A summary of corporate and business plans for the North-South bodies (for 2008-2010) reveals that expenditure is rising – from £119 million in 2007 to £130 million in the period 2008-10.

MEP Jim Allister said: “One of the loud pre-devolution boasts of the DUP was that once in power they would rein in the North-South bodies of the Belfast Agreement and cut out their waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.

“So much for reining them in and calling them to account.

“These tens of millions in the present straightened circumstances could be spent so much more prudently and beneficially for the hard-pressed people of Northern Ireland.”

But a DUP spokesman said: “So sparse are Jim Allister’s arguments against the DUP’s strategy that he has resorted to attacking us on the basis that we secured a 30 per cent increase in the Ulster-Scots funding” – allocated to the Ulster-Scots Agency.

“Unlike Jim Allister the DUP is delivering for Northern Ireland.”