Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
 
"Confirmation that republican prisoner groups in West Belfast, most notably Coiste, have received over £3m of EU Peace III money (with much more to follow from a £7.5m allocation), while genuine victim groups have been starved of funding, points up not just the inequity that lies at the heart of the PEACE III programme, but the complicity of Stormont in its delivery.

"While Brussels and the SEUPB rightly stand indicted over such squander, responsibility in fact lies closer to home, because such monies could never have been paid to such IRA groups if the Joint First Ministers had not approved the criteria and target groups which prioritised Coiste and others of that ilk for such expenditure.

“Without DUP approval in OFMDFM of ex-prisoners as a target group for Peace funding they could not have received such outrageous preferential treatment, and, of course, the EU grants have then been topped up by OFMDFM funding. What has been the point of the DUP being in government if it is not even prepared to exercise a veto over Provo funding?

"I also fear that in any NI Budget settlement we will see, at the behest of Sinn Fein, a new channel for what in essence will amount to a new stream of paramilitary funding created through what will be grandly termed a 'Community Fund' whereby the Joint First Ministers will direct funding to favoured groups under the guise of community assistance. DSD Minister Atwood has been right to warn against such folly."