Coulter prefers Causeway Project to be Publicly Funded
Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has said his party’s perference for the development of the much-needed Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Centre is that the project should remain in public ownership.
The proposed centre will be constructed within Dr Coulter’s North Antrim constituency, but the recent media debates about the emergence of a private developer as the favourite to construct the centre had raised issues of transparency and accountability in the minds of the general public.
“Given that the Giant’s Causeway is deemed as being suitable as a UNESCO world heritage site, my preference, along with that of the Ulster Unionist Party, is for the development of the planned visitors’ centre to be in public ownership.
“In terms of accountability regarding decisions as to future development at what is regarded as the Eighth Wonder of the World, it is vitally important that all such decisions appear to have complete integrity in the minds of the electorate.
“If our Northern Ireland public, and the electorate in particular, are to have full confidence in the legislative Assembly, then they must view all decisions as being above board.
“And if our public are asking questions, then the Assembly has a moral imperative to ensure those questions are answered with integrity.
“Our electorate and wider public must have that 100 per cent assurance there is complete transparency and accountability in Stormont Executive decisions,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.