The Democratic Unionist Party [DUP] has once more refused to vote in favour of electing a new speaker to Stormont, meaning a functioning executive still cannot be formed in Northern Ireland.
Power-sharing arrangements in the region dictate that a government cannot be formed until a speaker is elected, and that a speaker cannot be elected without consent from a majority of both unionist and nationalist MLAs [Members of the Legislative Assembly].
The DUP’s move is an act of protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol, with the party insisting that it will not agree to the election of a speaker until its concerns over the Protocol are addressed.
The Protocol is the mechanism within the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU which prevents a hard border between Northern Ireland and the neighbouring Republic of Ireland. However, it states that checks must take place on some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, creating a trade border in the Irish Sea.
Unionists argue that this places Northern Ireland on the periphery of the UK and undermines its place in the UK internal market.
It was the second time that the DUP has refused to vote for a speaker since the assembly election on May 5, which saw Irish nationalist party, Sinn Féin, secure the most seats for the first time.
MLAs first attempted to select a speaker on May 13, but the process was thwarted after the DUP’s opposition meant that a majority of unionist and nationalist members did not support it.
A successful Sinn Féin petition to urgently debate the election of a new speaker paved the way for Stormont to convene on Monday. However once again, after proceedings chaired by acting speaker Alan Chambers of the Ulster Unionist Party [UUP], the DUP has stood firm over its concerns surrounding the Protocol and refused to back a new speaker being put in place.
The DUP is the one major party which is currently preventing a speaker from being elected. The UUP has nominated Mike Nesbitt to become speaker, while the Social Democratic and Labour Party [SDLP] put Patsy McGlone forward as its candidate.
Sinn Féin deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill – who is entitled to become Northern Ireland’s next first minister - said after the unsuccessful vote that the DUP was preventing other parties from working together in government.
O’Neill said: “We will come back again, we will do this again because I am not giving up, we believe in making this institution work and we still, at this point, call on the DUP to join with all the other parties that actually want to make politics work.”
The DUP’s Paul Givan, the former first minister of Northern Ireland, accused Sinn Féin of pulling political stunts and trying to establish “majority rule” rather than genuinely looking to restore power-sharing principles in the region.
Givan told the Stormont chamber: “[It] has no credibility when it comes forward from the party that kept these institutions down for three years.
“The public will see the hypocrisy for what it is from Sinn Féin. This isn't a serious attempt to restore the principles of power sharing and these institutions. It is a stunt.”
Nuala McAllister, an MLA from the cross-community Alliance party, later hit out at Givan’s comments by saying that the only stunts being pulled were by the DUP.
She said: “There was much chat in the Assembly there about stunts being pulled today but let's be clear, the only stunt being pulled over the past few weeks and the past few months is the stunt of the DUP to not restore the executive, or even nominate a speaker.
“Any consequence from now, and from the day that the DUP walked away from the executive, any hardships that people are facing, are on the heads of the DUP.”
Matthew O’Toole of the SDLP hit out at the DUP’s move, calling it “abhorrent”.
O’Toole said: “We know in all probability that the today DUP will not let us elect a speaker.
“Today is another opportunity to elect first of all a speaker and then first and deputy first ministers, to enable the people who were retuned here by the electorate just a few weeks ago to come here and do our jobs.”
Gordon Lyons, another DUP MLA and Northern Irish economy minister, said that the party’s move had been necessary and had paved the way for “more progress” to be made “in two weeks” than in the last two years on resolving the Protocol.
Lyons said: “We don't want to be in this position, but we have made more progress in two weeks than we made in the previous two years. It's unfortunate that it has taken this step to bring the matter to a head.”
He also accused Sinn Féin of trying to avoid “dealing with the problem” of the Protocol, saying that no unionist elected to Stormont truly supported it.
Despite the DUP's insistence on the severity of the Protocol, MLAs from other parties have raised concerns that the longer the Northern Irish government is unable to function, it will become more difficult to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis in Northern Ireland, and that this should be the priority issue to address.
The UK government has announced support measures including a £400 grant to households in the autumn to help with rising energy bills, but the lack of an executive in Northern Ireland to handle the distribution of the funding could mean that this support does not reach those that need it.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
