NI Conservatives’ spokesman, Bill Manwaring, has accused Assembly members of abusing the ‘petition of concern’ mechanism, which triggers a cross community vote on certain issues. He made his comments after a petition of concern was tabled by nationalist MLAs, during a vote on extending the National Crime Agency (NCA) to Northern Ireland.
“Petitions of concern were intended to guard against sectarianism but, increasingly, they are used to block anything MLAs don’t like and to stop democracy”, Bill observed. “They are tabled routinely for more or less any issue, from upgrading the A5 dual carriageway, to debating gay marriage, to disputes between individual MLAs. It’s an abuse of process, which sectarianises the routine debates of day to day politics.”
“The National Crime Agency should be a vital partner for the PSNI in combating international crime in Northern Ireland. If it continues to be blocked for party political reasons then the public here will be more vulnerable to the effects of drugs smuggling, people trafficking and online abuse of children. A regional police force simply cannot be expected to deal with all these issues effectively, without back-up, and it is ridiculous to render people in Northern Ireland vulnerable to criminals because of parochial local concerns.”
“People from all parts of the community will be less safe if the NCA is unable to work in Northern Ireland and any attempt to portray the debate as ‘them vs. us’ is irresponsible in the extreme. MLAs at Stormont need to stop using petitions of concern in a completely inappropriate fashion, to block anything they happen to oppose.”