Minister defends leaving chamber during no confidence motion
Andrew Muir accused the DUP of populism and trying to sow division in the fallout over an incident in which cattle were shot in a field.
Stormont minister Andrew Muir has defended walking out of a no confidence debate in him, accusing the DUP of populism and trying to sow division.
The Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister has faced criticism over an incident in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone, when 51 cows were shot in a field by his department’s officials.
An external review was ordered into the incident with a report described as being due shortly.
Mr Muir has spoken of having received death threats in the fallout.
Earlier in October, a no confidence motion against Mr Muir backed by the DUP, UUP and TUV was defeated by 38 votes to 32.
During that debate, Alliance leader Naomi Long led a walkout of her MLAs from the chamber, claiming the motion was a “pantomime stunt” against her minister.
Asked about that move by DUP MLA Paul Frew during questions for his department in the Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Muir declined to apologise.
“I chose not to respond because it was clear that the DUP had already made up their mind regardless of what I had to say,” he told MLAs.
“Time and again, your party has proven itself to be insincere, uninterested in facts and evidence, and opportunistic and also self-serving.
“So, my time as minister was better spent dealing with important departmental business, as I said before, and I will say again, for those with selective hearing, I neither sanctioned nor authorised the operation of Fivemiletown.
“I acted decisively to ensure an independent external review of the circumstances is under way and this will report shortly.
“If mistakes were made by my officials, they must be identified and lessons learned.”
Mr Frew put to Mr Muir that irrespective of which parties moved the motion, the Assembly is there to hold him as minister to account and asked him to apologise for failing to respond to the debate.
Mr Muir responded: “I am not going to take any lessons on accountability from the DUP, after all, it was the DUP who delivered us Brexit, RHI, climate denial, hypocrisy, collapse of institutions, a catalogue of scandals that are eroding confidence in these institutions.
“It is very clear that populism has a grip on the DUP and political unionism more broadly, and instead of showing the leadership needed to make this place work for everyone, you are determined to drive division and heighten tensions, and to distract from your own failures.
“The sad reality is that the politicians on my right are not interested in making Northern Ireland work. They are seeking to dismantle these institutions and undermine the very United Kingdom that you claim to support.
“The DUP, time and again, have proven themselves to be own goals specialists with no strategy, no vision, and offering nothing to the electorate.”
Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole said he is “no fan of the DUP”, adding that his party, the SDLP, did not support the no confidence motion.
However, he contended that Mr Muir had “engaged a stunt of your own” which may have “undermined trust in this institution further” and urged the minister to reflect on that.
Responding, Mr Muir said he did reflect and read via Hansard the contributions made during the debate.
“To be honest, there was not much real substance to an awful lot that was being said, and all of it was extremely personal against myself,” he said.
“But what I am doing is I’m here to answer questions as part of question time, I go regularly to the committee, and I believe in scrutiny, but some people here don’t come for scrutiny.
“This question isn’t about scrutiny. This is about performance and TikToks rather than asking detailed questions in relation to what I am doing in the department to seek to serve everyone in Northern Ireland.”