Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully appreciate what you have just said, Chair, about this House not being in command of what happens at committees, let alone joint committees, but I do want to make the point that joint committees cannot be a no-man's land and standards must be upheld by both Houses in joint committees, one way or the other.

What I want to raise today is the possibility that the Leader would organise a substantial debate in the coming weeks, not just an hour-long one, to consider the outcome of the elections in Northern Ireland. We do not know what the outcome will be, but we are clear on one thing, that is, that there are significant structural problems within the political system in Northern Ireland.

I want to draw the House's attention to an article in today's edition of The Irish Timesby a unionist commentator, Newton Emerson. He makes a fair point which we should look at: that the votes of those people who vote for non-aligned groups in Northern Ireland - non-nationalist or non-unionist parties - effectively are devalued because the people whom they elect labour under the disadvantage that they are second-class citizens when it comes to determining who becomes First Minister and deputy First Minister or whether an administration is formed in Northern Ireland at all. That is something we must address.

I would like to have the opportunity to discuss that. Whether the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, or Sinn Féin is the largest party - who knows how it will all end up - nobody in Northern Ireland should have a veto. Nobody should be in a position, in the case of the DUP, to withhold consent to the creation of an administration. Nobody in Sinn Féin should be in a position to procure the suspension of the arrangements on issues such as the Irish language. We need a more robust democracy in Northern Ireland. I would very much appreciate if the Leader could arrange a reflective discussion on the outcome of the Assembly elections when the dust has settled, and the votes have all been counted.