Responding to comments from Alex Maskey on this morning’s Nolan Show Jim Allister said:

“Alex Maskey’s reminder that his party has only “absented themselves” from the Justice Ministry only for the period covered by the current deal – until 2012 – is a pertinent reminder of just how poor the deal negotiated by the DUP is.

“North Antrim DUP Westminster candidate Ian Paisley Jnr claimed in the Assembly in January of last year that “After 2012 it does not matter who Sinn Féin or the SDLP nominate; the Democratic Unionist Party has been handed a veto for all time”.

“The truth, as Maskey has reminded us, is very different.

“In the strange world of the DUP political lifetimes melt into a few weeks and an all time veto turns into just two years!”