Explanation lacking for change to Assembly procedure

The Assembly has failed to explain why it has changed its practice and is no longer publicly reading out details of changes to committee membership during Assembly proceedings.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Jan 2016, 15:26 BST
Updated 20th Jan 2016, 15:29 BST
The Northern Ireland Assembly. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEyeThe Northern Ireland Assembly. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye
The Northern Ireland Assembly. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

As recently as November, the Assembly was informed of the exact committee changes being made each time a party performed a reshuffle.

But last week for the first time an SDLP committee reshuffle took place without the public being informed via the Assembly plenary session.

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On Monday, a DUP reshuffle – necessitated by the promotion of Lord Morrow to ministerial office – followed the same format.

The Assembly was simply told – and voted to approve – that the DUP committee membership “be changed in accordance with the proposals laid in the Assembly Business Office by the party”.

Although MLAs and their staff are able to access the Business Office, it is not open to members of the public.

An Assembly spokeswoman said: “In order to appear on an Order Paper, a motion must be tabled by 12 noon the previous Tuesday (in this case Tuesday, January 12).

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“The motion that was placed on the Order Paper for January 18 was in order and other such motions have been tabled by other parties on previous occasions.

“The document to which the motion referred was placed in the Business Office on January 18 and was available for members to view.”

The Assembly said that the changes which the DUP made as part of the process involved David McIlveen replacing Lord Morrow on the Enterprise Committee, Adrian McQuillan replacing Lord Morrow on the Procedures Committee and Trevor Clarke replacing Lord Morrow on the Business Committee.

Related topics:The AssemblyMLAsSDLPDUP