Hain accused of interfering in Assembly
Northern Secretary Peter Hain was today accused of interfering in the running of the Assembly since attempts to restore devolution began in May.
Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey said Hain should have left the local parties in control.
Empey said: “People are playing politics with the Secretary of State, trying to push him one way or the other.”
He said this was wrong that this was occurring. Empey blamed it upon some people not wanting to make their own decisions.
“I believe if he (Mr Hain) hadn’t been involved in it in the first place, and it had been left to the speaker and the business community to set the business, the business would have been set and the assembly would have met far more frequently and done far more business,” he told the BBC’s Inside Politics programme.
In May, politicians took their seats in the Stormont assembly for the first time since its suspensions in 2002. But it has only met a few times since May after difficulties arose in electing a First Minister.
Intensive efforts to restore devolved government are expected to resume in autumn ahead of the November deadline for devolution.
Earlier this week, Mr Hain warned MLAs he would slash the number of government departments in the North if they were unwilling to take the decision themselves in a devolved administration by November 24.
Mr Hain said that the North was overgoverned and needed radically to alter the structure of central government in the wake of local government reforms. The minister said he wanted parties to take charge of the project.
He has said the transfer of powers to local councils and plans to devolve policing and justice powers to a future administration demanded a restructuring of central government.
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