Warrington: Sinn Féin's double standards on illegal banners exposed

Ulster Unionist Party Councillor Victor Warrington has criticised what he described as "staggering hypocrisy" after Sinn Féin councillors voted against providing the Infrastructure Minister with photographic evidence of an Easter commemoration banner erected on Department for Infrastructure property.

Cllr Warrington said:

"For months, Sinn Féin representatives have insisted that the rules on flags, banners and other unauthorised material on public infrastructure must be applied consistently. Yet when presented with clear evidence of one of their own elected representatives posing beside an Easter commemoration banner attached to a DfI signpost, they suddenly had no interest in pursuing the matter.

"Fermanagh and Omagh District Council had already written to the Infrastructure Minister seeking clarification on whether Easter banners erected on DfI infrastructure were unlawful and what action would be taken.

"In response, the Minister stated that the Department was not aware of any Easter banners of the type referred to in the Council's correspondence.

"At this week's Council meeting I informed Members that I was in possession of a photograph clearly showing one of Sinn Féin's elected representatives standing beside exactly such a banner, attached to a DfI road sign in the Erne West area. I proposed that the Council simply write back to the Minister and provide her with the photographic evidence so that she could consider the matter on the basis of the facts. That proposal was voted down.

"The hypocrisy could not be more obvious. Sinn Féin cannot demand action against unauthorised displays when it suits them while refusing to acknowledge or act when the same standards apply to material associated with their own political tradition.

"This is not about targeting one community or another. It is about consistency and equality before the law. Either the rules governing unauthorised material on public infrastructure apply to everyone, or they apply to no one.

"If the Minister genuinely wishes to see the law enforced fairly, she should now be provided with the photographic evidence and explain whether the same standards will be applied regardless of who erected the banner or whose representatives were photographed beside it.

"The public are rightly tired of double standards. Confidence in public institutions depends upon the law being applied impartially, not selectively according to political convenience."