Department move under fire

A Democratic Unionist Assembly member today accused Education Minister Martin McGuinness of ‘‘naked sectarianism’’ in seeking to move his department’s headquarters from North Down.

Peter Weir, who represents the North Down area, said he welcomed the Education Committee’s attempts to retain the department’s base at Rathgael, outside Bangor.

‘‘This proposal is being pushed by Education Minister Martin McGuinness supposedly on the grounds that Rathgael is not a neutral environment.

‘‘Given that no formal complaint of any kind has been received from officials clearly shows that the only problem of sectarianism in the siting of the Department is the naked sectarianism of the minister himself,’’ he said.

Mr Weir asked why the minister was proposing to move jobs to Belfast when it was Executive policy to disperse civil service jobs from the city to other areas.

‘‘I call upon the minister to put an end to this nonsense and restore staff morale within the department by announcing he is dropping this proposal,’’ he added.