The UK Unionist leader, Mr Bob McCartney, has said that contrary to the propaganda of its supporters, the Stormont Executive has been a disaster for public services in Northern Ireland.
He was addressing his party's annual conference in Bangor, Co Down, at the weekend. Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien, the UK Unionist honorary president, was among 90 delegates in attendance.
Mr McCartney said Mr David Trimble had promised devolution would deliver "more efficient, accountable, sensitive and accessible government". However, the opposite was happening.
"Northern Ireland is being buried under a tide of bureaucracy. A total of £1.2 billion - almost 14 per cent of the total block grant which the UK gives the Executive to run our essential services including health, education, the environment and regional development - is being spent on administration by 11 departments plus the Assembly.
"While hospitals and schools go short, £1.2 million is being spent on cars to ferry these very important ministers from place to place. The people of Northern Ireland are paying Rolls Royce money for government, but they are getting a clapped out banger in return."
Mr McCartney said the North's health service was "of third-world standard" in terms of its excessive bureaucracy and administration costs.
"The longest waiting lists in Europe, and a totally botched organisation for the reform of primary care in the community are but two examples of what lies ahead for Northern Ireland's sick," he said.
Under Mr Trimble's leadership, the Union was weaker than ever, he said.
"How can the Union be strong when the pro-Union people observe daily the denigration and removal of all those signs, symbols, and insignia of their British identity?
"How can the Union be strong when the royal prefix is removed from the police, the royal coat of arms from all but a few listed buildings, and restrictions are placed on the flying of the Union flag?
"How can a Union based on the British principles of parliamentary democracy be stronger when those principles are abandoned and the political representatives of armed terrorists allowed into government upon terms the government of the Republic would find unacceptable?"