A REFUSAL by the Orange Order to review a decision about a proposed new method of dealing with contentious parades will inevitably result in the reappointment of the North’s Parades Commission, DUP First Minister Peter Robinson has said.
Mr Robinson expressed “disappointment” yesterday evening that a quarterly meeting of the Grand Orange Lodge in Eglinton, Co Derry, on Saturday decided to maintain its opposition to proposals that would have resulted in the disbandment of the commission.
In July Grand Orange Lodge members, by 37 votes to 32, with four abstentions, rejected draft proposals to create a new system of dealing with contentious parades that would replace the Parades Commission.
The proposals were published in April by Mr Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and were agreed by a special group of DUP and Sinn Féin Assembly members. The proposals flowed from February’s Hillsborough Castle Agreement which mainly dealt with transferring policing and justice powers to the Stormont Executive.
The proposals would have replaced the Parades Commission with two bodies, the first which would have a mediation function. Where it failed, the second body would adjudicate on contentious parades.
DUP and senior Orange Order sources claimed that the proposals were rejected due to an “ambush of the DUP” by some Ulster unionist and Traditional Unionist Voice Orangemen on the Grand Orange Lodge.
A number of sources said that the new UUP leader, Tom Elliott, was forceful in leading opposition to the proposals although Mr Elliott has stated that rejection of the new system was not dictated by any hostility to the DUP.
Mr Robinson appeared to reserve some hope that Saturday’s quarterly meeting of the Orange Order leadership – which is staunchly opposed to the Parades Commission – might review the July decision. But a Grand Orange Lodge spokesman yesterday evening confirmed there would be no review.
“The Grand Orange Lodge’s position on parading is unchanged,” he said.
“I am disappointed by this outcome as considerable effort was made at Hillsborough to solve the issues around parades and protests,” said Mr Robinson.
“We had developed a new and improved framework to deal with parades. This framework was based on specifications outlined by the Orange Order,” he added.
The proposed legislative change would now remain in abeyance, he said. “It is disappointing that this legislation will not now be introduced and the inevitable consequence of this is that the Secretary of State [Owen Paterson] will reappoint the Parades Commission and regrettably, it will be given a new lease of life,” said Mr Robinson. “I see no advantage in moving from one system which the Orange Order does not engage with to another which, at the present time, does not have its support.”