Ulster Unionist Finance Spokesperson, Dr Steve Aiken MLA, has welcomed the belated announcement that a Dormant Account Fund has at last been established in Northern Ireland.
Steve Aiken said:
“This is welcome progress and I am glad that the sum available is considerably larger than the £7 million that was previously suggested. This funding will likely prove to be a key lifeline to many organisations in the local community and voluntary sector.
“Whilst I’m glad a decision has at last been made, we must not forget that the UK's Dormant Accounts Scheme was first announced over a decade ago. It is a disgrace that is has taken so long for a decision to be taken locally, especially as hundreds of millions of pounds have already been directed to good causes across the rest of the UK.
“It was characteristic of the farce and indecision of the old system of Government between the DUP and Sinn Fein that even when the Assembly was operating, the intention to develop a scheme was announced on four separate occasions by four separate Finance Ministers - Sammy Wilson, Simon Hamilton, Mervyn Storey and Mairtin O Muilleoir. Yet not one of them actually delivered a single penny of this fund and eleven years later it has taken civil servants to see it actually implemented.”