Controversial minister accused of race rant

A Stormont government minister clashed with a leading ethnic minorities group today after accusing campaigners of overstating racism in the North to attract public money.

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is at loggerheads with the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (Nicem).

It comes after racist attacks in Belfast hit the headlines earlier this year when around 100 Romanians were forced from their homes in the south of the city.

The high-profile Nicem group had already criticised Mr Wilson for earlier remarks when he said jobs should go to people born in the North before going to economic migrants.

The DUP minister also hit the headlines in his earlier role as Environment Minister for denying mankind had a role in causing climate change.

Mr Wilson defended his latest controversial comments today and said: “What I had said was that, first of all, when there was any attempt to have an honest debate on the issue of immigration, immediately the people who were involved in that were accused of being racist.

“Secondly, these charges of racism then were always coincided with the holding out of the hand for more money for the organisations which were dealing with the issue.

“From that point of view, organisations like Nicem needed to keep raising this issue because that was one way of perpetuating their own existence.”

Mr Wilson claimed there was an “anti-racism industry”.

“Of course, they have to justify their existence and now and again I think they take an unfair shot at politicians and when they do they can’t expect people to remain silent,” he told the BBC.

Nicem spokesman Patrick Yu accused Mr Wilson of a political rant which effectively played down racism, which official figures showed is on the rise.

In a statement, Nicem said its role involves protecting the most vulnerable communities in society and said it had complained over Mr Wilson’s earlier remarks on migrant workers as part of its responsibility to defend immigrants.

“Such a perception not only conflicts with domestic and European law, but it breeds suspicion and xenophobia that leave many such minorities vulnerable to abuse,” it said of his earlier remarks.

The organisation said its data on racist attacks was based on police figures.

It said it had a good working relationship with Government and helped to establish the All Party Assembly Group on Ethnic Minorities at Stormont.

Nicem said it had received an average of £45,000 (€52,608) per year in government funding over the last 10 years, representing only 5%-10% of its income.

The Green Party, which clashed with the minister when he was responsible for the Department of Environment, said: “Mr Wilson’s philosophy appears to be ’I offend, therefore I am’.”