Remarks by a DUP member in the Northern Ireland Assembly last week were "on the very edge of privilege", the Initial Presiding Officer of the Assembly, Lord Alderdice, ruled yesterday.
Comments made by Mr Edwin Poots (DUP, Lagan Valley) in reference to Sinn Fein members of the Assembly were deemed to have come close to an abuse of parliamentary privilege. Mr Poots claimed Northern Ireland was faced with the prospect of "anti-partitionists" in government "who engaged in terrorism to achieve their aims".
He also said the North's civic forum was under threat from "paramilitary infiltration".
Noting that some of Mr Poots's comments were in reference to Sinn Fein's two nominees for an executive, Lord Alderdice said that if members had evidence that other members were involved in crime they should pass it on to the police.
The comments were "at the edge of what was reasonable in the context of parliamentary speech", said Lord Alderdice. He advised members that he would intervene if remarks "of this degree" were made in the future. Accusations in the chamber, levelled by one Assembly member at another, should not be made unless evidence to support the accusation was also supplied, he added.
The ruling was condemned by the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, who called for the setting up of an Assembly committee to review the use of parliamentary privilege in the chamber.
Mr Paisley said the links between Sinn Fein and the IRA had been clearly documented. "I myself would submit to no gag in this House from you or anyone else occupying the chair that wouldn't allow me to state what was in evidence in the country."
Mr Nigel Dodds (DUP, North Belfast) asked Lord Alderdice to examine remarks in the chamber last week by the Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin. He said the comments that the RUC represented the armed wing of the Orange Order were "scurrilous and dangerous".