Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Today’s comments by Sinn Fein Northern Ireland chairman Bobby Storey about the IRA “butterfly” and McGuinness’s remarks about state agents being behind two recent murders would be laughable were the issues involved not deadly serious.
“Again we have underscored for us the reality that Sinn Fein are strangers to truth. What sort of fools do they take people for? Yet it’s worth noting that this is the party both the DUP and UUP look set to join round the negotiating table tomorrow.
“Republicans clearly think they will ultimately be able to get away with this just as they did with the murders of Robert McCartney and Paul Quinn and the Northern Bank robbery.
“We are long past the point when all democrats should have recognised that Sinn Fein are apologists for the IRA, not some other party that can join democrats round the talks table or – even worse – in government, a position they retain because the DUP went back on their pledge to resign.
“Republican fairy tales of IRA butterflies and the ever present villainous state agents fool no one. But will Unionists be content to join them in talks on Monday to listen to such nonsense?”
