Foster defends meeting loyalist paramilitary body
FIRST Minister Arlene Foster has been accused of legitimising loyalist paramilitaries after meeting with a representative body to discuss tensions around the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The DUP leader has rejected the suggestion her engagement with the Loyalist Communities Council was inappropriate, insisting it was important to give a voice to all sections of the loyalist and unionist community.
Mrs Foster and senior colleagues met with the LCC on Thursday to discuss the ongoing controversy over disruption caused by post-brexit trading arrangements between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The meeting came amid anger among loyalists over the protocol, which necessitates checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
They claim it has driven an economic wedge between the region and Britain and has undermined the Union as a result.
The LCC is not an illegal organisation but it does represent three outlawed paramilitary groups — the UDA, the UVF and the Red Hand Commando.
It contends that it also represents other people and viewpoints within the wider loyalist and unionist community in Northern Ireland.
Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry criticised Mrs Foster’s decision to meet the council.
The North Down MP claimed the engagement sent out a signal that paramilitaries had a role to play in shaping society.
He said: “This meeting sends out a terrible mixed message.
“Everyone in Northern Ireland should have an equal voice and right to be heard.
“However, this must not be channelled through illegal paramilitary organisations.
“It is supposed to be the formal policy of the Executive to eliminate paramilitarism via its anti-paramilitary action plan.
“Meetings like this instead give the impression that paramilitary organisations are legitimate stakeholders.
“When people are striving to end the coercive control and intimidation of paramilitaries, this approach is self-defeating.”
Mrs Foster defended the meeting on Thursday. Asked whether she thought the engagement was appropriate, she replied: “Absolutely, and I will do so again because it’s important that all communities have a voice in the political process.
“I am absolutely a constitutional and political politician and therefore it is important that I listen to all voices in the loyalist and unionist community.
“I was very pleased to meet with the LCC today and to hear their concerns from their own community, to listen to those concerns, shared concerns about the protocol, about the status of the United Kingdom, about the Belfast agreement.
“So those conversations will continue.”