Northern Ireland Minister for Social Development, Margaret Ritchie, has announced that over £1m in funding which had been allocated to a loyalist community project linked to the UDA is to be withdrawn immediately.
In a statement to the Assembly, Ms Ritchie said the actions of the Ulster Defence Association had meant the retention of the Conflict Transformation Initiative could not be justified.
Last August following serious violence in loyalist areas, Ms Ritchie gave the UDA 60 days to start decommissioning their weapons or funding would be withdrawn.
Immediately after her statement, Peter Robinson of the DUP said she had made an absurd and bizarre decision which he claimed was a breach of her Ministerial Code of Office.
The Assembly meeting was then adjourned for 20 minutes after the Speaker, William Hay, said he wished to take legal advice about some of the very serious issues raised by Mr Robinson.
The initiative was proposed by former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain in a bid to persuade the UDA to abandon violence and move away from paramilitarism and criminality.
However rioting during the summer and attacks on police and other loyalists blamed on the UDA had, the nationalist SDLP minister said, made it impossible to continue.
