Everything about The Northern Ireland Assembly totally explained
The
Northern Ireland Assembly (
Irish:
Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann,
Ulster Scots:
Norlin Airlann Semmlie) is the
devolved legislature of
Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly
reserved to the
Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the
Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at
Parliament Buildings at
Stormont in
Belfast.
The latest incarnation of the Assembly was established under the terms of the
Good Friday Agreement of
1998, an accord aimed at bringing an end to Northern Ireland's violent 30-year
Troubles. It is based on the principle of
power-sharing under the
D'Hondt method, in order to ensure that the largest political communities in Northern Ireland,
unionist and
nationalist, participate in governing the region. The Assembly is a
unicameral,
democratically elected body comprising 108 members who are known as
Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. Members are elected under the
single transferable vote form of
proportional representation.
The Assembly has been suspended on multiple occasions throughout its history, the longest being from
14 October 2002 until
7 May 2007, a period of over four and a half years; during these suspensions, its powers reverted to the
Northern Ireland Office. Following talks that resulted in the
St Andrews Agreement being accepted in
November 2006, an
election to the Assembly was held on
7 March 2007 and full power was restored to the devolved institutions on
8 May 2007.
History
Previous legislatures
From
7 June 1921 onwards, Northern Ireland was governed under majority unionist rule by the
Parliament of Northern Ireland, an earlier devolved legislature. It was suspended on
30 March 1972, and was abolished shortly thereafter under the terms of the
Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
Shortly after this first parliament was abolished, attempts began to restore
devolution on a new basis that would see power shared between nationalists and unionists. To this end a new parliament, the
Northern Ireland Assembly, was established in
1973. However, this body was brought down by opposition from hard-line unionists and
republicans and was abolished in
1974. In
1982 another
Northern Ireland Assembly was established at Stormont, initially as a scrutinising body for the
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, although it received little support from nationalists and was officially dissolved in 1986.
The modern Assembly and suspensions
The modern Northern Ireland Assembly was first elected on
25 June 1998 and first met on
1 July of that year; however, it existed only in "shadow" form until
2 December 1999 when full powers were devolved to the Assembly. Since then the Assembly has operated only intermittently and has been suspended on four occasions:
Attempts to secure its operation on a permanent basis have been frustrated by disagreements between the two main unionist parties (the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and
Sinn Féin, the largest nationalist party, which is widely perceived to be the political wing of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). This accusation is considered by some as being politically motivated to discredit Sinn Féin. Unionists had refused to participate in the Good Friday Agreement's institutions alongside Sinn Féin until they were assured that the IRA had discontinued all of its activities, decommissioned its arms and disbanded.
The most recent suspension occurred after unionists started to walk out of its power-sharing Executive after Sinn Féin's offices at Stormont had been raided by the police investigating alleged intelligence gathering on behalf of the IRA by members of the party's support staff. The assembly, already suspended, dissolved on
28 April,
2003 as scheduled, but the elections due the following month were postponed by the
United Kingdom government and were not held until November that year.
On
8 December 2005, three Belfast men at the centre of the alleged IRA spying incident at ‘
Stormontgate’ were acquitted of all charges. The prosecution offered no evidence "in the public interest." Afterwards,
Denis Donaldson, one of those arrested, said that the "charges should never have been brought" as the police action was "political."
On
17 December 2005, Donaldson publicly confirmed that he'd been a spy for
British intelligence since the early 1980s.
(External Link
) Mr Donaldson was killed on
April 4,
2006.
"The Assembly" and "the Transitional Assembly"
"The Assembly established under the Northern Ireland Act 2006"
Although the Northern Ireland Assembly remained suspended from 2002 until 2007, the persons elected to it at the
2003 Assembly election were called together on
15 May,
2006 under the
Northern Ireland Act 2006 to meet in an assembly to be known as "the Assembly" (or fully "the Assembly established under the Northern Ireland Act 2006") for the purpose of electing a First Minister and Deputy First Minister and choosing the members of an Executive before
25 November,
2006 as a preliminary to the restoration of devolved government.
On
23 May 2006 Ian Paisley, leader of the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refused
Sinn Féin's nomination to be
First Minister alongside Sinn Féin's chief negotiator,
Martin McGuinness, as Deputy First Minister.
