The social development minister has shown that he is “shameless and arrogant”, by refusing to apologise to companies he accused of over-charging the housing executive, according to NI Conservatives’ spokesman Johnny Andrews. Mr Andrews also said that the Stormont Assembly is “completely undermined” by the refusal of Executive ministers to resign “however incompetent or bungling their performance”.
“It is outrageous that Nelson McCausland stood up in the Assembly and accused four named contractors of overcharging the housing executive to the tune of £18 million, when the true figure was about £670,000 and one company was actually owed money by the NIHE”, Johnny commented. “It is even more unbelievable that he now completely refuses to apologise to the contractors he bad-mouthed. Given that the DSD committee found earlier this year that it was deliberately misled by the minister about a meeting he held with a DUP donor, you wonder what it might take for Mr McCausland to consider resigning. From his aggressive approach to interviews, it is clear that the DSD minister intends, like other executive ministers before him, to ‘brazen out’ this incident by being both shameless and arrogant.”
“The public is entitled to ask – what exactly does it take to get rid of a Stormont minister? John O’Dowd presides over an ongoing crisis in education and even refused to adhere to a legal requirement to promote integrated schools in his department and no-one can lay a finger on him. Conor Murphy oversaw a complete shambles at Northern Ireland Water and refused to resign. The health minister, Edwin Poots, has failed to give patients in Northern Ireland the same access as people in England to the latest cancer medicines - even though it is clear the initial costs will be picked up by the pharmaceutical companies. He appears not to be fully understand the situation, but as yet he has not considered his position. Meanwhile, Nelson McCausland continues to weather one scandal after another at DSD. All of these ministers would have been forced to resign had they shown such incompetence at Westminster or elsewhere in the UK, but in Northern Ireland, so long as they have the support of their parties they appear to be untouchable. Clearly this is why proper accountability at Stormont and reform of our system of government is absolutely necessary, if the people of Northern Ireland are to get the leadership they deserve, at Executive level.”