Allister queries ‘where is promised P & J £800m in budget’?
15 March 2011
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“One of the spin lines and bait used to sell the devolution of policing and justice was the much vaunted promise of an extra £800m. At the time neither the Executive or the NIO ever identified in tabular form just exactly how this ‘extra’ £800m was made up. Certainly, the Prime Minister’s letter of 25 October 2009 came no where near tabulating this figure. Though at the time I called for the detail, no journalist was prepared to disturb the crescendo of propaganda by even asking the question.
“I at least expected that within the recent Budget we might see the details and begin to understand what if any of it was actually new money. But, still it is clouded in ambiguity. No clarity emerges within the budget. So, I now repeat the challenge as to where within the budget we can identify this £800m and see that it actually exists.
“In all the hours of budgetary debate it seems not one MLA bothered to probe this issue.”
