Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The first item of business in the Assembly today was to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to consider the creation of a Bill of Rights. The House was not permitted to debate the motion even though Standing Orders place no prohibition on debate when it comes to the establishment of such a committee. Furthermore, there will be no follow-up motion to discuss the membership of this committee. The right to debate in a legislature before decisions are taken is fundamental. Sadly, denial of such debate is what passes for democracy in Stormont.
“We could well arrive at the farcical situation where an Ad Hoc Committee to deal with human rights issues could be peopled, in part, by human rights abusers. There may be put on this Committee, unknown to the Assembly and without debate, those who are human rights abusers by virtue of the fact that they are convicted terrorists.
“Yet this was nodded through the Assembly this morning with only myself dissenting when the establishment of the committee was put to an oral vote.
“It is worth recalling how the DUP once described a Bill of Rights “an expensive and unnecessary grievance charter which would remove decisions from the people, waste public money and distance Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK”. Yet today every DUP MLA was happy to sit on his or her hands while we not only took a step towards the creation of just such a Bill but opened the possibility of those who showed scant regard for the most fundamental human right – the right to life – taking up membership of the committee.”