Harry Cullen, spokesman for the Northern Ireland Conservatives, has reacted with anger to the news that taxpayers could face a bill of £100 million thanks to EU subsidy fines racked up by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).
“We already knew that DARD incompetence under Sinn Féin ministers had cost the public at least £64 million, but the fact that the final bill could top £100 million beggars belief. And, to add insult to injury, the minister responsible doesn’t appear to think that this appalling waste of taxpayers’ money is a big deal!”
“Michelle O’Neill’s reaction sums up perfectly the complacency in this executive where wasting money is concerned and the arrogance of Sinn Féin ministers in particular. The taxpayer is likely to be £100 million worse off, thanks to incompetence in a department which Ms. O’Neill and her party colleague Michelle Gildernew were responsible for, yet she has the bare faced cheek to imply that public services will not be affected!”
“There are countless ways in which the executive could better use this wasted £100 million. Look at the current shambles in Northern Ireland Water, or the suspended Step Ahead scheme which gets the unemployed back into work. Yet Stormont ministers continue to fritter away tax payers’ cash, hand over fist, then complain about the block grant. Voters and tax-payers deserve better than this bumbling incompetence and complete lack of responsibility.”