Member's statement: DUP Ministers: Pledge of Office
Member's statement by Mrs Cathy Mason on .
- MLA
- Mrs Cathy Mason
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- DUP Ministers: Pledge of Office
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5773916
Read the official Assembly record
Text
In October 2021, the High Court ruled that five DUP Ministers were acting unlawfully and in breach of their ministerial Pledge of Office. Mr Justice Scoffield said that the DUP Ministers' decision to withdraw from the North/South Ministerial Council was unlawful. He stated that their actions were "contrary to" and "in breach of" their legal duties. Each of the DUP Ministers had affirmed the ministerial Pledge of Office, which committed them to discharging all the duties of their ministerial office and to upholding the rule of law. Who were the DUP Ministers guilty of acting unlawfully? They were the then First Minister, Paul Givan, the then Agriculture Minister, Edwin Poots, and Gordon Lyons, amongst others. What was the response from the DUP's sanctimonious, law-abiding paragons of virtue who now demand unconditional adherence to the law by others? Minister Givan continued to break the law in an abject breach of his solemn pledge. Minister Lyons, too, continued to break the law in an abject breach of his solemn pledge. Edwin Poots also continued to break the law in an abject breach of his solemn pledge. We heard Jonny Buckley on the airwaves this morning telling us that the law must always be abided by. Jonny may need to have a word with his Ministers, or perhaps that is the problem with the DUP: nobody knows who is calling the shots. They are all going on solo runs. I suppose that it all depends on what their leader Jamie Bryson — sorry, Gavin Robinson — says. I say to the Benches opposite that we will not take a lecture on the rule of law from lawbreaker and hypocrite Gordon Lyons. We will not take a lecture on the rule of law from lawbreaker and hypocrite Paul Givan. We will continue to listen to the residents and community of the Garvaghy Road and continue to stand with them. We will continue to reject a sectarian, supremacist and triumphalist march down the Garvaghy Road. Let me be absolutely unequivocal: there is no going back, not now and not ever.
345 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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