TUV commentary on the Stormont House Agreement
1. This Agreement, whose parentage is the Belfast Agreement, is of itself further manifestation of the involvement of the Dublin Government in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland, which the DUP and UUP now facilitate. Not only was the Dublin Foreign Minister a host of the talks, but he is to have an ongoing role as an equal convener of meetings to oversee implementation of the Agreement. So much, for the DUP pretence that it had destroyed and still opposes the Belfast Agreement!
2. It is also clear that this is a Sinn Fein/DUP deal, with the other local parties mere bit players, who were kept sitting and excluded all night while DUP and Sinn Fein did their deal. By meekly rowing in behind it they confirm their doormat role in the Executive.
Finance:
3. Keeping squandering Stormont afloat was the self-serving motivation that bound the participants together. The outcome confirmed how money talks. However, for all the hype, only one third of the proclaimed £2b extra spending power is new money; two thirds are loans, which have to be paid back, with interest.
3. Keeping squandering Stormont afloat was the self-serving motivation that bound the participants together. The outcome confirmed how money talks. However, for all the hype, only one third of the proclaimed £2b extra spending power is new money; two thirds are loans, which have to be paid back, with interest.
4. The new capital money of £500m over 10 years is for social engineering through ‘shared and integrated education’. The funds-starved controlled sector will not benefit, except through shared ventures.
5. Meeting Sinn Fein’s demand to keep welfare benefits topped up to their present level will have to be paid for out of the block grant, meaning less money for schools and hospitals in order to keep claimants at the benefit level to which they have become accustomed.
The Flag:
6. Instead of unionist participants insisting on progress on respect for the flying of our national flag and its restoration to our prime civil building, a Commission of 15 will deliberate on ‘flags, identity, culture and tradition’. It will be guided by “the principles of the existing Agreements including parity of esteem”, which being translated means parity of esteem as between Britishness and Irishness! (Never forget Gerry Adams’s admission that equality is the Trojan horse of the entire republican strategy.) The Irish government may be consulted by the Commission! (Para 15).
6. Instead of unionist participants insisting on progress on respect for the flying of our national flag and its restoration to our prime civil building, a Commission of 15 will deliberate on ‘flags, identity, culture and tradition’. It will be guided by “the principles of the existing Agreements including parity of esteem”, which being translated means parity of esteem as between Britishness and Irishness! (Never forget Gerry Adams’s admission that equality is the Trojan horse of the entire republican strategy.) The Irish government may be consulted by the Commission! (Para 15).
Parading:
7. Patently, in breach of the Twaddell pledge, DUP and UUP have been negotiating on parading to the point that by June 2015 OFMDFM will bring forward proposals (para 18). Thereby, Sinn Fein’s veto is ring fenced and underscored by the requirement that “meaningful and sustained local dialogue” will be at the heart of any new regulatory system (para 19b). The rejected SF/DUP proposals from 2010 are probably being dusted down again. Instead of statutory primacy for freedom of assembly, the emphasis is on balancing competing rights with advantage tipped in favour of objectors through the focus on local dialogue (para 19).
7. Patently, in breach of the Twaddell pledge, DUP and UUP have been negotiating on parading to the point that by June 2015 OFMDFM will bring forward proposals (para 18). Thereby, Sinn Fein’s veto is ring fenced and underscored by the requirement that “meaningful and sustained local dialogue” will be at the heart of any new regulatory system (para 19b). The rejected SF/DUP proposals from 2010 are probably being dusted down again. Instead of statutory primacy for freedom of assembly, the emphasis is on balancing competing rights with advantage tipped in favour of objectors through the focus on local dialogue (para 19).
The Past:
8. Critically, in dealing with the past and with victims, there is no departure from the obscene definition of ‘victim’ presently applied, whereby there is equivalence between the innocent victim and the victim-maker. In consequence, the entire proposals on the past are tainted and flawed.
8. Critically, in dealing with the past and with victims, there is no departure from the obscene definition of ‘victim’ presently applied, whereby there is equivalence between the innocent victim and the victim-maker. In consequence, the entire proposals on the past are tainted and flawed.
9. Sinn Fein succeeded in its demand that ‘legacy inquests’ should continue separately from the new and inferior Historical Investigations Unit (HIU). (Para 31) Thus, the republican pursuit of the security forces can continue unabated.
10. When the OTR scandal broke the DUP said the Haass negotiations had in consequence been conducted in bad faith. However, though secrecy still surrounds who benefitted from the OTR letters and exercises of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, the DUP had no difficulty negotiating this time with Sinn Fein on the past!
11. The Agreement is silent on who will recruit the HIU and how. Nor, is it stated whether, as anticipated by Haass, former police officers will be barred from membership. It will, however, be overseen by Gerry Kelly and others on the Policing Board (para 38).
12. Sinn Fein, having got caught out in the Boston Tapes saga, has secured the major concession that any information obtained by the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval (ICIR) will not be admissible in either criminal or civil proceedings, nor provided to any law enforcement agency (para 46). So much for the pretence that the proposals on the past are victim centred and respectful of ‘upholding the rule of law’ and ‘facilitating the pursuit of justice’ (para 21)! Moreover, the ICIR can conceal all it wants to conceal because it will be immune from FOI requirements (para 47).
13. Thus, under the operation of the ICIR terrorists supplying information will have immunity, in that nothing they tell can ever be used against them. Indeed, whether they even tell the truth seems impossible of verification.
14. There is no compulsion on any terrorist group to cooperate with the ICIR.
15. Sinn Fein obtained its demand for a body to investigate themes, such as alleged collusion, by the establishment of the Implementation and Reconciliation Group (IRG), though reporting on same will be delayed for 5 years (para 51).
North/Southery:
16. More North/Southery is planned through agreeing new sectoral priorities for Belfast/Dublin cooperation by February 2015 and on an ongoing basis thereafter (para 70).
16. More North/Southery is planned through agreeing new sectoral priorities for Belfast/Dublin cooperation by February 2015 and on an ongoing basis thereafter (para 70).
17. A gear change in Dublin involvement is signalled by the convening every quarter of a meeting by London and Dublin to review and timetable implementation of the agreement, even though it deals primarily with the internal affairs of this part of the UK.