Day trip to Dublin Exposes Robinson Bluster
06 July 2009
Commenting on today’s North-South Ministerial Council meeting TUV leader Jim Allister said:
“At the weekend Peter Robinson used an address to Orangemen in Scotland to hail Belfast Agreement devolution as the way to stop Sinn Fein/IRA and Dublin advancing their agenda and highlighted the economic advantages of remaining part of the United Kingdom.
“How ironic, then, that today Mr Robinson will be accompanying co-equal First Minister McGuinness to Dublin for a meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council! And what is to be discussed at this meeting? Well the all-island economy will be one of the key issues on the agenda. Speaking ahead of the meeting Brian Cowen said: “There is no doubt, on a small island of six million people, there are great benefits to be gained from working together and improving value for money in a wide range of areas, from joint infrastructure projects to providing better public services.”
“Mr Robinson can spout all he wants about devolution in its current format reducing Dublin and Sinn Fein/IRA input into our affairs but the facts, as today’s events demonstrate, tell a very different story.
“Closer economic ties with the Republic – which is an inevitable by-product of Belfast Agreement devolution – will not be for the benefit of Northern Ireland. As TUV made clear in its manifesto:
The economic crisis is a reminder that for a region like Northern Ireland the best refuge is provided by the larger UK economy, outside the Eurozone. Closer alignment with the dwindling economy of the Republic would be an unmitigated disaster. Thus now is a time to row back from, rather than deeper into, an all-island economy. Already we’ve gone too far down that road. Yet, we are wasting millions on pointless cross-border bodies – whose every financial demand has been meekly rubber-stamped by the two DUP Ministers whom we’ve had at DFP since devolution returned in May 07.
“Let’s not forget as well that at North-South Ministerial Council meetings Unionists are a small minority. In fact, in every NSMC meeting since the restoration of devolution Unionists have never held even a third of the seats round the table!
“A strange way indeed to thwart Sinn Fein/Dublin rule!”
