SF condemns British move to withdraw party's allowances

10/03/2005 - 13:03:10
Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy has condemned moves by the British House of Commons to withdraw his party's Westminster allowances as punishment for the Northern Bank raid.

British MPs are expected to pass a motion this afternoon withdrawing the allowances, which are worth almost £500,000 (€718,100) to Sinn Féin annually.

The motion was tabled when the Independent Monitoring Commission set up to oversee paramilitary ceasefires said the IRA carried out the £26.5m (€38.1m) robbery with the approval of senior Sinn Féin members.

"People who consider themselves democrats and argue for due process want to penalise our electorate on the basis of the advice of security people who have not put up one shred of evidence, either to prove who did the Northern Bank robbery or to attempt to link Sinn Féin as a political party to that," Mr Murphy said.