SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood.
First Minister Peter Robinson has been accused by Derry SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood of playing political football with the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry.
Mr Eastwood made the comment after Mr Robinson said it would be impossible to sign off funding for the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) and other projects because of a delay in agreeing the June Monitoring Round funding package with Sinn Fein.
The inquiry is examining allegations of abuse in care homes, including Nazareth House and Termonbacca in Derry, between 1922 and 1995.
Mr Eastwood said: “That Mr Robinson cherry picked the HIA inquiry to lose out over a host of other projects is as outrageous as it is unacceptable.
“The fact that a day later the First Minister has assured victims that the money will now be in place for the inquiry to continue proves that he was playing political football with this most sensitive of issues.
“Mr Robinson has caused unnecessary hurt to victims with his politically motivated outburst.”
Mr Eastwood: “Yet again Mr Robinson’s comments regarding some of society’s most vulnerable have caused public outrage. Recently it was those subjected to racism, this time it is the victims and survivors of child abuse who find themselves let down.”
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