Why Doesn't the Legislative Assembly Legislate?
17 October 2011
Speaking during a debate on a legislative consent motion to give effect to Westminister legislation in Northern Ireland TUV leader Jim Allister questioned why the Legislative Assembly spends so little time legislating:
“This is a sensible and practical proposition, and I particularly welcome the proposal that there should be reciprocal arrangements. It is all the more necessary because today we have a very mobile population, moving about not just within parts of the United Kingdom but within the whole EU. There are some who start from eastern European countries, come through GB and end up here and vice versa. So, one can see the necessity for all of this and the need for the reciprocal requirement that is proposed. I go on, though, to make this observation: it is striking that, so many months into this term of this Assembly, this is the closest that we have got to legislating. We call ourselves MLAs: Members of a legislative Assembly. Yet the only legislation — Budget apart — that we have discussed since I came to this House are matters such as legislative consent motions, where we are consenting to Westminster, quite properly, doing it for us. It raises the question, Mr Speaker: what is this House all about? Was my MP, the Member for North Antrim, right when he described it as just a glorified county council?”
