Debate contribution: Ministerial Code of Conduct: Breaches
Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 18 November 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Opposition Business
- Heading
- Ministerial Code of Conduct: Breaches
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4655710
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The parties in the Assembly are responsible for the full and complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, including strand two, which is the subject of today's motion. The Good Friday Agreement must not and cannot be subordinated to sectional party or governmental interests.
All three strands of the agreement were designed and agreed, through negotiation, to be interdependent. The parallel and mutually reinforcing operation of the strands is the essential foundation of our peace settlement. The strands were negotiated and agreed as a framework in which to continue the management of democratic change in our society. The North/South Ministerial Council is therefore a fundamental political institution of the Good Friday Agreement, established to coordinate and cooperate on common policy areas across the entire island. In the post-Brexit era and in the context of the Windsor framework, North/South cooperation on investment, trade, agriculture and tourism has never been more important to the prosperity of everyone across these islands. While the motion is correct to highlight the importance of the NSMC and its integral relationship to the rest of the agreement, it fails to note that the mechanism already exists to monitor and, if necessary, advise on improvements to the implementation of strands one, two and three through the Assembly and Executive Review Committee.
Go raibh maith agat.
I thank the Member for his intervention. It is incumbent, without exception or ambiguity, on every Member and Minister to stand up and take responsibility for ensuring that the agreement is implemented in its entirety. Attempts to hollow out any institution of the Good Friday Agreement are unacceptable. They should be unambiguously opposed by all parties and both Governments. Reform should be done by utilising the agreement's existing provisions. In this case, as I elaborated for the Member who intervened, that means the AERC and not an obscurely defined review. The best protection for the agreement against its opponents inside and outside the Assembly rests in its complete implementation. The focus of all democrats and progressives should be on realising that objective and opening the next phase of our peace process, leading towards a new constitutional future for all our people built on reconciliation and national reunification.
364 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.