Statement by TUV Newry and Armagh Assembly candidate Barrie Halliday:

“The frank admission by a PSNI officer who works in the southern command district in this morning’s Belfast Telegraph that “the authorities are sitting in their ivory towers and they haven’t a clue what is going on” effectively tells us what we already know about the PSNI response to the potentially deadly bomb which was discovered on the main Belfast to Dublin dual carriageway.

“I would endorse the view of the officer when he says that once the van was discovered the road should have been sealed off immediately rather than officers going back to the station to get cones.

“Yes the bomb was defused but serious failings were exposed. It is vital that lessons are learned if tragedy is to be avoided in the future”.