Stormont abstention should not be allowed to be blackmail

The Democratic Unionist Party thinks it has a stranglehold on the establishment of a devolved executive in Northern Ireland, even after a new election or a deal on the protocol between the UK Government and the EU Commission that it rejects.

This situation must be confronted.

A reasonable solution would be to amend the Good Friday Agreement whereby if the largest unionist party refuses to nominate a deputy first minister, the next largest unionist party would be asked to do so.

That would mean, in current or any likely future circumstances, the Ulster Unionist Party. If that party were also to refuse to nominate, the largest ‘other’ party should be so asked, effectively Alliance .

Although there may be other unionist parties elected to the assembly, they should be excluded from the option if they do not obtain a threshold proportion of votes that would be specified. Of course, mutatis mutandis, the same principle would have to apply under the nationalist and ‘other’ headings.

In this way, blackmail by the DUP would be prevented and Northern Ireland would not be deprived of the devolution which the majority of its people clearly want and thus rightly deserve.

The DUP could not complain about this arrangement on democratic grounds if it has freely chosen the course of abstentionism.

Daltún Ó Ceallaigh, Rathmines, Dublin