Sinn Fein launch bid to block Armed Forces Covenant in Belfast: Party says pledge to aid veterans should be sent to body on which it holds the most seats
Sinn Fein has launched a bid to block the Armed Forces Covenant in Belfast, insisting it be sent to a nationalist-heavy committee for another round of voting.
Last week the city council adopted the set of pledges providing help for veterans struggling to adjust to civilian life on the votes of unionists and Alliance.
Following on the heels of months of battles over the covenant in 2024 and 2025, the move earned the ire of nationalists with the SDLP infamously blasting the vote as “undemocratic”.
Now Sinn Fein has launched a move attempting to see the pledges voted on again – but this time by a committee on which nationalists hold 50% of the seats, which would be an uphill struggle for the body’s unionist minority who want to see them kept in place.
Last week the DUP brought the covenant to the council’s Standards and Business Committee, which assigns issues councillors want debated to the correct committee for discussion. It also has powers to either reject those issues outright, or skip debates to adopt a notice of motion straight into policy.
Using a combination of DUP, TUV and Alliance, the pledges were adopted as policy by 10 in favour to eight against. That angered nationalists, with the SDLP’s Seamas de Faoite branding the vote “undemocratic and underhanded”.
At a full council meeting last night, Sinn Fein revealed they’ve filed a notice to rescind that decision, with party councillor Ryan Murphy stating they believe the wrong committee voted on it.
Signing up to the covenant “would undoubtedly” have financial implications, he suggested, and therefore it should have gone to the body in charge of spending decisions – the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee.
“The alternative would have been for it to come straight to full council for a debate,” he added. “We have put a notice in for the rescinding of that decision, and we hope that can be tabled at the next meeting of the Standards and Business Committee.”
The standards committee is next scheduled to get together at the end of April.
If the covenant is sent to either the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee or the full council, it’ll be a tough job to get it passed again. Both have rejected the pledges in the past, and due to their party political make-up are likely to do so again.
The strategic policy committee has 20 members, of whom eight are Sinn Fein – the largest party on it.
Five members are DUP; Alliance has four seats, the SDLP two and the final seat is occupied by the Greens.
That means nationalists make up 50% of the committee. Although the DUP and Alliance are both in favour of the covenant and combine to have nine votes, in the past the Greens have abstained on the issue, meaning the committee’s likely to break down as 10 against the pledges to nine in favour and one abstention, resulting the council throwing them out.
Presuming the Greens also abstain at a full council meeting, the resulting nationalist bloc versus unionists plus Alliance breakdown would see 29 votes against the covenant compared to 28 in favour, again resulting in its defeat.