Current impasse has its origins in St Andrews rule change

If the new secretary of state for Northern Ireland calls a new assembly election in late October it will not resolve the current political crisis.

Nor would it prevent the assembly from reeling from future crises resulting in the intermittent collapses of the assembly institutions including the power-sharing executive itself.

The core problem that caused this instability emanated from the St Andrews Agreement when the method of electing the executive was changed — following which the executive has been led jointly by a first minister from Northern Ireland’s largest designated unionist political party and a deputy first minister from its largest designated nationalist party.

The first executive appointed under this new arrangement was led jointly by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness.

This pattern continued thereafter with DUP nominees for first minister and Sinn Fein nominees for deputy first minister until the recent election in May this year.

Following it Sinn Fein are now entitled to hold the post of first minister and DUP are entitled to hold the post of deputy first minister.

This carve-up of political power between the two largest parties on both sides of the traditional divide had an inherent weakness.

Instead of encouraging them to work together in the common interest of Northern Ireland and its people, it provided each of them with a political ‘veto’ which they both have regrettably used to prevent the assembly functioning for their own political objectives — Sinn Fein used this power because of the lack of progress on an Irish language act and the DUP are currently using it to seek the removal of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The procedure for electing the executive under the St Andrews Agreement urgently needs to be amended now to ensure the election of an executive to prevent further collapses of the assembly and its institutions in the future.

The current British and Irish governments should urgently initiate discussions with all Northern Ireland’s political parties to consider a new method of electing the current executive and all future executives.

If another assembly election is called in October, it will simply result in increased seats for Sinn Fein and the DUP at the expense of the SDLP and Ulster Unionists respectively and future crises will arise.

One suggestion that I would offer to ensure the full functioning of the assembly is that the British and Irish Governments should agree to amending the St Andrews Agreement by adding a ‘default mechanism’ to be implemented in event of either of the two main parties preventing the power-sharing assembly from discharging its powers.

In such a scenario, the British government should invite all parties to engage in negotiations with one another to form a voluntary coalition government which will command a majority in the assembly and meet the requirement of fulfilling the criteria of having sufficient cross community support to the satisfaction of both the British and Irish governments.

Those parties that prefer not to be part of the coalition government could then serve as the official opposition.

I believe the introduction of such a change would guarantee political stability and the formation of future power-sharing executives in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement.

John Cushnahan, Ex Alliance Party leader and Fine Gael MEP, Co Limerick