As Alliance abdicate scrutiny of sweeping powers to foreign capitals - Steve Aiken says ideology is causing Stormont scrutiny body to fail

This week Stormont’s Windsor Framework committee (WFDSC) heard that new EU legislation coming in under the arrangements would give EU control over the definition of civil emergencies – as well as a range of powers over how the EU’s single market (including Northern Ireland) would function in the case of an event such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or a new pandemic.

Despite specific regulations not being in place until such a situation arises – the scrutiny body voted against a DUP proposal to hold an inquiry to determine the potential impact on Northern Ireland.

UUP MLA Steve Aiken, who sits on the committee, said it has “sank further into irrelevance” and accused the body of being “completely incurious”. He contrasted it unfavourably to a reconvened Lords committee which he said was carrying out “the only effective and in-depth analysis” of the effects of the deal on Northern Ireland.

Mr Aiken said it is “ironic” that the “least amount of scrutiny” is being done by the NI Assembly.

“The UUP, in particular Lord Empey, has been fighting hard for the reinstatement of the Lords committee, but it’s ridiculous that the safeguard for the NI Assembly that was negotiated with the then PM, Rishi Sunak, by the UUP amongst others, as a democratic scrutiny mechanism, has become a farce of ‘full implementation’ regardless of the impacts on us all” he told the News Letter.

In a meeting of the WFDSC on Thursday, an official from the Executive Office was questioned by the UUP's Steve Aiken about whether – in an emergency – Stormont would take its lead from the UK or EU. Karen Pearson said that in an emergency - such as a flood - there would be “a community of voices” that trigger a response. However, the official appeared to be talking about civil contingencies, rather than controls on the EU market, which is what the new regulations related to.The DUP proposed an inquiry into the “wide ranging powers”, saying that unionists had an objection to undemocratic divergence.Alliance led the opposition to an inquiry, and were backed by Sinn Fein.South Belfast Alliance MLA Kate Nicholl said “I'm content not to hold an inquiry because I don't understand what an inquiry would achieve, because we don't know what we're actually dealing with”.Party colleague Eoin Tennyson said he fully agreed with Ms Nicholl, and argued the committee's test is whether any significant impact that is liable to persist –and that wouldn’t be the case with the new laws as by the very nature of an emergency that wasn't possible. The Upper Bann MLA said the rules were about providing derogations and flexibility in future.“When we're talking about an emergency, we're talking about a crisis of the scale of the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Covid 19 pandemic. And there is an established scrutiny body in terms of the European Parliament and member states", he said.Northern Ireland is not a member state and does not have any representation in the European Parliament. Alliance’s European sister party Fianna Fail, known as ‘The Republican Party’ is represented in Brussels.

Steve Aiken said the new rules could have a significant impact on everyday life in Northern Ireland.

“This means if the EU call an emergency, it has substantial powers of the provision and control of goods and other activity wherever the writ of the EU applies – across Northern Ireland .

“These rules and regulations have primacy over UK law and also over any NI legislation.

“There is also no definition of what the EU describes as an emergency, it could be another pandemic, another war like the Ukraine, or even, as explained to us in Brussels recently, a trade war with Donald Trump.

“I have remarked before that this committee is the most incurious I have ever sat on and its near pedantic following of the ‘letter’ of its Terms of Reference goes significantly against what the clear intent of the committee was supposed to be – namely acting as a safeguard for the people of Northern Ireland”.

He said that “yet again” the committee has “singularly failed, for ideological reasons” to do that.

“The WFDSC is, I’m afraid, neither providing democratic scrutiny, accountability, or even functioning much as a committee. The people of Northern Ireland deserve better of its elected members”, the South Antrim MLA added.