UUP Deputy Leader deeply disappointed at Dáil move
UUP Deputy Leader and Chair of the Committee of OFMDFM, Danny Kennedy MLA, has expressed his concern at the decision by the Dail to invite Northern Ireland MPs to sit on its newly-established Committee on the Implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr. Kennedy said, “last night’s decision by the Dail is a deeply disappointing move. The text of the motion referred to ‘Members of the Westminster Parliament elected for constituencies in Northern Ireland’. While it is interesting to note that Dail Eireann – in contrast to Sinn Fein Ministers of the Crown in Stormont – can refer to this jurisdiction by its proper title, it is the view of the Ulster Unionist Party that the proper forum for dialogue between MPs and TDs is the East-West framework set up by the Belfast Agreement.
“Although rightly concerned, there is no need for unionists to over-react to this move by the Dail. Despite the ambitions of republicans, the Dail has refused to allow Northern Ireland MPs any ‘right to vote or to move motions and amendments’ in the new Committee. Such a stance is quite understandable – why would citizens of the Republic of Ireland want Members of another Parliament, accountable to another electorate, to have a vote in a Dail Committee? In light of the insignificant role granted to Northern Ireland MPs on the Committee, it is difficult to understand why the Dail supported a mostly symbolic move that nevertheless detracts from the existing East-West institutions.
“The Ulster Unionist Party will strongly urge Her Majesty’s Government and the First Minister of Northern Ireland to express their disapproval of this development and to reaffirm the centrality and integrity of the East-West institutions. Whatever the token participation of republican and nationalist MPs from Northern Ireland in the Dail Committee, the British Isles framework of the Belfast Agreement is the proper forum for the respective parliaments to jointly examine the Agreement’s implementation”.