Why is Stormont still on holiday?
10 January 2011
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“Throughout the greatest failure of locally controlled infrastructural services the Stormont Assembly has been in recess. Of course a Christmas recess is appropriate, but not coming back till 17th January (having risen on 15th December) is hardly a fitting response to the water crisis.
“If there was any serious intent within the Assembly to hold Murphy to account for his catastrophic failures, Stormont would have been brought back today, the issue thoroughly debated and a No Confidence motion passed.
“How can a minister so incompetently preside over the loss of the basic service of water to so many for so long, and not be run out of office? It’s a basic issue of democratic accountability. Any Assembly unable to deliver such accountability is an assembly not worth having.
“When the Assembly does eventually return, how it handles Murphy’s incompetence will be a litmus test of its own usefulness and fitness for purpose.
“If MLAs do not insist on reflecting the public’s loss of confidence in Murphy, by passing a vote of No Confidence in him and demanding his resignation, then they themselves will have failed.
“This will be a moment of truth for those who boasted that at St Andrews they injected ministerial accountability into the system. They did not, of course, as Murphy’s defiance demonstrates. Instead, they settled for a system of ministerial fiefdoms where the party appointee can fail as demonstrably as Murphy has and the Assembly and First Minister are impotent to act against him. This is not accountable devolution, if it were the Assembly would be master of its own ministers and would be sitting at the first opportunity to demonstrate such."
