Ford challenges NIO to reveal financial details

10.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 26th Jun 2006

Alliance Party Leader David Ford

Alliance Party Leader David Ford has challenged the Northern Ireland Office to reveal to him the financial details about him and the Alliance Party they hold. His call comes in the light of a leaked document concerning the financial cost to the DUP of the failure to restore devolution.

David Ford stated: "I have submitted a request under the Data Protection Act to the NIO to reveal what details they hold of my finances in the event of the collapse of devolution, and under Freedom of Information to the NIO to reveal the cost to my party.

"It has been on record for some time that we have concerns about party finances in a variety of areas, not least the funding behind an apparently fake organization, 'Concerned Parents for a Shared Future', which sent out a leaflet apparently from my party but which appears to have come from elsewhere as an underhand electoral tactic.

"Is the Northern Ireland Office's information correct, and how does it intend to use it?

"The Alliance Party has taken part in all the talks so far in good faith, hoping to restore a system of devolution that works for the people who elected us.

"What, however, is the Northern Ireland Office's objective in all this?"

ENDS