Maskey should go - Allister
19 August 2010
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister QC:-
"In any parliamentary democracy a Public Accounts Committee plays a vital role as a check and balance on the exercise of executive power. As a means of strengthening its independence, and the appearance thereof, it is always chaired by an Opposition MP, so presently at Westminster there is a Labour Chair. At Stormont, of course, we are not allowed an Opposition, but the situation is compounded by the fact that the Chairmanship is in the hands of one of the lead government parties, Sinn Fein.
"Now, at the stage of the most critical investigation with which the PAC at Stormont has been entrusted, the Chairman, Maskey, with utter imprudence and flawed judgement makes a partisan declaration of support and endorsement for the Minister whose department is supposed to be under investigation. By so doing he has greatly diminished the capacity for public confidence in the work of the committee. If the Chairman in a show of party loyalty pre-emptively clears the Minister, then, he has forfeited the right to chair this investigation and should go. He has shown where his first loyalty lies and thereby has irreparably undermined the Committee for as long as he stays in office."
