Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Rogan has said that the latest answers he has received from the Government in relation to the removal of Royal Portraits from Stormont House, provide further proof that a cultural change within the Northern Ireland Office is long overdue.
Lord Rogan said:
“I have now received further answers to questions I tabled in the House of Lords, and I obviously welcome the fact that Her Majesty’s portrait is once again on display within the public area of Stormont House.
“It is scarcely credible that this situation should have been allowed to develop in the first place but the fact that it has, is a damning indictment on the prevailing culture within the Northern Ireland Office.
“Back in August my party colleague Doug Beattie MC MLA called out meek leadership at the top of the NIO and said that for too long it has seemed to operate as a northern branch of the Republic of Ireland’s Department for Foreign Affairs, instead of a British Government department.
“Writing today in the Belfast Telegraph, the Conservative Peer Lord Caine said that radical surgery is needed within the NIO and said that ‘it frequently gives the impression of being a junior partner to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin.’
“I fully agree with Both Doug Beattie and Lord Caine, and I too want to see a new culture emerge within the NIO whereby that department positively promotes the benefits of the Union and is not afraid to stand up and demonstrate the fact that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom.”