DeBrun accuses Reid of complacency

Sinn Fein has accused Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid of showing "an alarming state of complacency" in the face of damage to the credibility of the political institutions.

Bairbre de Brun, who until midnight last night was health minister in the Stormont Executive, said: "I think the British Government and the Ulster Unionist Party need to understand that Nationalists and Republicans also have rights.

"We have entitlements and those rights and entitlements cannot be drip fed or withheld either by Tony Blair or David Trimble."