Tag: DUP

The press release issued by the DUP on 18 October 2022.

DUP East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell has led a debate in Westminster Hall regarding access to British passports for people born in the Irish Republic but now living in Northern Ireland.

Mr Campbell said,

“This issue unites people of all backgrounds in Northern Ireland with the DUP, SDLP, Alliance, Conservatives and Labour all agreed that it needs resolved. It is uncontroversial with everyone except, the Home Office. It was first raised by me in 2005 via a private members bill which had insufficient parliamentary time but remains unsolved.

People in Northern Ireland can be British, Irish or Northern Irish. Residents in Northern Ireland can apply for an Irish passport with no additional cost or form filling, yet people born in the Republic of Ireland but have chosen to then live in Northern Ireland, cannot have similar access to a British passport.

The law in the UK makes provision for anyone born before 1949 in the Republic of Ireland with associations with the UK to become a British subject.

Those born in the Republic after 1949, even if they have lived in the UK all their lives since, paying UK taxes all their lives, voting in UK elections, sitting in the House of Lords, cannot avail of a British passport without going through the expensive procedure of applying for naturalisation, current cost around £1,330.

It is incredible that no naturalisation fee is required to secure an Irish passport, yet it requires such a fee to secure a British passport. This is a disgraceful position to have left people in who demand to be recognised as British. The Minister needs to reassess the Home Office’s approach to this and remedy a continuing wrong as a matter of urgency.”

The press release issued by the DUP on 17 October 2022.

Following the Chancellor’s statement on Monday, the DUP’s East Antrim MP and Treasury spokesman Sammy Wilson has called for more information on energy supports as well as help for the hospitality sector.

Sammy Wilson said,

“The United Kingdom needs stability. These are serious matters where families are looking at hard-hitting fuel and energy bills whilst also concerned about interest rates and their borrowing commitments.

The mini budget last month was flawed and badly communicated. Whilst it had some positive news for struggling working families, it failed to place a proper windfall tax on energy generators who were making massive profits. Such a windfall tax could have helped pay for some of the commitments being made. It was also a mistake to focus on banker’s bonus changes and cut the 45p tax rate.

Whilst it is welcome that the National Insurance rise will still be reversed, the income tax cut being removed will be difficult news for working families. We will also need to see more detail about how energy supports will be targeted after April 2023.

The widening corporation tax differential between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is also a matter of concern. I am particularly concerned at the impact this will have on investment.

If this budget is about economic growth and stability, then one of the sectors most badly affected by a downfall in discretionary expenditure is the hospitality industry. They are rightly pressing for VAT to be reduced to 5% and we support them in this effort as we see more and more small hospitality businesses close their doors.”

The press release issued by the DUP on 16 October 2022.

DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP will meet Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Belfast on Monday. Speaking ahead of the meeting, Sir Jeffrey said:

“We must lay solid foundations if we are to move forward. We need to clear away the debris of the Protocol years. We need to restore cross-community consensus. No unionist MLAs support the Protocol. Therefore, it must be replaced by arrangements that unionists can support. This is essential if the political institutions are to function and succeed.

Brussels must loosen the guide ropes for their negotiating team so a proper renegotiation can take place. The persistent refusal to change their negotiating mandate has been an impediment over the last two years to securing an outcome that unionists can support.

The Protocol continues to bedevil us, with businesses and consumers reporting further problems each week. A 25% tariff on steel, driving up transport costs by almost 30% and uncertainty over medicine and veterinary supplies. The checks, however, on the Irish Sea border are but a symptom of the problem. They are the product of Northern Ireland being subject to a different set of laws imposed upon us by a foreign entity without any say or vote by any locally elected representative.

In the future, as Great Britain moves in a different direction on aid or taxation, Northern Ireland will face further new barriers because we are tied to a different set of laws.

If we can secure a better way forward, then there is a great prize of stable devolved government but without decisive action in Dublin and Brussels then the Protocol will continue to erode the foundations of Stormont. Devolution requires the support of unionists as well as nationalists if it is to function and succeed.”

The press release issued by the DUP on 14 October 2022.

The Democratic Unionist Party welcomes the news that Peter Weir is to become a Life Peer sitting in the House of Lords. The conferment of this peerage is rightful recognition of the significant contribution and public service given by Peter over a twenty-four year period as an MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

DUP Leader Rt Hon Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP said,

“On behalf of our party and indeed many throughout Northern Ireland I welcome this recognition for Peter. Peter Weir has given a lifetime of service to his constituents and to the Pro-Union cause in Northern Ireland. He will be a very welcome addition to our Parliamentary team in the House of Lords as well as a strong advocate for Northern Ireland and the Pro-Union cause throughout the United Kingdom.

I am also delighted that our friend and former First Minister Rt Hon Dame Arlene Foster has been conferred a peerage and will sit in the Lords. Arlene will be a strong voice for Northern Ireland and this is rightful and worthy recognition for her contribution and service to Northern Ireland. We look forward to working closely with her in the time ahead.”

