Ritchie to explain loyalist funding cut

The North's Social Development Minister goes before her Assembly scrutiny committee at Stormont today to explain the cutting …

The North's Social Development Minister goes before her Assembly scrutiny committee at Stormont today to explain the cutting off of £1.2 million funding to loyalist projects.

Margaret Ritchie and the permanent secretary at the Department of Social Development, Alan Shannon, are due before the committee to discuss her decision to stop the money from the Conflict Transformation Initiative fund.

Over the weekend Finance Minister Peter Robinson deepened the divisions with his governmental colleague by branding Ms Ritchie a liar.

Ms Ritchie says she took legal advice about cutting off the funding because the Ulster Defence Association had not responded to her 60-day deadline to begin decommissioning its weapons, and that she shared it with the First and Deputy First Ministers and Mr Robinson before making her announcement to the Assembly last week.

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But Mr Robinson, the DUP deputy leader, said on Saturday that was a lie. He said no legal advice was handed to him before it was announced last Monday, and that the first he heard Ms Ritchie was making a statement the following day had been through the media.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, the Minister for Employment and Learning, insists Ms Ritchie will not be bullied by Mr Robinson into quitting.