Statement by TUV vice-chair Richard Cairns:
“Having had opportunity to study the Parades Commission determination on Ardoyne in detail it is obvious that it is totally irrational. This is chiefly illustrated by the fact that at no point in the determination did the Commission even attempt to address the argument that if it is right to allow the outward parade then on what rational basis can the homeward parade be denied. Is offence really caused by a parade’s direction of travel?
“Additionally, the Parades Commission has a legal duty is to consider each application on its own merits, and to do so objectively. It is clear, however, that its consideration was overwhelmed by its focus on the 2013 template. Thereby, the PC fettered its discretion and erred not just in allowing this to become the focus of its deliberations, but compounded its error by indulging in establishing new hurdles for the future. Any presumption in favour of exercising the right of freedom of assembly has been hopelessly eclipsed by the politicking of the commission.
“Rather than taking the reasonable course of encouraging the progress made in 2013/14, the commission eagerly dismissed it and mounted fresh demands, well outside its terms of reference – even to the point of demanding that the Orange Order abandon its traditions (para 30) and taking upon itself the overtly political function of pontificating on the need for a wider and structured process to deal not just with parades but also the past. The Parades Commission is not a legislator, nor a policy maker, on parades, but an administrator. These comments are indicating a Commission that has lost the run of itself and commenting on matters well beyond its remit.
“It is also striking that the Commission utterly failed to set out any sufficient and reasoned evaluation of the evidence it received. Thereby it failed to adequately discharge its quasi judicial function and while seeking to make much of the cost of the policing of the parade and subsequent protests, the Commission makes no acknowledgement of the fact that its 2013 determination led to much of that cost.”