The DUP has been accused of hypocrisy after the party backed a motion to increase the number of MLAs to sit on a new committee looking into the controversial flags issue from 11 to 20.
The ad-hoc committee was set up yesterday to consider draft legislation put forward by the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, dealing with the days on which the Union flag should be flown over public buildings. Originally, the committee was to have consisted of two UUP, two SDLP, two DUP, two Sinn Fein and three others.
Under yesterday's amendment, proposed by the DUP's Mr Nigel Dodds and Mr David Ford from the Alliance Party, it will now be made up of four UUP, four SDLP, three DUP, three Sinn Fein and one representative each from the Alliance, the United Unionists, the Women's Coalition and the Progressive Unionists.
Mr Cedric Wilson, who rejected a seat offered to his Northern Ireland Unionist Party because of Sinn Fein participation in the committee, said it was a "sad state of affairs" that the DUP was not only prepared to sit down with Sinn Fein but that their motion had led to three Sinn Fein MLAs serving on the committee instead of two.
Mr Dodds defended his motion, saying it was a "tragedy" that the Assembly was even debating the flying of the Union flag from public buildings. "The responsibility for and the reason why we are having to debate this is because of the breaking of election manifesto promises by the First Minister and his party, allowing Sinn Fein/IRA ministers being inserted into positions in government with full executive responsibility," he added.
Rubbing salt in Mr Dodds's wounds, a Sinn Fein MLA, Mr Conor Murphy, thanked the DUP for increasing his party's representation on the committee and said he looked forward to sitting down with his DUP colleagues to discuss the issue of flags.