Steve Aiken
South Antrim · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his statement. Minister, as well as the move to reduce the cost to the Assembly of vacant non-domestic properties and to increase liability so that we will not have so many vacant properties, you will be aware of the Dilapidation Bill and of the conversations that have been taking place in Wales and Scotland about…”
“Instead, that most dysfunctional Department, under the most inept Sinn Féin Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a series of grossly over-superannuated permanent secretaries, gave the money back.”
“We know that her Department spends more on legal cases, fighting judicial reviews and being chastised by judges for legal ineptitude and on vesting land and ripping out hedges and fencing and then trying to unvest it and paying even more money to put back the fences and hedges that it took out.”
“We can hardly blame the current permanent secretary, as she has just taken up her post, but, surely, her predecessors must bear some accountability or responsibility, especially considering the senior civil servants' salary scale of between £146,000 and £163,000, with, of course, their taxpayer-funded pension contribution of 34·2% — £218,…”
“It must be said that £181·3 million is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money. It is money that is raised from local commuters, vehicle owners, farmers, local businesses, logistics companies and, above all, our constituents — those vital people whom we are elected to represent.”
“The Minister will be aware that, under the public appointments guide published by the Executive Office, it is clear that she is supposed to take independent advice before appointing board members. What independent advice did she receive, particularly about the board members selected?”
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“I thank the Minister for his statement. Minister, as well as the move to reduce the cost to the Assembly of vacant non-domestic properties and to increase liability so that we will not have so many vacant properties, you will be aware of the Dilapidation Bill and of the conversations that have been taking place in Wales and Scotland about bringing together the issues of dilapidation and vacant property rate relief. Have you had any discussions with the Agriculture Minister about how those matters can be more joined up?”
“I hope that, next May, there will be an accounting for those inept and completely useless Ministers and Departments.”
“Instead, that most dysfunctional Department, under the most inept Sinn Féin Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a series of grossly over-superannuated permanent secretaries, gave the money back. While we cry out for improved water infrastructure, the fixing of our roads, the building of the A5 and the progression of the York Street interchange project, people suffer daily on our roads, yet Liz Kimmins and her permanent secretaries gave £181·3 million back. <BR /> <BR />It is little wonder that our electorate wonder why we have such a Department when it gives back £181·3 million. We have permanent secretaries who are pocketing pay packets of £200k-plus and Sinn Féin Ministers who are not accountable or responsible for anything.”
“We can hardly blame the current permanent secretary, as she has just taken up her post, but, surely, her predecessors must bear some accountability or responsibility, especially considering the senior civil servants' salary scale of between £146,000 and £163,000, with, of course, their taxpayer-funded pension contribution of 34·2% — £218,000 a year is nice remuneration for not spending £181·3 million. It is no surprise that they will not be resigning either. <BR /> <BR />I will say it again: £181·3 million. On the basis of the highly inflated DFI costs of around £500 per pothole, that represents 362,000 potholes that the Department of ineptitude could have filled in over the past two years.”
“We know that her Department spends more on legal cases, fighting judicial reviews and being chastised by judges for legal ineptitude and on vesting land and ripping out hedges and fencing and then trying to unvest it and paying even more money to put back the fences and hedges that it took out. It is responsible for keeping our bloated legal and planning-consultant vultures in new holiday homes and Porsches, with apologies to vultures, Mr Speaker. <BR /> <BR />No one is accountable or responsible for the debacle. It goes without saying that Sinn Féin's Minister Liz Kimmins refuses to take accountability or responsibility. We will not be expecting her to resign over the £181·3 million farce.”
“It must be said that £181·3 million is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money. It is money that is raised from local commuters, vehicle owners, farmers, local businesses, logistics companies and, above all, our constituents — those vital people whom we are elected to represent. That £181·3 million is the figure in capital expenditure that Liz Kimmins, the Sinn Féin Minister responsible for our infrastructure, sent back to the Department of Finance, because of her inability to spend money on our roads or anything else for that matter. I will say it again: £181·3 million. We know that the Department is dysfunctional.”
“The Minister will be aware that, under the public appointments guide published by the Executive Office, it is clear that she is supposed to take independent advice before appointing board members. What independent advice did she receive, particularly about the board members selected?”
