A FORMER member of the Stormont Executive has described remarks by Arlene Foster about rogue nationalist ministers as "utterly disgraceful".
Bríd Rodgers claimed the interim first minister’s "mask had slipped" during a TV interview in which she said she would act as a "gatekeeper" to prevent Sinn Féin and the SDLP taking actions that would "damage the unionist community".
Mrs Foster is the DUP's only remaining Stormont minister after her party colleagues withdrew from the executive on Thursday.
DUP leader Peter Robinson also stepped aside as first minister following failed efforts to get the assembly adjourned or suspended.
Alongside her role as finance minister, Mrs Foster will act as interim first minister, a position in which she is expected to represent all the people of Northern Ireland.
Mr Robinson said he had asked her to remain in the executive "to ensure that nationalists and republicans are not able to take financial and other decisions that may be detrimental to Northern Ireland".
Speaking during Thursday's night's edition of BBC politics programme The View, Mrs Foster said she would act as a "gatekeeper".
"I have been placed there as a gatekeeper to make sure that Sinn Féin and the SDLP ministers don't take actions that will damage Northern Ireland and principally, let's be honest, that damage the unionist community," she said.
"If anybody knows me and indeed knows the Democratic Unionist Party they know that I'm not going to put at risk to the people of Northern Ireland the possibility that rogue Sinn Féin or renegade SDLP ministers are going to take decisions that will harm the community in Northern Ireland."
Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly responded immediately to the remarks, branding them a "throwback" to the past.
The North Belfast MLA accused Mrs Foster of displaying a "very bigoted view of what the institutions are about".
Last night former Stormont agriculture minister and one-time SDLP deputy leader Bríd Rodgers said the comments were "extremely insulting to the whole nationalist community".
"I was completely aghast as I watched the interview and found it utterly disgraceful," she said.
"It was flawed on two counts – firstly that nationalist ministers, including an SDLP minister, would do things that were to the detriment of the community, and particularly the unionist community, but also that she would stay in the executive to in some way prevent it."
She added: "What does it say about her view of the people unionists are supposed to be sharing power with? It was clear her mask had slipped."
Mrs Foster yesterday defended her remarks.
"We make no apology about taking steps to ensure that actions are not taken by ministers which would be to the detriment of Northern Ireland," she said.
She added that while Sinn Féin had criticised her use of language, it was Conor Murphy who was found guilty in court of sectarian bias while a minister – a reference to a successful discrimination case brought by a Protestant man who was overlooked for the job of chairman of NI Water.
"Martin McGuinness also used the dying moments of devolution previously to abolish the 11-plus – we will not sit back and allow such actions to happen again," Mrs Foster said.
Meanwhile, Mrs Rodgers told The Irish News she was "very happy" with the SDLP's decision not to vote for an adjournment of the assembly on Thursday.
"I'm glad they stood up to the Irish government," she said.
