Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 30 May 2022.

MLA: Mr Paul Givan
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 30 May 2022
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Assembly Business
Heading: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4177682

Text

Today's recall is another attempt at majority rule and has no credibility as it comes from the party that kept these institutions down for three years. The public will see that hypocrisy from Sinn Féin for what it is. This is not a serious attempt to restore the principles of power-sharing and these institutions; it is a stunt. Serious efforts to do that would be working with us in order to try to get the barriers removed that are creating the instability that is thwarting these institutions. Instead, over the past three weeks since we last met to elect a Speaker, we have had republican entitlement and majority supremacy from the Alliance Party, no less. The party of cross-community working has abandoned that territory and has now unashamedly joined with the SDLP and Sinn Féin on majority rule, calling for the Belfast Agreement to be changed so that these proceedings can proceed without unionists having their say. We have had disrespect shown to the unionist community. Again, the Alliance Party and the SDLP stopped the Union flag flying from the Building on Saturday. We have had the denigration of the unionist community from one media outlet in particular. Demands for majority rule were not allowed in the past, and they will not be allowed today. We have had two years of raising our concerns around the protocol and its implications, and not one single unionist Member of Parliament, Member of the Assembly or local government councillor has given it their consent. We had Members of the House ignoring that. There were three motions calling for the rigorous implementation of the protocol. Jeffrey Donaldson gave space and was gracious in doing that. He extended his grace periods for the Executive, but, instead, we had other parties taunting him, calling on him to take action to withdraw from the Executive. However, progress is being made. Not one party in the House calls any more for the rigorous implementation of the protocol. The Republic of Ireland even says that there have to be changes. We were told that there would be no renegotiation of the protocol, and now the European Union recognises that change needs to come. So, I welcome the progress that this party has been able to gain and achieve over the past two weeks when it was denied to us for over two years. Who in the House wants the grace periods to end? Who in the House is ready for the end of the £500 million of support that the Government provide to traders in order to overcome the barriers that are down the Irish Sea? Not one Member of the House supports the imposition of that cost to our business. Not one Member of the House wants the grace periods to end. I call for a recommitment from the parties that have recalled the Assembly today to join in the spirit of the Belfast Agreement, which you all supported and which called for true power-sharing between unionists and nationalists. Let us make progress. Let us commit to those principles. I hope that we can get to a stage where the House is recalled, we elect a Speaker and we are able to form a new Executive. But the time for words is over. It is action that we need to see, and the UK Government have it within their gift to deliver that action. The European Union has it within its gift to make the changes that need to be made in order to have these institutions up and running on a power-sharing basis.

596 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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