asked if this statement was being issued on the same day as a major witness appeared at the RHI Inquiry, as a distraction. She assured me that was not the case.”