{"id":62109,"date":"2025-04-30T05:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T05:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/62109\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T05:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T05:25:12","slug":"three-first-ministers-among-potential-options-for-stormont-reform-queens-university-event-hears-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/62109\/","title":{"rendered":"Three \u2018first ministers\u2019 among potential options for Stormont reform, Queen\u2019s University event hears \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A third \u2018first minister\u2019 in the Northern Ireland Executive is among a number of suggested changes to the devolved institutions<\/a>, an event exploring options for Stormomt reform has heard.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Reform of Stormont: Options for Discussion\u2019 event took place at Queen\u2019s University Belfast (QUB) <\/a>on Monday evening. <\/p>\n

It explored the contents of a recently published report from the Constitution Unit at University College London (UCL)<\/a>, which outlined options for reform. <\/p>\n

More: <\/b>Sinn F\u00e9in and DUP fail to support MPs\u2019 Stormont reform recommendations<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Council<\/a>\"Belfast<\/a><\/p>\n

The paper was inspired by the \u201cgrowing\u201d talk around possible reforms to the institutions<\/a>, concerns around repeated collapse and criticism of government delivery. <\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly are joint heads of the Executive. (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

It comes as the Assembly and Executive Reform Committee (AERC) agreed to seek written evidence<\/a> around reform from the Irish and UK governments, as well as the potential for future public consultations. <\/p>\n

A report previously published in 2023 by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) at Westminster <\/a>recommended renaming the positions of first and deputy first ministers as \u2018joint first ministers\u2019 and electing the Assembly speaker with a two-thirds majority. <\/p>\n

The new UCL report objectively examined these suggestions as well as others, including the possibility of having three first ministers \u2013 one for each designation of nationalist, unionist and \u2018other\u2019. <\/p>\n

The current joint nature of the office was seen as \u201coperationalising\u201d the parity of esteem between the dominant unionist and nationalist blocs post-1998, however it noted that society is no longer as \u201cbinary\u201d as it once was. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat fact invites the question whether the current arrangement remains desirable, with parity of esteem appearing not to be granted to those not belonging to the two largest designations,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n

\"PrimeThen-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris meeting the First and Deputy First Ministers along with the restored Executive ministers in 2024. (Kelvin Boyes\/Press Eye\/Kelvin Boyes\/Press Eye\/PA Wire) <\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, it has been the \u2018others\u2019 who have thereby been disadvantaged. But it could in future be either nationalists or unionists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report suggests that a move to one First Minister could divert the focus from who leads government and place it on the Executive as a whole. <\/p>\n

It suggested that the role could rotate between political parties, like the previous coalition arrangement between Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael in the Republic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

However, it added that if this were not possible, having three First Ministers from each designation would be \u201canother logical alternative\u201d. <\/p>\n

It highlighted that it could \u201cmake the system more representative\u201d but that it could also \u201cgo beyond what was equitable\u201d given the two prominent blocs continue to receive the majority of votes at almost 70%. <\/p>\n

Any such move would also require reform to voting weight for the \u2018other\u2019 designation in the Assembly or could involve abolishing the cross-community vote. <\/p>\n

The change was just one of a number of potential changes which were assessed in the UCL report. <\/p>\n

It did not offer judgements on which proposals would be best, but rather aimed to \u201cenable structured and informed debate on reform ideas\u201d by presenting the proposals in a \u201cnon-partisan and objective manner\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A third \u2018first minister\u2019 in the Northern Ireland Executive is among a number of suggested changes to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[5491,1144,29728,2963,11191,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-62109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-executive","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-queen-s-university","11":"tag-report","12":"tag-stormont","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114425254721566495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}