Robinson: Stormont reform vital

Reforming Stormont’s mandatory coalition system of government in the North will be a key priority for the Democrat Unionists in the future, party leader Peter Robinson indicated today.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister told delegates at the DUP’s annual conference that he viewed the present arrangements as transitory, but he stressed they were still preferable to direct rule.

The 2006 St Andrews Agreement that paved the way to the restoration of power-sharing contains a requirement for MLAs to review the system in the coming years.

The DUP favours the eventual adoption of a voluntary coalition system to replace the current format where all the main parties must have a position in the ruling executive.

“For us the present arrangements are a transitional phase to a more normal form of democracy for Northern Ireland,” Mr Robinson told the party faithful at the event in the La Mon hotel in Belfast.

“That’s why we insisted at St Andrews, and had it incorporated in law, that the next Assembly would bring forward proposals on moving to a better form of devolved government.

“That’s a vital piece of work for the next mandate.

“And only the DUP can succeed in making the sort of changes that are needed.”

The party leader acknowledged 2010 had been a hard year for him personally.

Nearly 12 months ago he looked close to political collapse after it emerged his wife Iris had an affair with teenager Kirk McCambley.

Further revelations that she secured money from property developers to help her lover start a business threatened to shatter the Robinsons’ legacy.

At the height of the scandal, which attracted international attention, an ashen-faced Mr Robinson made a dramatic TV appearance where the strain of his wife’s actions, and her subsequent suicide bid, were clearly apparent.

His wife’s alleged failure to properly declare the £50,000 secured from two developers is now under investigation.

Mr Robinson, meanwhile, has faced major criticism for his handling of the episode.

“I’ll not deny that for me this has been my most testing year,” he said, thanking those who had supported him.

“But the real test of any person is not how they stand up in a gentle breeze but how they weather the battering when the relentless gales blow.”

Mr Robinson lost his Westminster seat to the Alliance party as the fall-out from the scandal rumbled on.

Today he said re-taking the east Belfast seat would be a priority at the next general election.

“And you can be absolutely certain that whenever the next Westminster election comes our number one target will be returning East Belfast to DUP hands,” he said.

Mr Robinson said much had been achieved since devolution was restored in 2007.

“Here in Northern Ireland next March, for the first time in 40 years, we will complete a full four-year term of devolution without suspensions and without the institutions collapsing,” he said.

“But we all know that while it’s a good start; it’s not enough.

“It represents the foundation for our future achievements. It is not the height of our aspirations.”

The East Belfast MLA also pledged to put the economy at the top of his agenda and reiterated his belief the Executive would agree a four-year budget to absorb the impact of £4 billion spending cuts.

“My number one priority in the next Assembly term is getting people back to work, revitalising our economy, providing support for those in greatest need and providing every citizen with a better way of life,” he said.

“That means growing the economy and providing opportunity for all.”

The party leader again stated his desire to end segregation in the region’s schools. A recent speech in which he described the current system – where Protestants and Catholics are broadly taught in different schools – as a “benign form of apartheid” provoked controversy and angered some within the Catholic education sector who portrayed it as an attack on faith-based education.

“The real question is how, together, we can achieve a shared society in Northern Ireland and how we create a better future for our children,” he said today.

“We must tackle, head-on, the causes of division. Not just for some short-term political gain but because it’s the right thing to do.

“I didn’t make a speech about shared education because I wanted a headline; I did it because I wanted to start a debate. I wanted to start a debate in order to create momentum for change. And I sought that process so that it might lead to a solution.

“Let me, without any hint or trace of a hidden political motive, invite those who have a case to be heard, to sit down calmly, as part of a wide-ranging review of our present arrangements, to consider how we might move to a structure which ends the separation of children at a formative age when life patterns are set and life-long friendships are made. Surely it is possible to have a rational discourse about this matter. I’m willing to engage. I hope others will have the courage to come forward.”

The DUP leader also insisted powersharing would not be derailed by violent dissident republicans.

“There are still dissident republicans who are active and dangerous,” he said.

“They undoubtedly have the potential to kill and to bomb, but they don’t have the ability to destroy the progress that has been achieved.

“Of all the Assembly’s achievements in the last four years none was more significant than the united reaction to the murder of the two soldiers and the police officer by dissident republicans in March 2009.

“If there was ever a moment that I was sure that we had taken the right decision in entering government, that was it.

“That was devolution at its strongest.

“Every party in the Executive and Assembly was united as one in opposition and condemnation.

“Unremarkable in any other part of the world but truly remarkable given what had gone before in Northern Ireland.”