NI Conservatives’ spokesperson, Bill Manwaring, has warned the Republic of Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Eamon Gilmore, to “mind his own business” when it comes to a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.
“The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission failed spectacularly to draft a bill which reflects ‘the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland’”, Bill noted. “Its advice disregarded existing national and international rights protection, it was founded on unrealistic expectations and, worst of all, it strayed far beyond the remit laid down in the Good Friday Agreement.”
“The mind boggles as to why Eamon Gilmore feels the need to come to Belfast and flog this dead horse. One would have thought that the Republic’s government had more pressing concerns than this completely inappropriate intervention.”
“Human rights are important of course, and there is an argument for particular provisions, relevant to Northern Ireland, to be defined in a UK wide bill of rights and responsibilities. However the NIHRC which Gilmore champions, and the industry which surrounds it, has concocted an outrageously political wish-list, which impinges upon socioeconomic matters.”
“Such a bill will never be acceptable. The Republic’s government would never enact such a bill south of the border and it is completely unacceptable for its foreign minister to lobby on behalf of the NIHRC in Northern Ireland.”