Eileen Bell was appointed by the Secretary of State
Peter Hain to be the Speaker of the Assembly, with
Francie Molloy and
Jim Wells acting as deputies.
The Northern Ireland (
St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 repealed the Northern Ireland Act 2006 and thus disbanded "the Assembly".
"The Transitional Assembly"
The Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 provided for a "Transitional Assembly" (or fully "the Transitional Assembly established under the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006") to take part in preparations for the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland. A person who is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly is also a member of the Transitional Assembly. Eileen Bell Is Speaker of the new Transitional Assembly and Francie Molloy and Jim Wells continue as deputies. The Transitional Assembly first met on
24 November 2006, when the proceedings was suspended due to a bomb threat by
loyalist paramilitary
Michael Stone. It was dissolved on
30 January 2007 when campaigning for the upcoming Northern Ireland Assembly elections started.
An
election to the then-suspended Northern Ireland Assembly was held on
7 March 2007.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland,
Peter Hain signed a restoration order at lunchtime on
25 March 2007 allowing for the restoration of devolution at midnight on the following day. The two largest parties following the election, the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and
Sinn Féin, agreed to enter power-sharing government together, and power was eventually restored on 8 May with Ian Paisley as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister.
Composition
| Affiliation |
Members |
| 36 |
| 27 |
| 18 |
| 16 |
| 7 |
| 1 |
| 1 |
| |
(Independent) |
2 |
Total
| 108 |
The Assembly's composition and powers are laid down in the
Northern Ireland Act 1998. The Assembly's 108 members are elected from 18 six-member constituencies on the basis of universal adult
suffrage. The constituencies used are the same as those used for elections to the Westminster Parliament. The 1998 Act provides that, unless the Assembly is dissolved early, elections should occur once in every five years on the first Thursday in May. However the second election to the Assembly was delayed by the UK government until
23 November 2003. The Assembly is dissolved shortly before the holding of elections on a day chosen by the
Secretary of State, the
British minister with responsibility for Northern Ireland. After the holding of elections the Assembly must meet within eight days. The Assembly can vote to dissolve itself early by a two-thirds majority of the total number of its members. It is also automatically dissolved if it's unable to elect a
First Minister and deputy First Minister within six weeks of its first meeting or of those positions becoming vacant. Members of the Assembly are known as MLAs or "Members of the Legislative Assembly". The three elections held to the Assembly so far were the:
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007
The Assembly has two primary mechanisms to guarantee power-sharing. The first is the manner in which ministers are appointed to the Northern Ireland Executive. These are not nominated by a simple majority vote. Rather all parties with a significant number of seats are entitled to at least one minister, and ministerial portfolios are divided among the parties in proportion to their strength in the Assembly, through a method known as the d'Hondt system. The second power-sharing mechanism is the requirement that certain resolutions must receive "cross community support", or the support of a minimum number of MLAs from both communities, to be passed by the Assembly. Every MLA is officially designated as either Nationalist, Unionist or Other.
The election of the First and Deputy First Ministers, the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers, any changes to the standing orders and the adoption of certain money bills must all occur with cross-community support. The election of the First and Deputy First Ministers must occur by parallel consent but in all other cases either form of cross community support is acceptable. In addition to votes on these subjects any vote taken by the Assembly can be made dependent on cross-community support if at least thirty MLAs present the Speaker with a "petition of concern" before the vote is taken. This means, in effect, that, provided enough MLAs from a given community agree, each of the two communities represented in the Assembly can exercise a veto over its decisions.
Each MLA is free to designate themselves as "nationalist", "unionist" or "other" as they see fit, the only requirement being that no member may change their designation more than once during an Assembly session. The power-sharing system thus depends on the honesty of its participants. The system has been criticised by some, in particular the cross-community Alliance Party, as entrenching sectarian divisions. Alliance favours a change that would involve an end to official designations of identity and the taking of important votes on the basis of an ordinary super-majority. A particular bone of contention for them is that members designated as "other" have less say in the election of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, as it's decided by parallel consent- not anymore, now decided by nominations of the largest party, under St. Andrews.