“We need to make sure that it is not squeezed out or pushed into a corner just because it does not support some political parties' narrow views around how they want to do financing. That is the message that should come from everybody in the Assembly. The Fiscal Council is there to support us, and, bearing in mind that it will probably be one of the few organisations that will be guarding the guardians, we should support it.”
“We do not have sufficient detail to scrutinise the arm's-length bodies, and sometimes the granularity — to use that horrible phrase — of the information available is not appropriate for the task ahead. I would like the Minister, in his closing remarks, to state what direction has been given to his Department and, more importantly, as his Department is the lead for finances across all the Northern Ireland Departments, that it will provide data and cooperate fully with the Fiscal Council so that we can get a degree of analysis and rectitude in looking at where we are and where we need to be. <BR /> <BR />I will draw my remarks to a close, because everybody has clearly stated their views, but my final point is that we have fought hard to get the Fiscal Council on a statutory basis.”
“I hope that the Fiscal Council takes its interpretation and ability to look at the processes as widely as possible, because I believe that, in the discussions that we had with the Department of Finance over the various things, and from what has been mentioned in the explanatory and financial memorandum, there is a degree of flexibility in the Fiscal Council to be able to achieve that. <BR /> <BR />The process will only work if there is openness and transparency and if the Fiscal Council can get hold of the appropriate data and report it back. The purpose of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and Committees in particular, is to scrutinise Departments, but it is quite clear that we do not have access to all the data.”
“<BR /> <BR />The other key issue is that the Fiscal Council was designed to deal with a steady state, analyse budgets appropriately and follow the appropriate system, but, yet again, we are in a situation where there is no Budget. We know from various correspondence going back and forth from the Departments that there seems to be a definitive approach to ignoring the rules and regulations laid down in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and going on and spending anyhow. In that case, bearing in mind that the vires of the Fiscal Council Bill is for the Fiscal Council to examine the funding as it goes forward within the framework of a Budget and a budgetary process, yet again, we are outside that scope.”
“The Ulster Unionist Party welcomes the Fiscal Council Bill. It is something that we set out many Stormont Houses ago. It is so far in the distant past that we have forgotten how long ago it was. It was always clear that we needed to see what our government was doing and to measure it effectively. Time and time again, we have not been able to properly scrutinise what has come through or to look at the various figures, the Estimates and the spending lines. That is why, when the leader of the Opposition brought forward his amendment, the Ulster Unionist Party supported it in the Chamber. A degree of economic analysis needs to be applied.”
“On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. There are not 10 of us here.”
“That is the critical question that we should be asking.”
“Whether it is the endemic antisemitism, anti-Islam views or racial stereotyping, we seem to have lost our critical faculty to challenge the breadth of near incessant fake news. My conversation last week with someone who was being radicalised to go out and riot in order to prevent what they said was the "creeping Islamification of our society" could not get round the paradox that they were being manipulated in large part by a bot in Tehran, Serbia or St Petersburg. That is the sad reality of those AI-induced attacks on democracy. They play on the vulnerability, gullibility and, above all, prejudice of far too many. It is well past time that the question of who benefits from that disorder be asked. Why are those who do that so keen to undermine Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom's image?”
“They are contributing, and they have exactly the same rights as every other British citizen because that is exactly what they are. Attacking people because of the colour of their skin or their perceived religion, even though many of them are pillars of the local Christian Churches and evidently British, is beyond ignorant. Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom, not the nation of the 1950s but of now. I think of Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Exeter — you name it — as that is how our modern and proud nation looks. For our own future, we must never forget that. <BR /> <BR />The fact that the young and others from all backgrounds are so easily swayed by false narratives that are pumped out of social media is worrying.”
“Moreover, they could not have got those jobs unless they had passed the Home Office and health service checks, which are a lot more onerous than lots of armchair social media warriors would believe them to be. <BR /> <BR />A further element of disquiet is caused by the fact that many victims of the attacks whom we visited were British citizens. Anyone who has undertaken the onerous and expensive task of achieving British nationality will attest to how difficult it is. They have spent thousands of pounds and completed difficult exams, many of which some of us would be hard-pressed to pass, in order to be British not as a matter of convenience but because they believe in and want to be part of our nation. They want to contribute.”
