Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“I trust today I will not hear any of the following MLAS:
Dr Aiken, Mr Allen, Ms Anderson, Dr Archibald, Ms Armstrong, Ms Bailey, Mrs Barton, Mr Beattie, Mr Blair, Mr Boylan, Mr M Bradley, Ms P Bradley, Ms S Bradley, Ms Bradshaw, Ms Brogan, Mr K Buchanan, Mr T Buchanan, Mr Buckley, Mr Butler, Mrs Cameron, Mr Carroll, Mr Catney, Mr Chambers, Mr Clarke, Mr Dickson, Ms Dillon, Mrs Dodds, Ms Dolan, Mr Dunne, Mr Durkan, Mr Easton, Ms Ennis, Ms Flynn, Mrs Foster, Mr Frew, Mr Gildernew, Mr Givan, Ms Hargey, Mr Harvey, Mr Hilditch, Mr Humphrey, Ms Hunter, Mr Irwin, Mr Kearney, Mrs D Kelly, Mr G Kelly, Ms Kimmins, Mrs Long, Mr Lynch, Mr Lyons, Mr Lyttle, Mr McAleer, Mr McCann, Mr McCrossan, Mr McGlone, Mr McGrath, Mr McGuigan, Mr McHugh, Miss McIlveen, Ms McLaughlin, Mr McNulty, Ms Mallon, Mr Middleton, Mr Muir, Ms Mullan, Mr Murphy, Mr Nesbitt, Mr Newton, Ms Ní Chuilín, Mr O’Dowd, Mrs O’Neill, Mr O’Toole, Mr Poots, Mr Robinson, Ms Rogan, Mr Sheehan, Ms Sheerin, Mr Stewart, Mr Storey, Mr Weir, Miss Woods.
Tellers for the Ayes: Ms Brogan and Mr McGuigan
complain about the intolerable burdens being placed on our garden centres due to the iniquitous Protocol, because these are the MLAs who on 8 December 2020 voted to impose these restrictions.
“On 8 December 2020 Gordon Lyons, DUP Junior Minister, on behalf of the DUP DAERA minister, Edwin Poots, brought before the Assembly and proposed ‘The Plant Health and Diseases of Animals (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (NI) 2020’.
“It is these Regulations which adopted into the law of Northern Ireland the EU Directive 2000/29/EC which contains the absurd ban on importing soil, and thus roses, azaleas etc potted up in soil, into the EU single market. The DUP proposed regulations at Article 2 implementing Section 41 of Annex 2 of the Protocol, which expressly details Directive 2000/29/EC and Regulation EU 2016/2031, and it was these which the above MLAs voted to impose.
“I spoke in the debate and warned of their folly, but they knew best and sheep-like voted to enslave us in EU laws which are now strangling our garden centres and others. Only Jim Wells and I voted against this madness.
“So, when garden centre operators can’t bring in potted roses because there might be British soil on or in the pots, these businesses and the deprived public know who to blame, these 81 MLAS!”
Debate found here:
http://data.niassembly.gov.uk/HansardXml/plenary-08-12-2020.pdf
with Jim Allister’s contribution at page 10.