SF and DUP clash on local government reform
Sinn Féin and the DUP were at loggerheads today over local government reform only hours before talks to try to resolve the issue.
Minister Edwin Poots and Sinn Féin MLAs accused each other of blocking reform, with Mr Poots claiming the opportunity to save £400m (€481.6m) had so far been missed.
Mammoth negotiations on how to reduce 26 local authorities to 11 are a last chance to break the deadlock ahead of next year's elections and are to reconvene at Stormont tonight.
Mr Poots told the Assembly: "The caveman mentality of not moving things forward is why we are where we are with the RPA (Review of Public Administration) and other parties are blocking and blocking and blocking again.
"Whenever facts are put to them that there are savings that can be made, there are benefits that can be derived and that can be delivered to the public all we get is 'well we don't want to change, we are afraid of change,' I am not afraid of change and I am fed up with other people attempting to block change."
How councils pay for services, how they are funded and the centralisation of processes like dealing with waste have been in dispute between central and local government for months.
Resolving whether Dunmurry, with its mainly nationalist population, is inside or outside a Belfast supercouncil has been another sticking point, as it could leave the city with a nationalist majority.
Mr Poots said the current proposals rejected methods of collaboration which could have saved £400m (€481.6m) but claimed measures to improve cooperation could be taken with or without a reduction in the number of councils.
Among the issues to be decided by the Executive today is whether a reduction in councils happens next year, in 2015 or not at all.
Almost £10m (€12m) has already been spent preparing for the changes.
Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin asked the Assembly: "When will the minister accept the reality that the RPA process must go ahead and that to continue to sustain the 26-county model is clearly not value for money?"
Mr Poots said proposals had been put by his predecessor Sammy Wilson a year-and-a-half ago.
"The only reason Mr Deputy Speaker that these policy proposals have not been consulted on is that the member's own party, the deputy First Minister's office, has held that back," he said.
"I will not take lectures from the member opposite about who has been holding things back when it is very clear that this policy document has been held back by his party and his party alone," he added.
