Corruption Rife At Stormont
Ian Paisley Jnr, junior minister in the Six County executive, came under fire last week amid further allegations of misconduct and abuse of power.
It has been revealed that the son of the first minister in the Stormont institutions provided former British prime minister Tony Blair with a shopping list during the St Andrews negotiations of 2007, using the DUP signing a deal as political leverage in order to further selected north Antrim constituents’ financial interests.
Included in the demands were; planning approval for an expensive resort spa, including 200 homes, the future use of the British army’s St Patrick’s Barracks in Ballymena to be discussed with the local MP (Ian Paisley Snr), private lands to be included in the development of the Giant’s Causeway site (manifesting itself recently in the infamous Seymour Sweeney affair).
Also demanded were, an upgrade of the A26 from Ballymena to Ballycastle, £1 million (1.3 million euro) for the North West 200 motorcycle event and a request that a judicial review be dropped in relation to lands at Ballee (itself at the centre of further controversy, provoking requests for an investigation).
The team of DUP politicians who lined up in support of Paisley Jnr during the Sweeney affair have remained studiously quiet on this issue, while the DUP leadership issued a statement denying any official involvement in Paisley’s shopping list. In his defence Paisley curtly said:
"If I come in for criticism for using opportunities that appear to me then I take it on the chin. My colleagues have stood by me, I have had ministers standing by me.”
Éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac an Mháistír said the ‘unofficial’ actions of Paisley were at one with the official policies of his party.
“Ian Paisley Jnr holds one of the most senior positions of any politician in the Six County executive and has fused his brand of fundamentalist unionism and opportunist capitalism well with his new office.
“In the short period since the reestablishment of Britain’s Stormont institutions he has verbally attacked the LGBT community, used his position to further the economic interests of his cronies and continuously and unapologetically opposed any initiative aimed at bettering the quality of life of working people in general and the nationalist community in particular.
“Crucially however, his actions hardly contradict the collective actions of the DUP. Their discriminatory attitude towards the Irish language community, their attempts to endorse the private Giant’s Causeway development, their threat to use their undemocratic veto to oppose the abolition of the 11 Plus exam, and their drafting of a program for government which will increase the gap between the rich and poor in occupied Ireland expose a party that has little concern for notions of accountability and democracy.
“Paisley’s actions have laid bare another of the fundamental flaws of the Stormont institutions, based as they are, upon giving unaccountable leverage to the DUP to implement their right-wing, pro-capitalist policies.
“Had events such as these occurred in any other supposedly democratic body in the world, the institutions would simply crumble under the weight of their own hypocrisy. However, given the track record of the Six County assembly and executive, citizens should not hold their breath in expectation of any disciplinary action for the corrupt MLA or his party.”