Splits within the Stormont Executive deepened last night over the manner in which SDLP Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie decided to cut £1.2 million support for the Conflict Transformation Initiative, a loyalist community scheme aimed at hastening UDA decommissioning.
The Minister emerged from a lengthy Executive meeting to claim DUP and Sinn Féin ministers were acting together to dominate the Executive and to "control other Ministers". This was "a dangerous precedent", she said.
She then confirmed what had emerged earlier that Sinn Féin Ministers had voted alongside the DUP on acceptance of minutes of a previous meeting which Ms Ritchie believes supports her contention that she had not acted improperly.
She is denying Finance Minister Peter Robinson's allegation, levelled in heated exchanges in the Assembly on Tuesday, that she had acted illegally and in breach of her ministerial code. Ms Ritchie believes she has acted properly in cutting funds for the initiative. The conflict over the minutes of an earlier meeting, in which Ulster Unionist Ministers Sir Reg Empey and Michael McGimpsey, backed her against the DUP and Sinn Féin, now seems destined for the courts with little hope of a resolution.
Yesterday's discussion on the loyalist initiative was one of a number of contentious items on the agenda which has pitched Ministers from the various parties against each other. As well as next week's budget, Ministers also tackled the highly contentious issue of water charges and the decision by DUP Culture Minister Edwin Poots not to proceed with an Irish language Bill.
After five hours of deliberations at Stormont Castle, Ms Ritchie emerged to read a short statement.
"Today there was a vote on the Conflict Transformation Initiative and I was outvoted by the DUP and Sinn Féin on what the Executive had decided in relation to my statement on the CTI-UDA related project. Two Ulster Unionist Ministers voted with me." She then alleged: "I believe this sets a dangerous precedent as it allows the DUP and Sinn Féin to control other Ministers by controlling all decisions. I am firm in the belief that I have behaved properly at all times and that the decision I have taken to end the funding was correct, proper and, in my conscience, was the right thing to do." However, this account was later dramatically contradicted by other Ministers and by the statement issued by all of the Ministers with the exception of Ms Ritchie who had left the meeting early.
The Executive statement claimed: "There was no vote on the CTI issue or the Department of Social Development Minister's statement in the Assembly. The Minister disagreed with the draft minutes of the previous meeting in relation to the decision-making process." It added: "The meeting moved to a vote and the minutes were adopted as an accurate account by a majority. The [ social development, education and learning and health] Ministers voted against the minutes being adopted."
Speaking as the meeting broke up, DUP Minister Nigel Dodds angrily attacked Ms Ritchie, claiming she had broken the agreed decision-making process and had launched a "scurrilous" attack and made "wild, unfounded" allegations against political opponents and civil servants. He said he found her allegations "sinister and disturbing".
Mr Robinson is also seeking legal advice on the manner in which Ms Ritchie acted in relation to Conflict Transformation Initiative funding.