DUP stands firm in refusing to attend Stormont in the face of recall pressure over organ donor law

​Despite former DUP First Minister Paul Givan indicating that a decision on the matter would be made on Monday, party headquarters told the News Letter today that it has already decided it will not take part in any recall.

The recall was being demanded under the aegis of what has become known as Daithi’s Law, named after a young boy who is in need of an organ transplant.

And today the TUV levelled the explosive accusation against the Secretary of State that he was using the predicament of this family to try and effectively trick anti-Protocol MLAs into supporting the resuscitation of the Assembly.

Leader Jim Allister said that, under the Assembly’s rule book, if unionists agreed to bring Stormont back for just a single day then they would have no means of stopping it meeting again and again thereafter.

In other words, agreeing to a “temporary” recall would in fact mean agreeing to the long-term revival of the Assembly.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson echoed this, calling it “blackmail”.

At the centre of all this is six-year-old Belfast boy Daithi MacGabhann, who has been awaiting a heart transplant for years.

According to the website Donate4Daithi.org, his condition – hypoplastic left heart syndrome – “basically means that Daithí was born with half a working heart”.

His father Mairtin has been a tireless campaigner for the creation of an opt-in organ donation system in Northern Ireland.

Basically this means everyone will be presumed to have consented to organ donation, unless they have specifically opted out.

The legal groundwork had already been laid last year, but it needs further assent from the Assembly before it can become active.

On Thursday, NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said that “the quickest and simplest way to implement Daithí’s Law is to affirm the legislation in the NI Assembly”.

Meanwhile Sinn Fein and the SDLP have also heaped pressure on the DUP to re-engage Stormont to make it happen.

“We’ll be having a group meeting on Monday morning and we’ll take a position,” Mr Givan told the BBC’s The View programme late on Thursday night.

But then in a statement today, Sir Jeffrey said: “The government has had more than two years to deal with the Protocol.

"There will be no return to devolved government until the Protocol is dealt with decisively… it is disgraceful that this issue has been used as blackmail for the return of devolution.”

A spokesman for the party clarified that this “includes a recall”.

Instead, the DUP wants to see the Tories in London pass Daithi’s Law themselves, circumventing Stormont – just as they had done with abortion reform and an Irish language act.

The UUP told the News Letter: “If Stormont is recalled we will be there, but we think for the issue to be dealt with now then the Secretary of State needs to act at Westminster.”

And the TUV’s Jim Allister said that, firstly, no-one should be under the illusion that passing Daithi’s Law (which the TUV supports) would guarantee the boy a transplant.

Secondly, he said the idea of “an Assembly that would come back for one day only” is false because of the technicalities of how it functions.

The election of a new speaker and deputies is required before the Assembly conducts any business. This needs the support of both unionists and nationalists.

Mr Allister said that, even if unionists took up speaking posts then quit shortly afterwards, the Assembly could still keep meeting anyway.

So in summary “what is being suggested by the Secretary of State… is but a wheeze to get the Assembly up and running permanently”.

His comments were put to the NIO. No response was received at time of writing.

Earlier today, current speaker Alex Maskey appeared to cast doubt on Stormont’s ability to progress Daithi’s Law via a temporary sitting, saying a “commencement order” on a previous piece of legislation was needed first.

In spite of any session being doomed without DUP participation, this evening a formal recall notice was issued for Tuesday.

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