“Last week, we saw the horrific and barbaric attack on Stephen Ogilvie. That attack, no matter the rights and wrongs, was made by a legal asylum seeker in our nation. We also witnessed attacks on our communities that were perpetrated and incited from who really knows where. Those attacks were reinforced and amplified by social media, and they focused on many of the most vulnerable in our society. To what end? <BR /> <BR />On Thursday, the Health Minister and I visited traumatised citizens in my home town of Ballyclare. Not only were those who were attacked healthcare workers, many of whom keep our care homes open and provide healthcare provision to many of our old and infirm, but they are here legally.”
“The least that the Secretary of State could do is tell us how much the latest round of keeping Brussels happy will cost us and just where the money will go. Maybe we will just get a press release along with a £5 duty bill from HMRC when all our Temu parcels arrive.”
“<BR /> <BR />In 'The Times' today, he states that he is working tirelessly on the UK-EU reset. That will, he hopes, involve changes to the SPS agreement; rejoining the EU internal market for electricity; changes to carbon trading and — this has been said very quietly — opening up a youth movement scheme between the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union. <BR /> <BR />With talks clearly at a critical stage — when are they not? — between Nick Thomas-Symonds and the EU, the added cost to Northern Ireland from the Alliance parcel tax and the Alliance maritime fuel surcharge, for which, remember, Scotland has achieved a derogation, is clearly the price that has to be paid for appeasement to an EU that, quite frankly, could not care less about us.”
“Unofficial messages from Brussels are that the costs are undefinable. Given that we are in a negotiation tunnel for the new UK-EU agreement, do not expect any answers soon. The United Kingdom's official line in Brussels is that His Majesty's Government will be seen as faithful implementers of all existing agreements. <BR /> <BR />There is still no answer to where the £200 million Irish Sea border tax will go. Will it go to Rachel Reeves's coffers or the Northern Ireland Executive, or will it pay for the new Irish Sea border infrastructure, including the very expensive sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) structure at Larne? His Majesty's Government's EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has also given us no answers. Why should he tell 1·9 million British consumers who are of absolutely no interest to him?”
“In a little over three weeks, the Alliance-supported parcel tax, coupled with the Alliance-introduced carbon tax on every maritime shipment into Northern Ireland, comes into force. The combined impact of those two measures on the Northern Ireland economy and consumers will likely be between £200 million and £250 million per annum. We would be delighted if those figures could be fact-checked or, indeed, even commented on by the Agriculture Minister, the Executive and the Economy Minister. However, judging by the responses to my questions for written answer, that is highly unlikely. We have asked the Northern Ireland Office, the Cabinet Office and the Secretary of State directly what the likely costs will be. Again, there has been no answer, apart from, "We're working on it".”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I will not call amendment No 33, as it is consequential to amendment Nos 13, 23, 24, and 28, at least one of which has not been made. Therefore, we move on to amendment No 34, which has already been debated.”
“And, if they do not, they are to conduct an audit and report on those antisemitism issues. Will the Minister support what the Prime Minister says about Queen's University taking action now to stamp out antisemitism on its campus?”
“I thank the Minister for her comments about antisemitism, but she will be aware that, on 5 May, the Prime Minister said:”
“Minister, you will be fully aware that, within the SEM, there is a requirement that part of the bill is for infrastructure improvements. Not only are those infrastructure improvements not being made but they will not be made for a considerable time. Will the Minister instruct her Department to conduct an investigation into how much those funds are and ensure that, if there have been significant overpayments, that money will come back to consumers? That may go a long way to, let us say, de-risking the ISEM.”
“The key to that is very clear: we must have principles of governance, objectivity, fairness and impartiality so that organisations stay within the strict guidelines that they are given. They should not be allowed to be activists or to roll off the reservation, which they seem to be doing. They seem to have a remarkable ability to find trouble where there is none. In fact, that has undermined confidence in how we deliver in Northern Ireland. That is not acceptable. <BR /> <BR />This is the question for all those unappointed people: who guards the guardians? As Members of the Assembly, we need to think clearly about that question. If they cannot guard themselves and we have to rely on the judiciary, we have to ask ourselves why we give them permission to do that, because, quite frankly, they are not up to the job.”
