Ulster Unionist Leader, Robin Swann MLA, has stated that the DUP`s support for openness and transparency in Westminster should be translated across to Stormont, if the devolved institutions are ever restored.
Mr Swann said:
“I welcome the DUP’s call and commitment to openness and transparency in Westminster, given that they called for the publication of the backstop legal advice which the Cabinet received from the Attorney General. MPs and the general public deserve to have sight of this critical piece of guidance in full that, to date, only a select few have seen.
“I sincerely hope that the DUP will extend the same level of commitment to openness & transparency they now demand of others at Westminster, to Stormont, should the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive ever be restored. Too often in the past we witnessed Ministers saying they couldn't or wouldn`t reveal legal advice and other information to either the Assembly, scrutiny committees or individual MLAs. The excuse often used was the guise of policy formulation.
“All too often this type of information had to be dragged out of DUP and Sinn Fein Ministers by the use of Freedom of Information legislation - whether that was in relation to the RHI scandal or the then proposed terrorist shrine at the Maze.
“If it`s good enough for Westminster it should be good enough for Stormont.”
