Letters to the editor: Should MP’s speak down south?

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast at counting in the Northern Ireland Assembly Election.

For the first time in Northern Ireland’s 100-year history, a republican party has come out on top in elections to its Assembly, while a middle-ground increasingly transferring to parties favouring constitutional change has seen a huge surge in votes. Given clear growing interest both North and South in preparing for reunification, is now not the time to extend speaking rights in the Dáil to Northern representatives?

While allowing Northern MPs to speak in the Dáil would itself constitute a reaffirmation of the Irish Government’s commitment to deepening all-island relations in the interest of reunification, the extension of speaking rights is also demanded by the present political situation north of the border. With the DUP’s deeply irresponsible refusal to form an Executive following the electoral success of Sinn Féin and the Alliance party, the people of Northern Ireland are left without any clear voice just as Westminster moves to unilaterally alter the NI protocol against the majority’s expressed wishes.