THE SDLP has insisted it will resist any attempts by the DUP to dilute or do away with the North-South Ministerial Council.
Assembly member Alban Maginness said ahead of a debate on the future of the council in the Assembly today that the DUP was attempting to “chip away” at the Belfast Agreement.
DUP MPs David Simpson and the Rev William McCrea have tabled the motion which notes the impact of global economic conditions and the “relatively positive relationship” with the Republic; it calls on the “Executive to consider whether the North-South Ministerial Council is of any value to the people of Northern Ireland”.
The motion follows new year comments by DUP First Minister Peter Robinson last month which also questioned the value of the council.
Mr Simpson told supporters in Fermanagh at the weekend that the DUP had always maintained that sensible North-South co-operation was desirable but that “Belfast Agreement-style North-South co-operation delivered by the UUP, SDLP and Sinn Féin was never acceptable to the DUP because it was characterised by free-standing institutions which were not accountable to the people of Northern Ireland”.
“That is why the DUP worked tirelessly through political negotiation to bring all North-South co-operation under the control of the members of the Northern Ireland Assembly,” he added.
He said the motion was designed to save the taxpayers of Northern Ireland expenditure which could be redirected into front-line services such as schools, hospitals, roads and much-needed economic infrastructure.
SDLP Assembly member Alban Maginness, however, said it was clear that the DUP was attempting to erode the all-Ireland structures of the Belfast Agreement. “The DUP are attempting to shape the new political world in the image of the old that elements of unionism knew and loved,” he said.
He said the SDLP would not allow the DUP to chip away at the Belfast Agreement, particularly its all-Ireland dimension.