Flags decision was disastrous and upset delicate equilibrium in Belfast, says Robinson

First Minister Peter Robinson has described the decision to limit the flying of the British union flag at Belfast City Hall as disastrous.

Mr Robinson told a DUP spring conference in Enniskillen on Saturday the decision to take down the union flag was "a disaster for Northern Ireland as a whole".

“By any standards it was an aggressive and unnecessary step,” he said.

“Because if republicans are intent on a cultural war you can be certain of one thing – it will be a battle that will have no winners.

“The settled, if delicate equilibrium, in Belfast was overturned at a stroke with all of the consequences that we have witnessed in the last few months,” he added.

Mr Robinson also referred to recent disagreements between him and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, which last week they indicated they had patched up. At the Sinn Féin Ardfheis earlier this month Mr McGuinness said, “Ministers are in government with Sinn Féin [only] because they have to be”.

Mr Robinson said on Saturday: “The fact is the people of Northern Ireland need us to be in government.”