By David Young, PA
A UK government intervention on abortion laws in Northern Ireland will damage the credibility of powersharing, Jeffrey Donaldson has warned.
The DUP leader’s comments came ahead of an anticipated announcement from UK Secretary of State Brandon Lewis this week on the ongoing stand-off over the rollout of services in the region.
Abortion laws in Northern Ireland were liberalised in 2019 following legislation passed by Westminster at a time when devolution in the region had collapsed.
However, while individual health trusts are currently offering services on a limited and ad hoc basis, the Department of Health has yet to centrally commission the services due to an ongoing impasse within the Executive.
Ulster Unionist Health Minister Robin Swann has maintained he cannot centrally commission services without the approval of the wider five-party coalition Executive, insisting it is his legal responsibility to refer controversial or significant decisions to the other ministers.
However, for such a proposal to secure Executive approval, or even get on the agenda for a ministerial discussion, the two main parties – the DUP and Sinn Féin – must both agree to it.
The anti-abortion DUP has to date blocked consideration of the commissioning issue at the Executive.
In March, the UK government intervened to hand Mr Lewis new powers to direct the region’s Department of Health to commission the services.
The Northern Ireland Secretary has not acted on those powers since that move but he is expected to outline his future intentions on the matter before Parliament goes into summer recess at the end of this week.
Mr Donaldson said the Executive, and not the UK government, should be taking decisions on what is a devolved issue.
He indicated his support for an Executive sub-committee to examine the issues around commissioning of services.
“I think that the Secretary of State in those circumstances should enable or allow the Executive to get on with the work that it has been elected to do and to consider these most sensitive of issues,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I just don’t think that it helps devolution and the credibility of our political institutions when the Westminster government is constantly going over our heads and imposing things that are properly a matter for our local electoral representatives to take decisions on.”
The DUP leader said it is important for locally elected ministers to try to find consensus on the issue.
“The Executive is supposed to operate on a consensus basis and therefore, when it comes to even the most sensitive of issues, there’s a need to try and get consensus,” he said.
“It’s not right that some impose their views on others.”
