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The Northern Ireland Assembly is about to make the most far reaching change to the safeguards in NI’s decision making processes in over a decade narrowing the role of the Executive and it’s all based on a misreading of the case law ... a short thread 1/5
What’s at issue is the type of decision which requires Executive rather than Ministerial approval ... it’s a big deal in a mandatory coalition ... the fundamental change is predicated on a court judgment... note how the Explanatory Notes don’t reflect the actual judgment. 2/5
Re the explanatory notes and the relevant extract from the Buick judgment (above)... the EN ignores the statutory responsibility of DAERA and fails to highlight the Executive Office’s role in EU Directives wrongly implying this is a departure from previous case law. 3/5
But as can be seen from a range of earlier decisions the claim at para 9 of the EN (bottom right) doesn’t stand up to scrutiny... the cross cutting test has always been broadly drawn and variously described as ‘touches upon’ and ‘engages responsibility’ 4/5
The ‘cross cutting’ definition isn’t being clarified as is claimed: it’s being rewritten to apply a much higher bar to what issues come to the Executive leaving Ministers to take a whole range of important decisions without collective responsibility. 5/5
