Jim Allister: Only one other unionist MLA joined me in voting against imposition of EU laws under the NI protocol

MLAs approved a statutory instrument which brings 45 EU directives and regulations into Northern Ireland.

In the chamber, I said this:

“This statutory instrument marks a seminal moment in the assembly.

For me, it is a most disturbing moment, which should, frankly, be equally disturbing to anyone with any fidelity to the Union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Contrary to what some unionist members read from their weekly paper press release, this is not a statutory instrument that is merely technical and makes no policy change.

It signals a fundamental change in the manner in which we are to be governed because it amends the statutes of the United Kingdom in these subject matters to require the minister to make such orders as are “necessary” by the relevant protocol.

In other words, what we are doing in the statutory instrument is surrendering the power of the devolved assembly to make our own laws that touch on these issues and intend instead to commit ourselves irreversibly to imposing the laws that are in the protocol: laws that we do not make, that we cannot change and into which we have absolutely no input.

Yet the statutory instrument enslaves the house to not one, not 10 but 45 EU directives and regulations.

It commits us to the unquestioning adherence to and implementation of each and every one of those.

Under the Plant Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1967, we unalterably impose 11 EU directives and regulations.

Under the Diseases of Animals (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, we enslave ourselves to 32 EU directives and regulations that we cannot change.

Under the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, we subject ourselves to two EU directives that we can never change.

Therefore, let no one mislead the house or the public by pretending that this is only a technical measure that involves no change of policy.

This involves the most fundamental change to the manner in which we are governed in decades, and, of course, it says to us that no longer will this house or a minister of this house decide what legislation governs these subjects.

We will be bound and chained to 45 EU directives and regulations that we cannot change.

That is the seriousness of what this statutory instrument does, and it is most disappointing to me that a DUP minister is here in the house urging and advocating that enslavement.

We were told — we were promised — that Brexit was about making our own laws.

The iniquitous protocol sets Northern Ireland apart as a place that will not make its own laws, and here we have members of the house meekly and limply advocating that we enslave ourselves in that very way.

I am not prepared to consent to that, so, when the opportunity arises, I will seek to give the house the opportunity to vote against this enslavement.

To me, it is an utterly retrograde and appalling measure that separates us from the United Kingdom and deprives us of the right to make our own laws on these subjects.

It underwrites the annexation of Northern Ireland into the orbit of the EU by subjecting us, under annex 2 of the protocol, to these 45 directives, of which there are many more scores to come.

Under annex 2, the protocol binds Northern Ireland to over 300 EU directives and regulations, leaving us unable to ever change them and obliged to follow whatever changes Brussels makes to them without any consultation or input from us.

This is a shameful day for our legislative assembly. We are being asked to surrender the right to legislate according to our own needs and to have that right suborned to the diktat of EU regulations and directives.

Strip away all the fancy words, and that is what this statutory instrument is about.

It puts upon the people of Northern Ireland 45 EU directives and regulations that we can never change.

I do not and will not consent to that, and I am very sad that some who should know better — I wonder whether they even read the regulations — will endorse the very enslavement of this place to EU rules.

”

l When the assembly divided on the statutory instrument only Jim Wells joined Mr Allister in voting against

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