The assembly is to be asked to condemn a DUP ministers’ protocol-related boycott of a key cross-border body that led to them being censured by Stormont’s standards watchdog.
MLAs will also vote next week on the Commissioner for Standards’s report into the ministers’ failure to attend the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meetings, which found them to be in breach of their code of conduct.
A report published in July found five acting and former DUP ministers, including assembly speaker Edwin Poots, breached the ministerial code in September 2021 when they failed to attend meetings of the cross-border body in protest at the Irish Sea border.
The following month the High Court ruled that the DUP’s NSMC boycott was an unlawful breach of the pledge of office.
In addition to the former DUP leader, those censured in the watchdog’s report were then first minister Paul Givan and his executive colleagues Gordon Lyons, Michelle McIlveen and Gary Middleton.
The commissioner concluded that the ministers’ failure to attend the cross-border body’s meetings was a “clear and publicly stated intention by the DUP to disengage with the NSMC, including non-attendance at NSMC meetings”.
The four DUP ministers and junior minister claimed scheduling issues were to blame for their non-attendance.
Commissioner for Standards Melissa McCullough has no power to sanction ministers but the assembly can vote on the matter, if the motion in question is moved either by the first and deputy first ministers, acting jointly, or be supported by at least 30 MLAs.
An SDLP-tabled non-binding motion set to be debated in the assembly on Monday does not seek to sanction the DUP MLAs named in the report but asks MLAs to condemn the boycott and acknowledge the commissioner’s findings.
It also asks the assembly to affirm ministers’ commitment to their code of conduct, while asserting that “the NSMC must not be held hostage for political means”.
Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole MLA said no minister should be allowed to breach the ministerial code or “ignore our north-south institutions when it suits them”.
“This DUP boycott was extremely petty and only contributed to souring relationships at what was already a very fragile time,” he said.
“Parties should have enough respect for the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement not to hold them hostage for their own political ends. The North South Ministerial Council is as fundamental a part of the agreement as any other and bringing it down cannot go without clear consequences.”
In August, The Irish News revealed that ministers who breach their own code of conduct may soon face sanctions imposed by fellow MLAs.
The move would close the gap in the rules which in the past has seen serving ministers escape punishment for obvious breaches of the code.
Under existing rules, the assembly’s Standards and Privileges Committee can penalise MLAs for wrongdoing but their powers do not extend to sanctioning members of the Northern Ireland Executive.
