Ulster Unionist Finance spokesperson, Steve Aiken OBE MLA has responded to comments made by Tánaiste Simon Coveney at the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement that he expected the RHI Inquiry to report next month.
Steve Aiken OBE MLA said:
“I am amazed that the Tánaiste seems to know something the rest of us don’t on the publication of the RHI report from the Inquiry panel. There is little point in him trying to set down a marker as to how parties should react when it does.
“The RHI scandal goes right to the heart of how the DUP and Sinn Fein have done business over the last ten years. It has shone a light on the dysfunctionality at the core of Government here.
“The report and its recommendations must be a watershed moment for politics here. It cannot simply be a case of everyone agreeing something needs to change and then picking up where they left off. There must be radical changes to governance and transparency.
“If the Tánaiste, the Secretary of State, or anyone else thinks the publication of the RHI report can be used to pressure parties back into an Executive where the DUP and Sinn Fein pick up where they left off, then they are going to be sorely disappointed.”