NI Assembly - Getting Priorities Right

Day Three of official business in the NI Assembly and already our MLAs are addressing the issues that impact on our lives - the CPA. I initially figured that this referred to the appointment of some accounting body to oversee their expenditure as they would want to be seen to be frugal in these challenging times. But I was mistaken.

How do trips to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Barbados or Montserrat appeal to you? Nice holiday destinations?.....well then membership of the CPA is just what you need. The CPA is the The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and membership is open to the national, provincial, state and territorial Parliaments and Legislatures of the countries of the Commonwealth. MLAs passed a motion to re-apply for membership in light of the return of devolved government.

But of course its not about the possibility of exotic trips that Northern Ireland is joining. There are serious political reasons why membership would be advantageous. Alban Maginness stated that "it is important that parliamentarians mix together and learn from one another." Well if one thing Northern Ireland politicians need it is lessons in how to mix together. They have spent the last 4 or 5 years avoiding all efforts to do just that (while continuing to take their salaries of course). All the better if this can be done in Sydney rather than Belfast. In addition over the course of the peace process our politicians have had direct contact with politicians like Albert Reynolds, John Major, Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, George Mitchell and Bill Clinton - but maybe they were not school days and they forget to learn anything from them.
Even more interesting was the contribution to the debate from Sean Neeson who argued that "it is time for the Government of the Republic of Ireland to consider joining the CPA in order that they can interact with the other major nations throughout the world"......and I thought that the Republic's membership of the EU and the United Nations already provided that opportunity....silly me.
Jim Wells did point out that any member Government that does not meet normal democratic standards is removed, with its membership suspended until democracy is restored. I wonder if the CPA might like to consider the fact that one of the first decisions of the NI Assembly was to exclude the Alliance Party from membership of the Review Committee, the committee charged with policing the actions of the devolved Government. By excluding any member from a party not already in Government they are not showing much of the democratic standards Mr. Wells aspires to.
At the outset of the debate Alban Maginness did argue that membership of the CPA should not be an exercise in junketing - well if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck I think its safe to assume its a duck.