Fuel payments bill fast-tracked

Mr Robinson and Martin McGuinness are accused of making a 'power grab'

The Assembly has fast-tracked a bill designed to allow low income households to get £150 to assist with fuel payments as soon as possible.

The bill, which could soon become law, also proposes to give ministers more flexibility in spending money in exceptional circumstances.

Some assembly members expressed concerns the first and deputy first ministers were making a power grab.

But First Minister Peter Robinson dismissed this as "nonsense".

"There's no machiavellian plot for the deputy first minister and I to 'suck out', I think was the term which was being used, from various departments functions and powers and to take their decisions for them."

The Financial Assistance Bill would allow the Executive to free money quickly to respond to emergencies such as flooding.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said: "Without the accelerated procedure, the earliest we would anticipate having the necessary legal authority to incur the expenditure would be well into the next financial year."

UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy, criticising the move, said: "It is the Henry VIII measure, centralising powers in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister at the expense of the wider Executive."