THE FIRST meeting of the new Stormont Assembly returned Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness as First Minister and Deputy First Minister yesterday, but proceedings were unsettled by Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister.
Mr Allister made clear that he intended to challenge the general consensus among the other 107 Assembly members with taunts about the “depravity” of “IRA/Sinn Féin” and of the DUP striking a “sordid deal” with Sinn Féin.
The Assembly also returned DUP MLA for Foyle William Hay as speaker, although he will hand over this position to Sinn Féin in three years’ time as part of a deal between the parties. Three MLAs were elected as deputy speakers – Francie Molloy of Sinn Féin, John Dallat of the SDLP and Roy Beggs of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Discussions are continuing between the main parties to decide who will be appointed Ministers when the Assembly meets again on Monday.
Mr McGuinness proposed Mr Hay for the speaker’s post and Mr Robinson seconded him. This prompted Mr Allister to say Mr Hay was the nominee of “IRA/Sinn Féin” and that Sinn Féin and the DUP had struck a “sordid deal”.
He claimed that previously Mr Hay “made several pro-Sinn Féin rulings, several anti-freedom of speech rulings, and sought to block the telling of the truth about individuals such as “Bomber Kelly “who sits in this house” – the latter a reference to the previous Sinn Féin junior Minister Gerry Kelly who was convicted of the 1973 IRA Old Bailey bombings in London.
On Mr Molloy’s appointment as deputy speaker, Mr Allister said: “Now we can look forward to a new depravity in the arrangements of this house when in 2014 a member of IRA/Sinn Féin takes over the leadership of this house.”
He failed in his efforts to force a vote on Mr Molloy’s appointment because he could not get a second teller to check the votes, as required under standing orders.
Mr McGuinness and Mr Robinson spoke positively about the prospects and opportunities ahead, with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister insisting that Mr Allister would not disrupt operations at Stormont.
In making this point Mr Robinson also made sardonic reference to how Mr Allister, when elected, said he would be a “thorn in the flesh of the DUP/Sinn Féin coalition”.
“I want to make it clear that there are those outside who think that they can disturb the will of the people through terrorism, and there might even be some inside who think that they will do it by political means,” said Mr Robinson. “To all of them I say, ‘I’ll be a thorn in the flesh of anyone who would try and disrupt the democratic will of the people of Northern Ireland’,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott has issued qualified apologies after describing Sinn Féin supporters as “scum”.
