A RETURN to direct rule – which TUV leader Jim Allister advocates – would be detrimental for unionism, Mr Robinson argues.
"I was very disturbed when I read in my copy of the Belfast News Letter that Jim Allister has now publicly declared that he is willing to be a wrecker; that he wants to take away the Assembly and the Executive and put us into what he once described a
s 'Dublin rule'," he says.
"That was the term that he chose for direct rule.
"He knows, as everyone else does, that if devolution comes down it's direct rule that takes its place and I don't believe that's in the interests of the unionist community – to sit on the sidelines and watch London and Dublin taking out decisions for us."
Mr Robinson says that some of devolution's biggest successes for unionists were those things which it had been able to stop, such as an Irish Language Act.
He says that prior to devolution, when Mr Allister was in the DUP, both he and the now-TUV leader had discussed what they described as a "concession a day to republicans" under direct rule.
"That's what it used to be like and if we do away with the system we have, the ability to stop anything going through that we agreed was detrimental for our community, then we put ourselves in the hands of others.
"If we were to take Jim Allister's way of wrecking the Assembly and Executive then pretty clearly you will end up with London and Dublin taking the decisions and once again bowing to pressure from republicans."
