The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin were tonight accused of trying to control other parties' ministers in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government as a row over a decision to cut loyalist funding continued.
Stormont Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said after she was outvoted on a challenge by DUP finance minister Peter Robinson over her decision to withdraw the £1.2m Conflict Transformation Initiative, that a dangerous precedent had been set.
DUP and Sinn Féin ministers backed a claim the official minutes of the last Cabinet meeting required Ms Ritchie to consult them before her announcement on Tuesday that the fund was being withdrawn.
However, Ulster Unionist minister Sir Reg Empey and Michael McGimpsey sided with the nationalist SDLP Social Development Minister.
"Today there was a debate on the Conflict Transformation Initiative," she revealed five hours after the Cabinet meeting began.
"I was outvoted by the DUP and Sinn Féin on what the Executive had decided in relation to my statement on the Conflict Transformation Initiative-Ulster Defence Association related project.
"The two Ulster Unionist ministers voted with me. I believe that 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 the decision I have taken to end the funding was correct, was proper and in my conscience was the right thing to do."
Ms Ritchie's criticism of Sinn Féin and the DUP was the latest twist in what has been the Stormont Executive's most difficult week since devolution returned in May.
On Tuesday she told the Assembly that she could no longer justify the continuation of the Conflict Transformation Initiative approved by former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain because of Ulster Defence Association violence over the summer.
Mr Hain had supported the initiative to regenerate loyalist areas as a means to coax the paramilitary group into disarming and abandoning violence for good.
However when she moved to axe the funding on Tuesday Peter Robinson in a dramatic move claimed she had acted contrary to the legal advice of the power-sharing executive and had breached the ministerial code by not following the course of action recommended to her at the last Cabinet meeting.
The SDLP minister disputed Mr Robinson's claim and while it was hoped that today's Cabinet meeting would draw some of the sting out of the row, her comments afterwards showed that divisions remained deep.
The minister's decision is also expected to be challenged in the courts by the community organisations commissioned to handle the Conflict Transformation Initiative.
PA