UDA 'put end to loyalist fund'

Ms Ritchie withdrew funding following an ultimatum to the UDA

Senior government officials believed spending more than £1m of public money on a scheme for loyalist areas was too risky, the High Court has heard.

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie withdrew funding for the Conflict Transformation Initiative because the UDA failed to decommission.

Lawyers for Ms Ritchie said "despicable paramilitary behaviour" by the UDA made a reassessment of funding inevitable.

The project administrators are seeking a judicial review of her decision.

The minister made the move in October 2007, when the UDA failed to meet her 60-day ultimatum to end criminality and begin decommissioning its weapons.

Ms Ritchie's barrister argued that she was acting under her obligations to serve the public interest, irrespective of any contract.

He said the objective of the scheme, first drawn up by the direct rule administration, was to eliminate or at least reduce paramilitary control in loyalist working class areas.

'Abhorrent waste'

Despite the potential benefits, it would be an "abhorrent waste of public funds" if the paramilitaries failed to commit to peaceful methods, the barrister told the court.

It met with a mixed reception within government when first proposed by the Ulster Political Research Group which advises the UDA, he said.

"To many in government who had to consider this, including the Permanent Secretary of DSD (Department of Social Development), the risks were identified as far too great and the prospects of success were identified as far too small," he said.

That despicable paramilitary behaviour by the UDA cannot be squared with the necessary good faith which would allow a project of this nature to continue Counsel for Ms Ritchie

"There was deep and substantial scepticism about the ability of the paramilitaries to reconstruct themselves, to reform and transform their communities and deliver upon their promises."

He said then-Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and his direct rule colleague David Hanson were prepared to take a chance and press on with pilot funding before agreeing to a three-year contract, adding that he acknowledged some good work had been achieved.

The barrister then turned to "outrageous" UDA-orchestrated violence in Bangor and Carrickfergus during the summer of 2007 - including shots being fired at police - which led to Ms Ritchie setting her 60-day deadline.

"At the same time as the department was funding a transformation initiative, the focus of which was the reconstruction of the UDA, the UDA was busy demonstrating publicly its criminal grip on local communities in events of blatant violence," he said.

"One asks the question, how could these activities do other than raise the fundamental question of the viability of the CTI project?"

He added: "That despicable paramilitary behaviour by the UDA cannot be squared with the necessary good faith which would allow a project of this nature to continue.

"It was inevitable therefore that the minister who had inherited the arrangement would have to act and reassess the situation. That is what her duty was and that is what she did."

The case continues.