Joint authority talk is 'nebulous nonsense', says TUV leader Jim Allister after poll results

Mr Allister, speaking after poll results from LucidTalk showed 41% in favour of an equal role for Dublin and London in the running of Northern Ireland in the absence of devolved government at Stormont, said such an arrangement would be impossible both constitutionally and in practice.

Speaking to the News Letter, Mr Allister said: “It’s nebulous – it means what you want it to mean. Joint authority is one of those terms that people loosely talk about, but what does it really mean? Joint authority, in its pure form, means joint sovereignty, it means joint taxation, it means joint funding of public services. But that’s not what any of these people are talking about when asked if they want joint authority.”

The poll results, carried out for the Belfast Telegraph, also showed 18% in favour of some degree of co-operation between London and Dublin.

But Mr Allister said: “There is already a great degree of co-operation – some might say too much – because there already is a formalised structure in terms of British-Irish co-operation. But he who pays the piper calls the tune, should be the situation, and it is the UK Treasury who pays the piper. I don’t see Dublin putting their hand in their pocket in respect of Northern Ireland, nor do I want them to. They seem to want influence and control without any input of a financial nature.”

He continued: “Joint authority is a patent nonsense, because it’s a constitutional impossibility. It’s wholly incompatible with being an integral part of the United Kingdom, so those who glibly talk about joint authority are in fact showing a total disregard for what they’re supposed to be signed up to in the Belfast Agreement – namely the acceptance of the constitutional position which is that we’re part of the United Kingdom. You can’t be part of the United Kingdom and share your authority with a foreign jurisdiction. So, you know, joint authority is a patent nonsense.”

He added: “Of course it couldn’t work, because it does come back to the point that if it’s joint authority, then it’s joint sovereignty, then it’s joint fiscal responsibility.”