Allister condemns Stormont's new "Special Powers Act"
17 January 2009
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister MEP
“We have all heard the saying that a week is a long time in politics but it would seem as far as some parties are concerned 24 hours it equivalent to a political lifetime. How can the DUP expect people to take them seriously when, on Monday, they are proposing a motion to reduce the number of departments and then, on Tuesday, joining Sinn Fein in the lobbies to vote in favour of a report which makes plans for the creation of an additional department?
“I would agree that 12 Ministers, 2 Junior Ministers, 11 departments and all the special advisers and civil servants which accompany them is far too much for a place as small as Northern Ireland. But how you can propose cutting the number of Ministries on Monday and support the creation of an additional Ministry on Tuesday is beyond me!
In terms of where Stormont is headed, the Financial Assistance Bill has to be the most alarming in terms of buttressing undemocratic practices. This Bill has all the signs of the latest wheeze to concentrate more powers exclusively in the hands of the DUP and Sinn Fein. In a brazen drive for power and glory OFMDFM are garnering to themselves more and more powers, through this their own “Special Powers Act”. The ability to nominate a department, which could be their own, to deliver a project through regulations which are subject only to negative resolution – therefore never subjected to proper democratic scrutiny and control – is an alarming denuding of power from the Assembly itself. Sadly, the number of MLAs who understand or care seems to be limited. Moreover, the acquiescence of DFP in the absence of proper budgetary control powers from this proposal is disturbing.
Built upon the absence of adequate democratic controls, most notably no scope for an Opposition, the present system of devolution is increasingly degenerating into undemocratic practices. OFMDFM is becoming more and more the polit bureau as they exercise power grab at every opportunity.”
