Bill to cut Stormont departments gets green light
Legislation to reduce the number of Stormont departments from 12 to nine has cleared the final hurdle in the Assembly.
The DUP has said the change will create a more efficient government but the SDLP has warned against letting departments come to a standstill as the new bodies took time to bed in.
The number of offices will reduce after the May elections under the Departments Bill, a pledge of the Fresh Start Agreement, which passed its final stage on Tuesday.
The new departments will be, agriculture, environment and rural affairs; infrastructure; economy; education; finance; health; justice; executive office and communities.
DUP junior minister Emma Pengelly said: “It shows our commitment to a leaner, more efficient structure of government here.
“This is a good day for government in Northern Ireland. This is a good day for a better way of doing business and it is a good day for delivery.”
SDLP West Belfast MLA Alex Attwood said he supported change but also urged caution.
“We support the reduction of the number of departments, we’ll be supporting the creation of an opposition in law because there is a need for reform,” he commented.
“But you also need to protect core elements of the power-sharing arrangements, whilst we change and reform, we also need to protect the core elements.
“At the end of the day, people will judge this place, whatever the structures, on the quality of government.
“We need to make sure the new departments, which are bigger, don’t end in paralysis, but ends in new intervention, new initiative and new and better government.”
Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle was critical of other parties for not supporting his party’s amendment on separate legislation which would have seen the number of MLAs reduced in time for the upcoming election.
He said: “We are in the strange situation of the parties having agreed to this reduction already but while Alliance wants to see it carried out now, others are holding off until 2021. Why agree to do something but wait five years to implement it?
“Estimates are it would save the taxpayer around £2.2 million each year, or £11 million per Assembly term, in wages, expenses and office costs.
“That effectively means 75 more police officers or 90 more nurses each year. In a time of austerity, there is no need to potentially wait five years before that money is put back into the public purse.
“A population the size of Northern Ireland does not need a legislature as large as the one we currently have. It is disappointing other parties decided to act in self-preservation and not follow Alliance’s lead to carry out much-needed reform, while still ensuring representation for smaller parties.”
The prospect of an opposition was also discussed during the meeting of Assembly members, with no agreement reached on a way forward for that.
Sinn Féin MLA Catríona Ruane claimed the formation of an opposition could undermine the Good Friday Agreement by leading to majority rule.
“It would lead to majoritarianism and potentially undermine the Good Friday,” she said.
“There are many things we can support in his Bill but we don’t believe we need legislation to do it.
“The Fresh Start provisions for an official opposition we believe is the best and most appropriate approach.”
Ulster Unionist MLA Danny Kennedy said: “People don’t want to go back to majority-style rule.
“I hear no one advocating such a position and therefore I think the concerns about community designation are something of a misnomer.”
The mechanisms contained in the bill would lead to the largest nationalist and biggest unionist party forming a coalition.
All other parties would then be likely to form an opposition bloc, as opposed to the situation at present, where all five main parties are part of the Executive.
