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North Down’s MP, Lady Hermon, has sought and obtained assurances from the Government that the local Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) budget will not be drained of much-needed resources as a result of the merger of the Agency with the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Speaking in the House of Commons, the Ulster Unionist MP asked Security Minister Paul Goggins for “an absolute assurance that the transitional costs of merging SOCA with the Assets Recovery Agency will be taken as additional funding from the Home Office rather than out of the budgets of the Agency and SOCA, because those budgets should be used to fight crime, not to cover this merger.”

In response, Mr Goggins confirmed that: “All the costs related to the merger of the two agencies will be borne by the Home Office, which is the parent Department for the new agency.”

This assurance is the latest step in the North Down MP’s efforts to protect the assets recovery budget in Northern Ireland.  It follows on from her recent meeting with Home Secretary John Reid about this issue.  She has described this latest development as “greatly to be welcomed in the ongoing fight against organised crime.”

Ulster Unionist North Belfast MLA Fred Cobain today responded to the UVF/RHC stand-down statement.

Mr Cobain said,

“The UUP has been working for a long time to see the winding down of loyalist paramilitaries and the disposal of their weapons. We welcome the decision of the UVF/RHC not to continue as a paramilitary organisation, to fully support the lawful authorities and to condemn criminality. While we do not know what precisely is meant by the statement in relation to weapons, we have consistently urged engagement with the IICD as the only way of dealing finally with this issue. We will await a response from the IICD and hope that General de Chastelain will soon be able to publish an inventory of all weapons disposed of from all organisations. In the meantime we hope it signals the destruction of materials of war so that they cannot again be used to inflict harm.

We are now seeing the endgame for all loyalist paramilitaries and mainstream republicans and this will be welcomed by the people who have suffered for many years as a result of conflict. While it is important that the UVF statement did refer to ..’abject and true remorse to all innocent victims of the conflict.’ there will be many today grieving for relatives who suffered over the years.

We must work with renewed vigour to ensure that such conflict is never again visited on our country, and today’s statement must be seen as a positive contribution to a new beginning for Northern Ireland. It remains now for dissident republicans to realise that their cause is hopeless and wind down their organisations in accordance with the wishes of the people.”

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, said now the power-sharing Executive was up and running, he was “stepping his campaign up into top gear for an emergency workers’ protection law”.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter, who is also UUP Health Spokesman, confirmed he was proposing to introduce the law as a Private Member’s Bill in the new Assembly.

The North Antrim MLA added: “Our mercy workers in the Fire Service, Ambulance Service and Accident and Emergency Units as well as doctors and nurses are quite literally putting their lives on the line to save others.

“However, there are situations in a supposedly democratic society which are just beyond the pale and attacks on fire fighters, health workers, nurses and doctors who are carrying out their duties are never acceptable, and can never ever be justified in anyone’s language.

“A recent attack when a pellet gun was used on fire fighters called to a fire in Belfast confirms the need for tough legislation along the lines of the Scottish model on this matter. This would create a new offence with much stiffer penalties than current laws allow.

“Now that we have a restored Stormont and things are settling down into a normal society in Northern Ireland, we must rigorously stamp out hoodlum behaviour like this and get the message out loud and clear to young thugs – the day when you could get away with this kind of yob activity is over,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.