Sinn Féin will ‘call in’ a controversial decision for Belfast to sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant, after a DUP motion passed on a knife edge at City Hall due to a casting vote by the Alliance Lord Mayor.
There were dramatic scenes during a debate at the January meeting of the full Belfast City Council, as the chamber was evenly split over a DUP proposal for City Hall to sign up to a covenant dedicated to ending disadvantages for former army servicemen and women, while giving them extra privileges.
Last month at committee level the DUP failed to get sufficient numbers to sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant due to resistance from nationalist parties.
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The party however succeeded during the full council meeting on Thursday in the most contentious fashion. On a vote to support the Armed Forces Covenant, 27 voted in favour, from the DUP, Alliance, the UUP and the TUV, while 27 voted against the proposal, from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, and People Before Profit. Three Green councillors abstained.
As is the protocol in an evenly split chamber, the Lord Mayor gets the casting vote, in this case Alliance Councillor Micky Murray, who went with his party and supported the Armed Forces Covenant.
Sinn Féin however cried foul, stating one of their councillors, Councillor Áine McCabe, who they said was involved in the council meeting remotely, had not gotten the chance to vote due to technical difficulties. Her vote would have led to a refusal to sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant.
After legal advice from the City Solicitor Nora Largey, the vote was upheld, and Sinn Féin said they would be “calling in” the decision. The two Nationalist parties then tried and failed to stop the Strategic Policy and Resources Committees minutes, where the original vote on the Covenant took place, from being signed off.
Call-ins involve an independent legal examination, and have to be delivered to the Chief Executive within five working days of the publication of the draft minutes or decision register. According to local government law, only 15 percent of a council is required to call-in a decision, setting off independent legal examination, a potential equality impact assessment, then a redetermination of the decision.
If the call-in is seen as competent, it will go back to the full council, where the original proposal has to then pass an 80 percent threshold of the vote to be successful.
Councillors have to give reasons for any call-in, explaining why they believe the decision “was not arrived at after a proper consideration of the relevant facts and issues” and why they believe the decision “would disproportionately affect adversely any section of the inhabitants of the district.”
At the very end of the vote on Thursday evening, Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie said he wanted a legal opinion on Councillor Áine McCabe’s uncast vote. Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy said last month DUP Councillor Fred Cobain had his vote counted despite casting it after the official vote.
Opposing parties called across the chamber at each other, against meeting rules, with the DUP stating Councillor Fred Cobain was at the previous council meeting, while Sinn Féin said he was not in the chamber.
DUP Alderman Dean McCullough said: “It would be making a mockery of the democracy in this city with the false equivalence of Councillor Cobain, who was sitting here for the debate and voted, and wasn’t heard.
“It is quite clear that Sinn Féin have seen the direction of this vote – we have seen them scramble for their phones. They weren’t on the call, nobody brought it up prior to the vote. Why were they not alerted to it earlier that somebody was trying to get on?
“We held a democratic vote and there was a democratic decision. If (Sinn Féin) are going to start that, then every month somebody can just log on whenever they please. It is ridiculous.”
The City Solicitor Nora Largey said: “In the circumstances, because it did appear Councillor McCabe did have some difficulties in accessing the meeting, she may not have been present for the whole entire debate, and in those circumstances it would be my advice that she wouldn’t then take part in the vote in any event. The vote was recorded after the vote count had concluded.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie said: “We do not accept that advice and we will be calling this in.” Further questions were raised by Sinn Féin on elected members voting remotely on “chat” without cameras on, and by the DUP on elected members voting in “other languages” without giving an English translation.
The Armed Forces Covenant website states: “(Our) two principles are that, recognising the unique obligations of and sacrifices made by the armed forces, that those who serve in the armed forces, whether regular or reserve, and those who have served in the past and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. (Also that) special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.”
The covenant promotes those who serve or served in the armed forces “pay less or nothing” for certain goods and services, and are “eligible for goods or services that aren’t available to others.” It also suggests those who serve or served in the armed forces “are more easily able to access goods or services,” that they “receive higher quality goods or services” and “take less time to receive goods or services.”
The website states the “Covenant Legal Duty” is a “legal obligation on certain public bodies (including local authorities, governing bodies of certain state schools, various NHS bodies, and other organisations) to have due regard to the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant when carrying out certain functions in healthcare, education and housing. It has been in force since November 2022.”