David Ford Delaying Implementation of Policing & Justice Ministry
Published by Peter Armstrong on Wednesday 17th September 2008
This morning the Alliance Party leader David Ford has changed his mind about the Policing & Justice Ministry.
He has allowed himself to be complicit in what is an undemocratic carve up by the DUP and SF, with the aim of denying over 105,000 nationalists their voice in the NI Executive.
In August, David Ford said “The Alliance Party will not be taking the Policing and Justice Ministry.” However, after discussions with the DUP and SF he has changed his mind. David Ford should bear in mind that back room deals damage the democratic process and think about previous agreements between the DUP-SF that never came to any fruition - such as an Irish Language Act.
David Ford is essentially delaying any implementation of the Policing & Justice ministry by posturing outside Stormont Castle waiting for DUP/SF to throw sweeties. My advice is that if Alliance want a seat on the Executive, they should start working towards the extra 17,000+ first preference votes required.
Who should get the Policing & Justice ministry?
The DUP and SF both agreed that they wouldn’t take it, but it wasn’t theirs to take, and it isn’t theirs to give. The NI Assembly operates under the D’Hondt Mechanism. Every time an Executive has been formed, D’Hondt has been used to assign Ministries to each party.
The graph below shows the allocation of the 11 ministries (10 current ministries + Policing and Justice). It quite clearly shows that the 11th Ministry belongs to the SDLP. Even if you kept adding ministries, the SDLP, DUP and SF would all get assigned new ministries before it was the turn of the Alliance.
(click here to see full graph)
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness seem determined to undermine the democratic Assembly structures. In attempting to deny the SDLP their position, they are denying a seat on the Executive to the 105,000 nationalist voters who put the SDLP as their first preference. Instead, they want the Alliance party to take on the post, even though they do not qualify for any seat on the Executive as not enough people vote for them.
The SDLP are going to fight for what is rightfully theirs - what has been mandated to them. Tommy Gallagher yesterday said, “Whatever new department comes into being it has to be allocated under the D’Hondt rule. If Sinn Fein colludes with the DUP in abandoning a fundamental requirement of the Agreement and departing from the principles of fairness and equality then the nationalist community will pay a very high price in relation to future arrangements for government in Northern Ireland.“
Tags: Alliance Party, D'Hondt, David Ford, Martin McGuinness, Peter Robinson, Policing & Justice, Tommy Gallagher
