Ritchie to face loyalist funding questions

Stormont minister Margaret Ritchie will face her first question time in the Assembly today since the row over her decision to…

Stormont minister Margaret Ritchie will face her first question time in the Assembly today since the row over her decision to cut a £1.2 million loyalist community fund.

The SDLP minister clashed in the Assembly last month with Democratic Unionist cabinet colleague Peter Robinson after she announced she was pulling financing for the controversial Conflict Transformation Initiative.

Ms Ritchie argued the fund had been publicly linked to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) moves away from paramilitarism and crime when it was unveiled by former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain before devolution.

UDA violence in Bangor and Carrickfergus over the summer and the organisation's failure to disarm had made it impossible to continue the fund, she said.

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However, Mr Robinson, the finance minister, accused her in the chamber of breaching the ministerial code and ignoring government legal advice when she decided to cut the fund.

The clash has strained relationships within the powersharing executive, with the SDLP and Ulster Unionists accusing the DUP and Sinn Féin of trying to bully their ministers.

PA