Loyalists have no justification for failing to move on the disarmament issue, the SDLP's Mr Seán Farren said today.
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Following the IRA's second act of weapons decommissioning, Mr Farren said that loyalist paramilitary groups needed to look at what they were doing to their communities.
"There can be no justification whatsoever for the lack of movement by the loyalists," the Assembly member for North Antrim said.
"Their attitude to the peace process and all that has been achieved seems to be one of contempt. Their ceasefires are in tatters, they are involved in stoking up discontent and violence on a nightly basis. They are involved in drug dealing and racketeering.
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"Where is their honour? Where is their political agenda? Where are they leading their community?," Mr Farren said.
"Those of us in the pro-Agreement camp will do all that we can to listen to the concerns and to help where we can but it is time that loyalism stood up on its own two feet, took a long hard look at itself and decided what it is worth and what it can contribute to the future of the North".
Finance minister Mr Farren, who said the latest act of IRA decommissioning was welcome even though it was "later than most of us would have liked", called on unionist leaders to play their part in bringing about loyalist disarmament.
PA