Close dismayed by possibility of "biggest bribe in history"

12.00.00am GMT Thu 20th Jan 2005

ALLIANCE Assembly member for Lagan Valley and Finance Spokesperson Seamus Close has reacted with dismay to news that the UDA is seeking £70 million from the Government to train its members in skills which equip them for a new life.

Mr Close stated:

"Surely this cannot be serious? Ordinary people must be wondering if honesty really is the best policy, when they see what the UDA has been responsible for, even since its so-called 'ceasefire'.

"It must make one question the very fundamentals of morality. This society is drowning so rapidly in a moral quagmire that decent people are beginning to think they are the fools.

"It is long overdue that the normal standards for society were reasserted, that the poisonous cancer of paramilitarism was dealt with effectively, and that governments governed rather than rolling over from every threat from every hood in our small country.

"I am calling on the Prime Minister to clarify the Government's position. It is highly insulting to even contemplate that his right hand man should be in secret talks with the UDA over potentially the biggest bribe in history."