Northern Ireland

Fresh concerns raised over nationalist exclusion from Euro cash panel

East Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan has voiced concerns after nationalists were excluded from a Mid and East Antrim Borough Council partnership to to distribute the ‘Peace IV’ cash
East Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan has voiced concerns after nationalists were excluded from a Mid and East Antrim Borough Council partnership to to distribute the ‘Peace IV’ cash East Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan has voiced concerns after nationalists were excluded from a Mid and East Antrim Borough Council partnership to to distribute the ‘Peace IV’ cash

Fresh concerns have been raised after nationalists were excluded from a council partnership set up to distribute £2.6 million of European ‘peace’ cash.

East Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan spoke out last night after six unionist councillors were appointed to distribute the ‘Peace IV’ cash across the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council district.

The European Peace IV funding, which is designed to help promote peace and reconciliation, is overseen by the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB).

Guidance for partnerships issued by the SEUPB states that “it is critical that representation is balanced”.

Mr McMullan said the new panel “is not representative of the local community as it does not contain any nationalist or republican councillors”.

He said he has contacted the SEUPB and “made it clear the present make-up of the panel is unacceptable”.

“I would urge Mid and East Antrim Council to work with SEUPB and take this opportunity to demonstrate it is serious about representing everyone in the council area equally by making the membership of this panel more representative,” he said.

A spokesman for the council said that in addition to the six elected members the panel will also include four representatives from statutory agencies and 12 people from the voluntary and social sectors.

“The six elected members were selected using the D’hondt method of proportionality,” he said.

“This method has previously been used by Council under the provisions of the Local Government Act.”