Sir, – Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that it would be "undemocratic" for the DUP to refuse to take seats in a new Northern Ireland Executive (News, May 3rd).
Can we take it then that Mr Martin would favour tearing up the 2016 “Fresh Start” agreement which allows parties to go into opposition in the Assembly?
Or does he believe that it is tenable to insist that the DUP – and only the DUP – must be forced to enter government?
More fundamentally, however, a political party can do whatever it wishes with its electoral mandate, and this includes deciding whether or not to go into government.
If voters don’t like the decisions parties make then they’re free to vote for someone else at the next election. But the simple fact that a party has received a substantial electoral mandate does not mean there is an obligation on them to enter government.
In 2016, the then-taoiseach Enda Kenny asked Fianna Fáil to enter government with Fine Gael as equal partners, an offer which Mr Martin quickly refused. Does he now believe that this was an “undemocratic” decision on his own part? Does a different standard apply to Fianna Fáil than to the DUP?
Sinn Féin, which refuses to take its seats in the House of Commons, is now excoriating the DUP for its possible refusal to take its seats in the Executive. You have to wonder how they can maintain this position with a straight face, but they have now been given some helpful covering fire by Mr Martin.
The only “undemocratic” features of the Northern Ireland institutions are its bizarre system of compulsory government which strangles proper political accountability, and the regular need for ministers in Dublin, London and further afield to constantly mediate between a group of grown adults who are members of the same government, as parents might coddle and soothe squabbling children.
It’s high time that the political parties and institutions in Northern Ireland were given a dose of cold hard political reality, and either sorted out their own problems or face being closed down for good. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
A chara, – The Northern Ireland Assembly is run like a game of musical chairs where everyone has a chair. On occasion when the music stops some parties decide not to take their seats and so bring the game to an early finish.
Let’s see what music is playing when the count is finished. – Is mise,
DERMOT
O’ROURKE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.