Hain tells UVF to 'catch up'

Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Peter Hain, has stated that the UVF need to catch up with republicans in regards to addressing criminality and paramilitarism.

This comment was made as the DUP continued to express their disdain at yesterday's announcement that the Progressive Unionist Party leader, David Ervine was to join the Ulster Unionist Party's Assembly Group at Stormont.

The move caused outrage among the DUP as the PUP are known to be linked with the UVF, who have not yet ended their paramilitary campaign.

Yesterday, UUP leader Sir Reg Empey argued that the move will ensure that the group increases to 25 MLA's, with a unionist majority sitting on any future Stormont Executive, taking the seat off Sinn Fein. It will also ensure that the UUP will be called to speak ahead of Sinn Fein.

DUP leader, the Reverend Ian Paisley, called upon Assembly Speaker Eileen Bell to check the legality of David Ervine's move and added that the UUP had to be questioned after allowing themselves to be connected with a political party with paramilitary links.

However, Peter Hain said that this was entirely the prerogative of the parties involved.

He said: "It is a matter for them. They can sit wherever they like and under which umbrella they like."

The Secretary of State also added that Sinn Fein are in a much stronger position to claim a seat in a power-sharing executive since the IRA have decommissioned.

He said: "The UVF have not ended their paramilitary campaign, they are still involved in criminality in a big way and all of those things are things which the IRA have promised to deliver on and is delivering on.

"Therefore, Sinn Fein are in a much stronger position to claim a seat in a power-sharing executive since they have decommissioned, they have ended their paramilitary campaign and, according to the Independent Monitoring Commission, they are driving criminality out of their ranks. Now that is a big, big advance compared with where the UVF are. The UVF ought to catch up quickly."

Following a brief presentation by representatives by the NI Business Alliance, Sinn Fein chose to leave the chamber and boycott the debate on a motion on the economy tabled by Peter Hain, which was due to follow.

Sinn Fein's boycott was on the grounds that the debate did not fit in with the party's strategy of only taking part in business that led to restored devolution.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams thanked the Business Alliance and Federation of Small Businesses for meeting assembly members.

He said that although it was a very useful exchange, the reality is that we have no executive.

(EF/SP)