TUV manifesto says RHI names should be published

Jim Allister described Brexit as a "golden opportunity" for Northern Ireland

The TUV leader has said injunctions preventing names of recipients of payments from the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme being published are "inappropriate on a long-term basis".

Jim Allister was speaking at the launch of his party's election manifesto.

He said people are correct to be angry about the "appalling incompetence" demonstrated in drawing up the RHI scheme without cost controls.

The TUV has taken a leaf out of US President Donald Trump's book.

They entitled their manifesto "Drain the Swamp".

The manifesto says the RHI scheme is just the latest in a series of Stormont scandals which the party has been in the forefront of exposing.

The TUV backs efforts to curb any future losses resulting from the RHI scheme and prosecutions of anyone fraudulently abusing the scheme.

The party opposes an Irish language act and any attempt to introduce same-sex marriage.

'Golden opportunity'

Mr Allister described Brexit as a "golden opportunity" for Northern Ireland and predicts that the Republic of Ireland may in time consider following the UK's example in leaving the European Union.

At the manifesto launch, the TUV leader was strongly critical of the Sinn Féin northern leader, Michelle O'Neill.

Mr Allister claimed Mrs O'Neill's decision to attend a commemoration for four IRA members shot dead by the SAS at Clonoe near Coalisland in 1992 amounted to "dancing on the graves of the innocent victims of the IRA".

The TUV manifesto calls for wholesale changes to the current system of power sharing.

It wants the introduction of either weighted majority voting or a new model in which local politicians would continue to sit in the assembly while Westminster direct rule ministers run Stormont departments.