FORMER social development minister Margaret Ritchie, who during her time in office stopped money to a UDA-linked group after violence involving members of the paramilitary organisation, has said £1.7 million of funding to Charter NI should never have been allocated.
There have been calls for a Social Investment Fund windfall to be stopped until the UDA can give assurances that none of the Charter NI senior management team are involved in criminality.
During her time as minister Ms Ritchie removed £1m of public money from the Conflict Transformation Initiative (CTI) after UDA-led violence.
She cut funding for the CTI in October 2007, when the UDA failed to meet her 60-day ultimatum to end criminality and begin decommissioning its weapons after violence in Carrickfergus and Bangor.
The SDLP minister’s decision was later challenged in the High Court and Mr Justice Morgan ruled against her, saying there was an ‘error in procedure’ as she did not consult the rest of the executive before making her decision.
However, Ms Ritchie, now MP for South Down, said on Tuesday she did not regret her hard-line stance and said a similar approach should be taken with Charter NI in light of recent comments by Dee Stitt.
In an interview to the Guardiannewspaper Stitt launched a foul-mouthed rant against the British government and described the loyalist flute band of which he is a member as providing “homeland security” in north Down.
“My position on this is quite clear. This funding should never have been given in the first place”, Ms Ritchie said.
“It was wrong to do so and this money should be directed to communities in need rather these particular groups and while the UDA are still involved direct action on the streets.
“It was 20 years ago that governments started giving money to paramilitary groups to go away. That they are still doing it now is wrong in my view.
“The lack of accountability creates an inequality at a time when there are people who are in need and don’t get the funding they
require.”
The DUP, which previously backed Charter NI, rowed back from that position this week when Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told BBC’s Nolan Show that he would not have appointed self-confessed UDA commander Stitt as the chief executive of the publicly funded community group.
Sir Jeffrey said it was a matter for the Charter NI board to decide who is in charge in line with “due process”. However, he said that if he was in charge he would not have Stitt as chief executive.
The Irish News contacted members of the Charter NI board on Tuesday to ask whether they still had confidence in Stitt staying on as chief executive but at the time of going to print none
had responded.