“Nowhere else in the UK or, indeed, abroad has the judiciary looked at a police ombudsman and found that such a comment has to be added to those comments. That must say something fundamental about the office and roles of the Police Ombudsman. <BR /> <BR />It is not, however, the first time that that has happened with unappointed quangos. We are fully aware of what has happened with the Northern Ireland human rights quangos. The Equality Commission had to be pulled in by the Supreme Court. Now, another court has had to pull in the Police Ombudsman. The reason for that is that their actions have been proven to be unlawful or unsuitable when it comes to whatever they are trying to deliver.”
“It gives none of us any pleasure to listen to what has happened with the Police Ombudsman. The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland was set up to be part of the checks, balances and controls that are appropriate for the governance of the Police Service in Northern Ireland. It was set up to be objective and impartial and to use the best practices that are available. <BR /> <BR />There were already considerable concerns about the Police Ombudsman. As other Members pointed out, there were issues around vetting and other significant issues with the people who held that post. One of the most significant issues and concerns that we must have is that, from now on, we will look at a comment on every comment about collusion, which basically says that they should be taken with a pinch of salt. That is what it says.”
“It is so far from being a credible path to building and improving relationships across these islands for the benefit of all that it reinforces how unbelievable the Opposition's whole motion and the amendment are.”
“Picking random dates in the future and demanding that a poll happens by then and screeching from the sidelines does not lead to a carefully managed transition to a new Ireland. Instead, it leads to instability and fear, or much worse. <BR /> <BR />The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was carefully made, precisely to avoid any precipitous action that would fundamentally destabilise the peace process. Sinn Féin would be happy to take that advantage; it is just sad that our fellow partners for peace — the SDLP — seem determined to follow that path. Mind you, it is election season. <BR /> <BR />Finally, the motion's proposition that the only way to exercise democratic control is to ignore the result of democracy elsewhere is not democracy.”
“<BR /> <BR />It goes without saying that the Opposition's motion stretches credulity by basing an entire motion on a poll funded by the European movement from Ireland, whose singular findings are the reverse of all the peer-reviewed and verified polling data, which has clearly shown, over many years, that the support for remaining in the UK has not shifted from 58%, and that is not due to conversations in pubs, as Declan Kearney would say. Basing a motion on such a poll pushes credulity beyond the breaking point. It seems to me that republicanism and nationalism, which both seek reunification and both realise that no authoritative polling comes even close, are seeking to rewrite the provisions of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.”
“It is curiously anti-EU, as are its green compatriots in the left groupings in Europe, such as the Pirate Party. <BR /> <BR />The motion implies but ignores the results of the elections in Scotland, where the vote for the nationalist SNP went down, causing it to lose six seats with a 10% reduction in turnout, with the results for Reform being matched again by those of the Scottish Labour Party. The SNP’s leader shows a scant understanding of the history of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and has forgotten the horrors of the IRA's campaign. <BR /> <BR />The Opposition are right to say that Reform did well in the English local council elections, but the failure of the Labour and Conservative parties to deliver anywhere has more to do with the rise of Reform than any clear indication that it will form the next British Government.”
“<BR /> <BR />The elections in the rest of our nation saw a significant protest vote that saw the rise of a nationalist party in Wales — Plaid Cymru — not as a call for independence, which even it admits is unlikely, but as a protest against decades of incompetence by the Welsh Labour Party and antipathy for the previous mainstream parties. Those who found Plaid Cymru uncomfortable and unpalatable sought change by supporting Reform. <BR /> <BR />The Opposition's motion talks about "right-wing populism", but ignores the rise of left-wing populism in the form of Plaid Cymru and the Green Party. The latter is a party that has shifted so far away from its eco-credentials that its far-left stance uses pro-Palestine identification to tap into discontent among other communities.”
“Today is Opposition day, when, yet again, we have an ill-disguised motion from the SDLP that is attempting to make the case for a united Ireland. This time, the proposition is made on the basis of the local government election results in Great Britain. No matter how much the SDLP may dislike the results of the democratic elections in England, Scotland and Wales, democracy often produces results that may be unpalatable to others. That is the price of a free vote in our United Kingdom. Just look at what has happened here: people support a party that believes that there was no alternative to murder, butchery, torture and terrorism, yet it is now the largest party in government here. Democracy has a heavy price, which we sometimes have to pay.”
