Arlene Foster still backs ‘dangerous’ law – but offers no rebuttal of ex-aide’s warning

Under growing pressure to explain her support for what her former key adviser has described as a “dangerous” bill to give every Stormont minister more power, Arlene Foster last night made clear she is not changing course.
Arlene Foster and Michelle O'NeillArlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill
Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill

Writing in yesterday’s News Letter, Richard Bullick – the DUP’s key backroom strategic thinker for most of the last two decades – devastatingly deconstructed the basis for what Mrs Foster is doing, arguing that it runs contrary to historic DUP policy which he, Peter Robinson, Ian Paisley and others carefully crafted.

Despite having been an integral part of the DUP leadership for almost half of his life, Mrs Foster’s former special adviser has spoken out for the first time against the party in response to the Executive Committee (Functions) Bill.

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When asked for Mrs Foster’s response to her former spad, the DUP last night said curtly: “We note the comments in Friday’s paper. The Executive’s most senior legal advisors, who are practicing lawyers, disagree.”

The News Letter also asked the party to back up Mrs Foster’s claim that any three ministers would continue to be able to call any major issue into the Executive where it could be blocked. For the third time, the party offered no explanation for what Mr Bullick said was a “nonsense” claim.

The DUP insisted that the bill does not diminish the St Andrews Agreement but argued that it “in fact strengthens the provisions on ‘significant and controversial’ [issues] by clarifying in law that no programme for government is required to be in place for this requirement to arise”, addressing “a long-standing anomaly in the original drafting.”

The bill is co-authored by Mrs Foster and Michelle O’Neill but the focus has been on the DUP leader because of the conflict with DUP policy.

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Last night veteran former DUP MLA Jim Wells, who now sits as an independent, said he was “somewhat perplexed” as to what was going on, and was “growing more concerned with every day that passes”.

Mr Wells – who stood in as temporary Assembly speaker when MLAs spent just 10 minutes on the bill on Tuesday – told the News Letter that he was concerned the legislation was presented as “technical and tidying up something” when it was far more consequential.

He said: “I worked with Richard Bullick for 16 years and have absolute respect for his judgement. I found him to be extremely reliable, knowledgeable and honourable.”

Mr Wells went on: “The fact that he has felt it necessary to go public for the first time with criticism of the party over this concerns me, and the more I read of what he’s saying about it, the more concerned I become.”

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The South Down MLA said that anything which unravelled what the DUP secured at St Andrews would be enormously significant: “It was a major breakthrough and what was achieved by Peter Robinson and his team was seen as safeguarding the country from solo runs and wayward decisions, especially by Sinn Féin ministers.”

The bill – which is being rushed through by Mrs Foster and Michelle O’Neill with minimal scrutiny – would give individual ministers more unilateral power, something which Mr Bullick warned was “dangerous”.

He said that despite the law proposing profound constitutional change to the structures established by the Belfast Agreement and amended by the St Andrews Agreement, MLAs are “sleepwaking” into rubber-stamping it without even debating the implications of what is happening.

Central to Mr Bullick’s alarm is what he sees as the unravelling of a mechanism constructed by the DUP to curb the power of Sinn Féin ministers – even though that meant that every minister’s autonomy was reduced.

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Mrs Foster and Ms O’Neill have argued that the law is necessary – and must be urgently passed – because a court judgment two years ago widened the definition of what must come to the Executive and would mean that every major planning decision would have to come to the Executive.

However, Mr Bullick said that the judgment – in relation to planning permission for a huge incinerator in Mallusk – had in fact restated principles which the DUP had consistently argued for in past court cases, and which Mrs Foster herself had advocated in a court case in 2014.

The bill is to come before the Assembly on Monday for further consideration stage – the final point at which it can be amended.

UUP MLA Doug Beattie has tabled an amendment which would remove one of the two clauses in the bill which give more power to ministers. Mr Bullick has publicly endorsed the UUP amendment – itself an extraordinary sign of what is going on, given that for years he was the key DUP strategist working to overtake the UUP.

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Last night’s DUP statement insisted: “The bill will not diminish the requirements of ministers to bring matters to the Executive for consideration or decision.”

The DUP added that it was “intended” that “all matters that previously would have been required to come to the Executive prior to the Buick case must continue to be brought to the Executive”.

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