NI Conservatives’ enterprise, trade and investment spokesman, Johnny Andrews, has welcomed Arlene Foster’s department's belated acknowledgment that it was responsible for the ‘maladministration’ of the Presbyterian Mutual Society crisis, after the Northern Ireland Ombudsman said DETI had neglected its legal responsibility to scrutinise the PMS.
“Despite Arlene Foster’s previous attempts to deny responsibility for scrutinising the Presbyterian Mutual, the Ombudsman has found that her department failed in its responsibilities”, Johnny observed. “The minister’s avoidance tactics were typical of a member of an executive which never wants to take responsibility, which always wants to shift the blame elsewhere and which continually fails to give the people of Northern Ireland the competence, value for money and good practice that they deserve.”
“We must remember that after DETI ignored the problems associated with the PMS and the fact that it was operating beyond its remit, it was David Cameron and his government who stepped in to sort out the executive’s mess and made sure that hard pressed savers were not left out of pocket. Consistently, whether with the block grant, air passenger duty, saving the coastguard or bringing the G8 to Northern Ireland, Conservatives in government have delivered for Northern Ireland, while the executive refuses to tackle the difficult issues which we face.”