“Could a lack of soft-drinks cans create a humanitarian crisis in Moscow, St Petersburg or elsewhere? The same aluminium is purchased by dozens of arms companies that make weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine. <BR /> <BR />On this side of the Chamber, we are well-used to the Irish Government's hypocrisy. Our leader, Jon Burrows, recently pointed out how a blind eye was turned by Irish authorities to the theft of gelignite from the Republic of Ireland that made its way to the IRA, killing and maiming, before the IRA's main supplier became that other paragon of virtue, Gaddafi, and the suppliers from the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Yet again, the Irish Government hypocritically support terror; just ask why Aughinish has not been shut down for Russian exports. The family and friends of 24 innocent Ukrainians deserve answers.”
“Members may or may not be surprised to learn that one of the largest sources of that aluminium comes from that centre of international neutrality — that paragon of global, triple-locking virtue — the Republic of Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Aughinish, in the Shannon estuary, is owned by RUSAL, a Russian smelting company with deep connections to the Russian arms industry. The examination of shipping tracking shows a near weekly sailing of vessels from Shannon to Russia. Bizarrely, the Irish Government have lobbied extensively in the EU to keep RUSAL free of sanctions, despite the key role of alumina in the Russian arms industry. It has even lobbied the EU extensively to make sure that alumina is not proscribed as a commodity to Russia because, apparently, it is vital for countless civilian industries. Really?”
“On Thursday evening, Kyiv was struck by a mass missile strike from Putin's forces that killed at least 24 innocent people. The attack destroyed an apartment block in a residential part of the city: a city and people targeted just because they were Ukrainians; Ukrainians who do not want to succumb to the nationalist fascism being orchestrated by the Russian leadership, who were firing missiles, such as the Kh-101 cruise missile. The horror and violence of Thursday's attack was commented on and condemned by the Irish ambassador to the Ukraine, Jonathan Conlon. The irony of his remarks should not be lost on any of us, nor by President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, because one of the main materials that goes into the Kh-101 cruise missile and many other Russian weapons is aluminium.”
“We could then start to take an exceptionally hard look at the inefficiencies, waste and gross mismanagement in our public services. However, the Assembly now has it on record that we cannot keep on doing what we have been doing. We cannot rely on bailout after bailout after bailout to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland. Getting a three-year Budget on to the Executive table would be a great start. Getting it passed here in the Assembly would be even better.”
“We are just not allowed to spend it because of our devolved legislative powers: we have not taken the legal responsibility of actually passing the Budget. That combination of political and budgetary naivety is never, ever a good way to look at how we do business. Equally, the belief that failing to bring a Budget before the Executive so that it can be debated here in the Assembly, as opposed to the Finance Committee scrutinising a draft Budget, is in some way politically advantageous in the lead-up to the Assembly election in 2027, or earlier, does a huge disservice to the people of Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Unfortunately, nothing of what I say today will sway the DUP to allow the Budget to proceed or Sinn Féin to act in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland.”
“The multi-year Budget is not a panacea for gross mismanagement, inefficiency and abysmally poor policy decisions or even implementation. An appropriate response by an Executive who were functional would be to pass the Budget while the moneys are there, set the direction of travel and revisit it post May next year. The acceptance of the Budget would allow the resource, capital, financial transactions capital (FTC), reinvestment and reform initiative (RRI) and the other provisions envelope to be accessed, not 45% of last year's or the starting position of the 2025-26 Budget by July and 95% by the end of the year; and not the much larger figure in the draft three-year Budget. <BR /> <BR />Just for clarity, those restrictions are caused not by the big, bad Brits in Whitehall but by our own legislation. The £60 billion is there.”