Mr Peter Weir said,

“I am very honoured and humbled to be appointed to the House of Lords as a nominee of the DUP. At Westminster, I will be operating as a full time working Peer, advocating on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, and promoting the great cause of the Union.

Northern Ireland needs stability and prosperity, and alongside my colleagues at Westminster, the Assembly and local Councils, I will focus on delivering those twin objectives, particularly through the necessary removal of the Protocol, which acts as a barrier to good governance and the economic well-being of our people.”

I am very grateful to my many friends and colleagues who have supported and worked with me over many years and with the opening of this new chapter I am pleased to have the opportunity to serve the people of Northern Ireland in Parliament.”

The press release issued by the DUP on 13 October 2022.

DUP North Antrim MP Ian Paisley has warned the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg that question marks over the future of devolution in Northern Ireland will continue to exist for as long as Brussels ignores the concerns of Unionists in relation to the Protocol.

Commenting after Thursday’s sitting, in which he responded to a report claiming Brexit has led to a ‘backsliding’ on human rights protections in Northern Ireland, Mr Paisley said:

‘‘There has been no reversal of human rights in Northern Ireland.

The European Convention was enshrined in Northern Ireland law by Sections 6 and 24 of the 1998 Act. This does not depend on the Human Rights Act or being a member of the European Union. There is also no absolute commitment to a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights in either the Belfast Agreement or New Decade New Approach and it is clear that any agreement at all is to be reached through consensus. In addition, the Government’s legislation on the Protocol would not alter any of its current obligations in this area.

The authors of this report should accept these facts but instead they are more interested in listening to the Sinn Fein spin and playing on the fears of people across Northern Ireland.

It is striking that there is not a single reference in this report to the immense damage caused by the Protocol to the cross-community consent principle that is foundational to power-sharing. It is as if the concerns of Unionism don’t exist. The report even has the audacity to suggest that in Northern Ireland ‘‘the general population is not really worried about the Protocol.’’

If there is to be a basis for stable government in Northern Ireland in the future, this sort of hostility to the legitimate concerns of Unionism must end. In fact we would be keen to know which Unionists, if any, the rapporteur of this report met during his fact-finding visit to Northern Ireland.

The Protocol does not ‘‘respect the constitutional order of the United Kingdom.’’ In truth, it alters and attacks Northern Ireland’s constitution position in the United Kingdom. This Party has a mandate to seek the restoration of our place in the UK internal market, and if necessary, we will go to the electorate and ensure that mandate is renewed.

The DUP is committed to ensuring these concerns can no longer be viewed as expendable. Unless legitimate concern about the Protocol is placed front and centre of the latest round of talks, that process will simply default to an echo chamber, casting the future of the devolved institutions further into jeopardy.’’

The press release issued by the DUP on 5 October 2022.

East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said,

“The misnamed ‘Ireland’s future’ event held in Dublin is yet another exercise in navel gazing by many of the usual suspects who will no doubt be salivating and ruminating over Northern Ireland’s census figures. What the wider public can be sure of is that they won’t examine the real world of our two Countries here on the Island of Ireland and what the future holds for both of us.

The reason any Unionist Utopia could not materialise in the 1970’s or 80’s when Total Integration within the UK was being mooted as devolution looked a lost cause was not because there wouldn’t have been a majority for it, there would have been. It was because whatever degree of democratic legitimacy UK total integration might have been given at the ballot box it couldn’t and wouldn’t have worked because are large sections of Northern Ireland society where it would not have been supported or even given acquiescence. In hundreds of irish republican estates, villages and towns there would have been outright opposition and more. Until the reality of that outcome and the words ‘Total Integration within the UK’ and Irish Republican’ are replaced with ‘United or Agreed Ireland’ and ‘Unionist’ sinks into the minds of those attending this event they are wasting their time.

Many of the politicos attending demanded an end to majority rule in Northern Ireland for many years, that has arrived as the Census has proven and the future for Northern Ireland demands consensus and agreement, the ultimate irony is many of them campaigned for that ending of majority rule, and they now must face up to what it means here in the real world.”

The press release issued by the DUP on 6 October 2022.

DUP East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell has challenged the Republic of Ireland’s Tánaiste Leo Varadkar after he said “there is no hard border between north and south”.

Mr Campbell said,

“He should apologise for distributing news stories from the 30 years ago and ever suggesting there would be soldiers on border checkpoints. No one was ever suggesting that. Even if someone wanted to build a “hard” border it would be physically impossible but of course the border which does exist between Northern Ireland and the Republic is one that does not disadvantage people here.

The Republic has a different corporation tax rate, a different fuel duty rate, a different income tax rate, a different education system and a different currency. Those living in RoI pay for their medical treatment whereas in Northern Ireland we have a National Health Service which is free at the point of need.”

Noting the change in language Mr Campbell said,

“Two years ago Dublin was saying we needed the Protocol “rigorously implemented” and there could be no changes, it is a pity they hadn’t recognised the concerns of unionists two years and more progress could have been made back then, we need to see action not just warm words”