Powers and functions
The Assembly has both legislative powers and responsibility for electing the Northern Ireland Executive. The First and Deputy First Ministers were initially elected on a cross-community vote, although this was changed in 2006 and they're now appointed as leaders of the largest and second largest Assembly 'bloc' (understood to mean 'Unionist', 'Nationalist' and 'Other'). However the remaining ministers are not elected but rather chosen by the nominating officers of each party, each party being entitled to a share of ministerial positions roughly proportionate to its share of seats in the Assembly. The Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters". These matters are not explicitly enumerated in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Rather they include any competence not explicitly retained by the Parliament at Westminster. Powers reserved by Westminster are divided into "excepted matters", which it retains indefinitely, and "reserved matters", which may be transferred to the competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly at a future date. An incomplete list of "transferred", "reserved" and "excepted" matters is given below. While the Assembly was in suspension, its legislative powers were exercised by the UK government, which effectively has power to legislate by decree. Laws that would have normally been within the competence of the Assembly were passed by the UK government in the form of Orders-in-Council rather than legislative acts.
Unlike laws enacted by the Westminster Parliament, Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly are subject to judicial review. A law can be struck down if it's found to exceed the competences of the Assembly but also if it violates European Union law or the European Convention on Human Rights, or if it's found to discriminate against individuals on the grounds of political opinion or religious belief.
Although the British monarch isn't formally a component of the Assembly (as is the case at Westminster), all bills passed by the Assembly must receive the Royal Assent in order to become law. This isn't a mere formality; if he or she believes that a bill violates the constitutional limitations on the powers of the Assembly the Secretary of State will refuse to submit the bill to the monarch for Assent. If submitted by the Secretary of State, the monarch will, by convention, sign a bill into law. Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly begin with the enacting formula: "Be it enacted by being passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly and assented to by Her Majesty as follows:".
Transferred matters
Education — Caitríona Ruane, Sinn Féin
Health — Michael McGimpsey, Ulster Unionist Party
Agriculture — Michelle Gildernew, Sinn Féin
Enterprise, trade and investment — Nigel Dodds, Democratic Unionist Party
Environment — Arlene Foster, Democratic Unionist Party
Regional development (including transport) — Conor Murphy, Sinn Féin
Employment — Reg Empey, Ulster Unionist Party
Finance — Peter Robinson, Democratic Unionist Party
Social Development — Margaret Ritchie, Social Democratic and Labour Party
Culture, arts and leisure — Edwin Poots, Democratic Unionist Party
Reserved matters
Criminal law
Police
Navigation and civil aviation
International trade and financial markets
Telecommunications/postage
The foreshore and sea bed
Disqualification from Assembly membership
Consumer safety
Intellectual property
Excepted matters
Royal succession
International relations
Defence and armed forces
Nationality, immigration and asylum
Taxes levied across the United Kingdom as a whole
Appointment of senior judges
All elections held in Northern Ireland
Currency
Conferring of honours
Organisation
The Assembly is chaired by the Speaker and three Deputy Speakers. Lord Alderdice served as the first regular Speaker of the Assembly, but retired to serve as part of the current Independent Monitoring Commission that supervises paramilitary ceasefires. The position is currently filled by William Hay. In the Assembly the Speaker and ten other members constitute a quorum. The Assembly Commission is the body corporate of the Assembly. It ensures that the Assembly has the property, staff and services it needs to carry out its work. Legal proceedings taken for or against the Assembly are taken for or against the Commission on behalf of the Assembly. The staff of the Assembly are collectively known as the Assembly Secretariat.
When not suspended the Assembly has a number of statutory committees each of which is charged with scrutinising the activities of a particular ministerial department. It also has a number of permanent standing committees and temporary ad hoc committees. The Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons of the committees are chosen by party nominating officers under a procedure similar to that used to appoint members of the Executive, for example the d'Hondt system. Ordinary committee members are not appointed under this procedure but the Standing Orders require that the share of members of each party on a committee should be roughly proportionate to its share of seats in the Assembly. Committees of the Assembly take decisions by a simple majority vote. The following were the statutory and standing committees of the Assembly at the time of its suspension in 2002:
Departmental committees
Agriculture and Rural Development Committee
Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee
Education Committee
Employment and Learning Committee
Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee
Environment Committee
Finance and Personnel Committee
Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee
Regional Development Committee
Social Development Committee
Committee for the Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister
Standing committees
Committee on Procedures
Business Committee
Institutional Review Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Committee on Standards and Privileges
Audit CommitteeFurther Information
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