McGuiness Brands UUP, SDLP As "Problem Parties"

Empey Says Sinn Fein, DUP Are "Too Controlling"

After days of acrimony and debate in the Northern Assembly, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has claimed that the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP have become "problem parties" in Stormont.

The Deputy First Minister made his comments in the wake of UUP and SDLP endorsement of an Alliance Party amendment in the Assembly on Monday night that criticised the Executive's program for government and investment strategy.

"What I found to be the most interesting aspect of what happened yesterday wasn't so much that the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP voted against the draft investment strategy and draft programme for government," he said.

"What I found most interesting was the three ministers who agreed a draft investment strategy and the draft programme for government didn't vote for it.

"I think that against the backdrop then of their parties voting against it that raises all sorts of questions about what is happening both in the Executive with these three ministers but also between these three ministers and their parties.

"I remember being part of an Executive at a time when both David Trimble was the First Minister and Seamus Mallon was the Deputy First Minister and at a time when Mark Durkan was also Deputy First Minister when it was said repeatedly during the course of those meetings that ministers in the Executive had a duty and a responsibility to deliver their parties.

"Quite clearly we are seeing a very different tune being sung in the aftermath of changed political fortunes and I think I have to say - and I say this with great regret - that it appears to me that the Ulster Unionist Party and SDLP are now becoming the problem parties in this Assembly."

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey, who also serves as the Employment and Learning Minister in the Northern Executive, had previously accused Sinn Féin and the DUP of "excercising too much control," claiming that they were "operating a two-party cabal" and insisting that they were only interested in collective responsibility in government when they were seeking to be protected from criticism.

"This is not the way things are going.

"On the one hand, DUP and Sinn Féin ministers want to be fireproofed and blameless on sensitive and contentious issues such as health cuts and water charges by insisting on unanimity, while on the other they are getting into a two-party cabal and deciding what they want and how to do it.

"This is a fundamental inconsistency that needs to be addressed. The UUP are currently exploring options of how to address it," he concluded.

Empey's comments came in response to a warning from DUP Finance Minister Peter Robinson during Monday night's debate that the two smaller parties in the Executive should start acting like members of a coalition at Stormont.

"The basis upon which any coalition government can move forward is on the basis of a programme for government," he said.

"And so that there is no doubt at a later stage, without an agreed programme for government, there cannot be government."