War of words between Adrian McQuillan and John Dallat continues: You 'had to stab your friend in the back' to contest this election

by Cathal McGuigan

The war of words between two East Derry election candidates has continued with the DUP’s Adrian McQuillan accusing the SDLP’s John Dallat of “trying to out-green the Shinners.”

He also made reference to the SDLP’s choice to deselect Gerry Mullan and put Dallat up as the party’s sole candidate saying Dallat 'had to stab his friend in the back' to contest the election.

The two men, who hope to be returned as MLAs in March, began a very public argument last week with McQuillan branding Dallat’s decision to stand for election as 'farcical' and Dallat responding by criticising the DUP’s conduct during the recent RHI scandal.

In a statement, John Dallat said that the upcoming election 'must be about replacing the existing failing structures with something new where financial scrutiny is the order of the day'.

“I am amazed at how the DUP candidate Adrian McQuillan is able to compare apples with oranges when he attempts to justify third party organisations making applications for grants for Orange Halls when there is no reason why the applications could not be made in the name of the Brethren,” he said.

“It is as simple as that and any analogy with community projects in Dungiven and Glenariffe is like comparing apples with oranges.”

He said that he had no criticism of the Community Investment Fund (CIF) which 'has delivered many benefits to local communities where there is strict financial scrutiny and that is how the taxpayers would expect it'.

“However can any candidate seriously argue that a stop should not be put to giving owners of wood- burning stoves £160 back for every £100 of wood they use? Yet, that is what happened and the scheme was sold to benefactors on that basis. Yes, people were told that if they installed wood burners they could make millions!”

In response Adrian McQuillan accused John Dallat of 'doublespeak' and said he went on a 'sort of a rant, without really answering any of the questions we had set for him'.

“The questions we had asked him was why did his party support the Glenariffe project, it was Friends of Glenariffe, it wasn’t put in under the GAA hall or anything hall, it was Friends of Glenarrife and his party had no problem supporting that at council.”

“I just think that this is all a smokescreen. Anything to get at the Orange Order. Some places are maybe not lodges in them halls and it is community groups that is using them,” he said.

“John Dallat is trying to out-green the Shinners. Simple as that. I’ve said this for years and he tried to come across as all things to everybody, but you can’t be that. You have to believe in what you stand for.”

He said that criticism of the RHI scheme was 'just something that’s used to hammer the DUP' and said that the DUP was confident of retaining three MLA’s in East Derry.

He said that the people would support the party as 'we have four full time constituency offices in East Londonderry and they’re working flat out for the people of East Londonderry,' but admitted that the election will be 'challenging' with only five assembly seats up for grabs.

“It definitely will be more challenging, but we’re up for the fight. To be fair, I haven’t had to stab anybody in the back to get picked to run for my party, which John Dallat had to do,” he said.

“He had to stab his friend in the back. Only eight months ago he was running about the country telling everybody how great Gerry Mullan is and he was the right man to succeed him and all the rest of it. Then a few months down the line, he’s knifed him in the back."

“Now if you’ve friends like that, you don’t need too many enemies. I dread to think what he would do to me if he had half the chance.”

Adrian McQuillan also urged John Dallat to address the issue of a £50,784 ‘Stormont severance payment’ he received when he stepped down as an MLA.

Mr Dallat told the County Derry Post last month that he would consult SDLP staff about potentially returning money if elected in March.

“I couldn’t have foreseen that Stormont would be such a financial crisis as it is in. I am certainly not going back into the Assembly, if elected, to make money. That’s not the motivation,” he said.

“If there’s money that needs to be paid back, it will be paid back.”