The North's Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said she would defend any legal move to overrule her decision to withdraw funding to the loyalist Conflict Transformation Initiative.
The row exposes tensions within the powersharing Executive. Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey supported his fellow Minister Ms Ritchie yesterday against censure from DUP and Sinn Féin Ministers. Sir Reg went on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme to defend Ms Ritchie, implicitly accusing the DUP and Sinn Féin of seeking to "hang her out to dry".
He suspected some Ministers were attempting to engineer a situation where Ms Ritchie could be accused of breaking the ministerial code. "I do not think she should be singled out from the herd in this way," said Sir Reg.
The SDLP Minister was last night holding to her position despite criticism from DUP Minister Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness about her handling of the issue, and a threat of a judicial review of her decision to stop £1.2 million in funds.
Chris McGimpsey, of the Farset group, which was charged with spending the money on loyalist communities through the transformation initiative, said any move to halt the funding would be legally challenged.
Ms Ritchie again accused DUP and Sinn Féin Ministers of working to dominate her and the two UUP Ministers in the Executive. "It is a political carve-up between the DUP and Sinn Féin whereby they are seeking to control other Ministers and that does not make for good government," she told The Irish Times.
While the funding has not yet ceased Ms Ritchie said a "termination notice" was being prepared.
The £1.2 million earmarked for the initiative was aimed at persuading the UDA to begin decommissioning. In August she warned this money would be withdrawn if disarmament had not begun by early October.
With the UDA ignoring her deadline Ms Ritchie began the process of withholding the money. Executive legal advisers warned such a move would leave her vulnerable to legal challenge. She sought independent legal advice which said legal action could be "robustly challenged".
This prompted suggestions she was meeting some Civil Service resistance. "The department will defend any challenge. Ministers make decisions. Civil servants implement them," she said.
The DUP and Sinn Féin said they supported any attempt to pressurise the UDA into decommissioning but they believed she was mishandling the matter.
DUP Finance Minister Mr Robinson accused her of acting illegally and in breach of her ministerial code. His colleague Nigel Dodds said she broke an agreed decision-making process, while Sinn Féin's Mr McGuinness said she had lost the run of herself.
The funding row overshadowed DUP Minister Edwin Poots' refusal to proceed with the Irish Language Act which the British and Irish governments promised in the St Andrews Agreement. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said regardless of Mr Poots' decision the act would be implemented. Yesterday Mr Dodds contradicted him. "Mr Adams can dream on if he wishes," he said, "but there will be no Irish Language Act. The prudent and determined leadership of the DUP has ensured that Northern Ireland will be spared such an absurd waste of taxpayers' money."
MEP Jim Allister, a critic of the Executive who quit the DUP over powersharing, said: "from the heady promises of unified, transparent government, serving the interests of all, we have soon descended into factional executive infighting where the interests of the DUP/Sinn Féin coalition are paramount".
