OPINION: Time to empower Stormont
STORMONT seems irrelevant to many people but if Assembly committees could scrutinise legislation and bring forward new laws it could be revived, argues DANNY KENNEDY
The present workload of the Assembly is dominated by private members' motions which are not binding on ministers and, while they may give an opportunity for MLAs to express their views over a range of issues, the primary business of the Assembly should be about legislation.
It is, after all, a "Legislative Assembly" and its members are known as MLAs – Members of the Legislative Assembly.
The proper balance should be about 70 per cent legislation and 30 per cent private members' business.
At present, that balance is completely out of kilter and sits at about 18 per cent government business (legislation), 81 per cent private members' motions and just 0.5 per cent committee business.
There have already been complaints from the OFMDFM oversight committee about the lack of legislation coming forward from OFMDFM. Clearly, this issue needs to be addressed.
I believe that this Assembly needs to busy itself with a structured and planned programme of revising legislation as this would give more cohesion and greater legitimacy to what we do rather than debating endless motions.
Since these are not binding on ministers, we are in danger of turning this Assembly into a talking shop or, as some have said, a Sixth Form debating society.
This sterile activity lends no credit to the Assembly and it reflects the inability of OFMDFM to come to a decision about anything.
Quite frankly, it gives the Assembly an air of incompetence and dysfunctionality.
Each committee could be tasked with the revision of legislation in its area of expertise and could bring forward amending legislation to improve existing laws and new legislation to replace old and outdated laws.
A structured programme of legislative revision would, at least, be doing some good in that it would improve law making and keep us up to speed with developments in law making elsewhere in the United Kingdom and across the EU, the Commonwealth and the world.
Instead of just talking about things we would be doing things.
This legislative change would also make a real, practical difference to the day to day lives of the voters.
The House of Lords used to exercise a legislative revision function over acts relating to Northern Ireland before devolution.
Now that devolution has taken place, there is no systematic legislative revising function built into the Assembly system, structures or programming.
This is a vitally important function.
In fact, the House of Lords spends about 60 per cent of its time simply revising legislation.
In the old Northern Ireland parliament, the Senate fulfilled this function.
If the committees of the Assembly were to focus on this important work, then it would fill a gap that is effectively missing in the system. Legislative revisions – and improvements - could be introduced as Committee Bills.
There have been many motions where there have been widespread areas of agreement across the Assembly on action but these have been parked because motions are non-binding.
If these topics had been subject to a legislative revision process in the relevant committee those areas of agreement would now be law.
The other benefit to be had by making legislative revision a core activity of the Assembly would be to end the current abuse of the private members’ motion system by political parties wanting to grandstand and score cheap and easy headlines which are, in a sense, hoodwinking the public because the motions have no outcomes.
People want to see action from the Assembly and not the endless talking and spin which they have been getting to date.
Legislative revision would help to refocus the Assembly on action and, at least partially, overcome the lack of practical action and lack of legislation coming forward from the two big parties who are both locked in a system of mutual veto which is sterile and going nowhere.
n Danny Kennedy is an MLA for Newry and Armagh and deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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