LIVE: DUP deal to be fast-tracked as Stormont could sit as early as weekend - Belfast Live

Labour calls for Stormont reform

Labour peer Lord Murphy of Torfaen, a former Northern Ireland secretary, had earlier told the House of Lords: “I think he would agree that we don’t really want to see all this happening again. It has been two years since we have had an Assembly. Before than Sinn Fein brought down the Assembly.

“Is there a case would the minister agree that the parties in Northern Ireland, helped of course by the Government, would be able to try to devise a system which would ensure that greater stability would occur in Northern Ireland in years to come?”

Northern Ireland minister Lord Caine replied: “It is something personally that I think we will need to look at at some point and the Government has always made it very clear that the Belfast Good Friday Agreement has never been set in tablets of stone, that there is the capacity for it to evolve as it did at St Andrews’ in 2006, changes were made after the Stormont House agreement in 2014.”

He added that ministers had always been open to “sensible reforms” but said: “I think the priority for now has to be to get those institutions back up and running, established, functioning, supported by the financial package to finalise the programme for government and then to start tackling the really tough challenges the executive faces.”

Lord Caine hinted this could happen “very swiftly”, but gave no date for Stormont reconvening, adding: “One of the reasons why the other place (House of Commons) is debating the statutory instruments today, only a day after publication, is as a clear signal of our intent this moves as quickly as possible and we get the institutions back up and running in the shortest possible timeframe.”

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2024-02-01 14:21:00Z
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