Letter: I must question the depth of Naomi Long’s knowledge on the petition of concern
A letter from Dr Paul Kingsley:
In calling for the reform of Stormont, Naomi Long is quoted as saying in a party press release: “Alliance has long been clear that institutional reform is urgently needed to remove the ability of any single party to hold decision-making, or the institutions themselves, to ransom”.
She is apparently particularly miffed about the petition of concern being used recently in relation to a motion on EU observer status.
I really must question the depth of Naomi Long’s legal and mathematical knowledge.
Under Section 6 of the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act 2022, a petition of concern now has to be supported by at least two parties, so no single party can “hold the institutions to ransom”. Did no-one tell her that?
Then to the maths. There is no party in the NI Assembly which has within its ranks the 30 MLAs needed to submit a petition of concern.
Thus the petition of concern about EU observer status was actually supported by three parties - the DUP, UUP and TUV.
In only being able to see a single party, does that mean Naomi cannot count up to three?
Perhaps what she really meant is that the minority veto was only ever intended to be used by nationalists. How dare unionists think that it was for them?
Dr Paul Kingsley, Belfast BT4