ULSTER UNIONISTS:UUP LEADER Sir Reg Empey accused Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of a "rant" against his party on the issue of justice.
He said Sinn Féin had brought the Northern Ireland Executive to a halt for five months last year and yet had the “barefaced cheek” to lecture others on how the Executive should function.
“Those of us who find ourselves, in good conscience, unable to support the motion believe that the conditions are not yet right. We are doing what we were sent to this House to do – we are exercising our judgment,” Sir Reg said.
“We are seeking to serve the best interests of all the people of Northern Ireland.”
He added: “I am immensely proud of the sacrifices my party has made for the cause of peace. Our determination to make Stormont work for all the people of Northern Ireland – unionists, nationalists, all of us – continues. Our whole-hearted support for the brave men and women of the PSNI continues unabated.”
He said his party’s approach to justice was governed by clear principles. “The first of these is the need for the powersharing Executive to function as a four-party coalition. To say that it has not done so since May 2007 is to state the obvious.
“The second principle is the pressing need to ensure that the Executive addresses, rather than ignores, the education debacle. My party is not expecting others to agree with us on all education issues. We are, however, looking for consensus in place of strife.”
The third principle, he said, was “the matter of policing and justice”.
“Ulster Unionists believe in the devolution of policing and justice powers,” he said. “We do not, however, believe in devolving these sensitive powers into an Executive incapable of deciding how to transfer children from primary to post-primary schools.”
Sir Reg claimed it was a “stark fact” that party leaders in the Executive had “not had a single conversation together about how we will respond to the dissident threat, or about how these institutions will approach major disagreement between the parties over policing and justice”.
Progress was being held up by Sinn Féin’s unwillingness to accept the normal democratic conventions of coalition government, he said. “Sinn Féin’s rejection of the Executive working together as a coalition of equal partners has been gravely disappointing.”
The UUP leader said his party voted No “as a democratic political party pledged to making powersharing work in an inclusive manner”.
He said the Ulster Unionists would refuse “to bow to the blackmail and bullying to which we have been subjected in recent weeks”.