“Thank you very much indeed. I thank the Minister for his comments. <BR /> <BR />That the Treasury could find up to £3·5 billion in savings is an overstatement. However, the Fiscal Council's analysis that we have a civil servant equivalent of 1·88 to 1 compared with a similarly large English or Welsh authority should set off huge alarm bells. The fact that we have spent over £200 million on infrastructure projects and not laid one metre of tarmac is a scandal. "Blame the Brits" seems to be the only default option, but that is a very hollow argument. If our "1·88 Civil Service" delivered anything other than inefficiency, we could have had an argument to challenge the Treasury on level of need. Quite frankly, given those circumstances, who can say that we can? In the Fiscal Council's report, I am quoted as saying:”
“With multi-year Budgets, we have been given an opportunity that others may not have. It is obvious that many pressures remain in health and education and in fixing our collapsing infrastructure, and that £60 billion will not cover everything. We also know, because the report has been leaked, that the Department of Finance's approach of asking HM Treasury to do an open-book exercise — why? — in the rather bizarre belief that it would think that we were being underfunded and funded below need was, to say the least, naive. That the Treasury could find up to —.”
“The multi-year Budget, by any reasonable assessment, is highly likely to be worth over £60 billion over the next three years, and it would set a financial framework and direction of travel around which the Northern Ireland Executive could coalesce. That figure can be derived from the allocations of the multi-year settlement and an informed guess about inflation pressures and future annual Budget Barnett consequentials. The money has already been allocated by the Chancellor and been baked in, as it has for the other devolved regions. Regardless of whether we agree the Budget, the overall funding envelope, short of our using our revenue-raising powers, is now set. Indeed, in the words of the Fiscal Council:”
“I have worked closely with Jeremy on quite a few issues, including on election observation missions, and he is probably one of the soundest politicians whom I have met. So, when some Members gloat about the loss of those Members in the elections, they should remember that a lot of them provided a lot of support and, indeed, have been useful in making sure that our nation, the Commonwealth and many other nations have been supported in democratic consistency. It is with sadness that I make my remarks today, but, when I talk to them all, I will pass on our regards.”
“Jeremy has been a tireless supporter of disability rights and action across the globe. Anybody who has met Jeremy will know that he is probably one of the most dedicated people when it comes to dealing with disability issues. I wish Jeremy all the best for the future. I have been in contact with him, and I know that he will bounce back, but I pass on to him the regards of the members of our committees. <BR /> <BR />Jamie Greene is another great friend. Believe it or not, he hails from County Antrim. He was a Lib Dem MSP but lost his seat in the Scottish election. Jamie has been a tireless advocate for LGBTQ rights. He has been to the fore, particularly in dealing with rights in areas such as Africa, which not been the easiest place to support LGBTQ issues.”
“The election results represent a sad time for those who lost their seats. As a member of the steering group of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and a member of the steering committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, I know how much has been provided to those organisations by Members who, sadly, have lost their seats, and I pay my respects. Some were independent Members. There were Lib Dems and members of Welsh Labour, Scottish Labour, the Welsh Conservatives, the Scottish Conservatives and even the SNP. They are friends and colleagues who worked tirelessly to promote the best of the United Kingdom and in the areas of the climate emergency, LGBT rights and disability rights not just in the United Kingdom but across the world. <BR /> <BR />I pay particular thanks to Jeremy Balfour, who is a friend of many of us.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Supreme Court of our nation has spoken. It has laid the limits. It is beyond time that both those quangos were brought well and truly under heel and, if necessary, got rid of, because they are not doing what they were designed to do.”
“The fact that they were given agency to do that by both political parties and by what I can only call the "cult" of the lawyer and the lawfare-type organisations that seem to be around here is an absolute disgrace. <BR /> <BR />The Supreme Court has spoken, and that is appropriate. What is more, the Supreme Court has made clear its view on that degree of activism and that degree of pushing the envelope on the boundary being done at the taxpayer's expense. We must remember who pays for those quangos: as taxpayers, we do. It is beyond time that those quangos were investigated properly to see what they do with the moneys that they have. Why they remain under the same leadership when the Supreme Court has clearly knocked down their approaches I do not know, but they are unaccountable. They cannot be allowed to continue in that process.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to talk on the matter. Article 2 and article 2 compliance has always been a matter of considerable difficulty with the Windsor framework. The Windsor framework was designed primarily to be a trade deal. It was designed to make sure that there would be free movement across the rest of our country and to remove all the barriers to trade. <BR /> <BR />Right from the beginning, the Ulster Unionist Party questioned why two unelected quangos — the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) — would be put in a position to set themselves up as the self-appointed guardians of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. They are not, and they never were.”