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The Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie has asked her Executive colleagues to retrospectively approve her decision to axe £1 million in funding to a UDA linked conflict transformation initiative. DUP sources portray the move, at a special Executive meeting this morning, as a belated recognition by the SDLP minister that she should have sought the approval of her colleagues before cutting the money last year. However SDLP sources say Ms Ritchie is not the only one pressing for the retrospective permission. They say it is in the interests of other Executive parties and senior civil servants to authorise the move before a judicial review begins, probably in early March. The Executive discussed the matter today but adjourned until next week. That means any decision will be made after Monday and Tuesday when the SDLP, alongside the other parties, will have to make up its mind how it intends to vote on the Executive's Programme for Government and Budget.

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