Drumcree: 'We've got a problem out there' - Edwin Poots issues grave warning as he instructs MLAs not to 'inflame tensions'
Stormont’s Speaker issued a strong warning to politicians that their words must not inflame tensions in the community after what he called “a pretty difficult weekend” over the Drumcree dispute.
Edwin Poots told MLAs “we've got a problem out there” – and reminded them of their legal requirements – including to uphold the rule of law.
He said enforcement on matters outside the Assembly are not for himself, but “the PSNI, the Standards Commissioner, and indeed for the House itself, if it wants to bring a sanction upon any individual member”.
The comments came as the Assembly prepared to debate the weekend’s events – in which protestors, including a number of senior Sinn Fein politicians, blocked the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
The Orange Order had been granted permission by the Parades Commission to complete a church parade from nearby Drumcree. But police decided not to clear protestors from the road, and instead stopped orangemen from leaving the vicinity of Drumcree church.
Ahead of MLAs debating the matter, Edwin Poots issued an unusually strong warning about conduct, saying some “older heads on all sides of the chamber” bear the scars of the past “and don't want them repeated”.
“It’s been a pretty difficult weekend, and I think that we all need to recognise that in this house. I know that passions are running high at the moment, and I've accepted items of business that will deal with this, because it is my view that it is much better that these matters are dealt with here in this democratic institution than they are dealt with on the streets.
“This assembly exists so that our differences are expressed through democratic processes, and therefore it is important that you, as members, have the opportunity to do that”.
The South Belfast MLA said “there is no issue with expressing opposing political views on the floor of this house, but we should be mindful not to seek to deliberately inflame tensions which are already high”.
“We've got a problem out there, and we need to get over that problem. And we need to be about getting a better health service, better education, better infrastructure, all of those things that the public actually want and demand”, he said.