St Andrews Agreement: Plan B

Four years on from the St Andrews deal, Peter Cheney analyses the alternative to devolution.

With devolution now secure, the idea of an alternative seems a distant thought. However, it is well known that both governments were drawing up a Plan B if the Assembly was not restored.

The prime ministers’ joint statement on 6 April 2006 suggests that work on “British-Irish partnership arrangements” got under way in that month. Blair and Ahern promised “a step-change in advancing North/South co-operation and action for the benefit of all” within the Good Friday Agreement.

A work plan for the political process, published on 29 June, set 24 November 2006 as the deadline to restore devolution. If that failed, the alternative would be announced at a December 2006 summit.

The St Andrews Agreement set the devolution deadline back to 26 March 2007 but there is no doubt that it also raised the stakes.

“Failure to agree to establish the Executive will lead to immediate dissolution of the Assembly,” the agreement warned, “as will failure to agree at any stage, and the Governments will take forward new partnership arrangements on the basis previously announced.”

Neither the DUP nor Sinn Féin fully endorsed the agreement by a 20 November deadline, but the timetable continued. Martin McGuinness was nominated as deputy First Minister on 24 November but Ian Paisley refused to join him. Sinn Féin supported “civic policing” on 28 January but opposed “political policing”.

“We have prepared new partnership arrangements in the event they are required,” the prime ministers stated in January 2007, implying that final hard copies were ready at that point.

The Assembly elections on 7 March went ahead on schedule but no potential ministers were nominated on 14 March. Power was therefore not devolved on

26 March but the DUP-Sinn Féin agreement, on that date, ensured that it would happen on 8 May.

Each of these failures technically should have resulted in the Assembly’s collapse. However, the governments saw success even if failure seemed obvious and insisted that the process must move on.

Aside from the main political goals i.e. policing and devolution, progress on St Andrews commitments has been very slow. Most of the outstanding items are promises to nationalists by the British Government. As the powers to deliver them are devolved, the pledges can now only be fulfilled with unionist support e.g. an Irish Language Act, Single Equality Bill.

Confidential

In reply to a freedom of information query, NIO officials say that releasing these documents would not be in the public interest. Three reasons were put forward.

Irish Government officials had shared confidential information with the NIO. If this information were released, the Irish side would probably be more reluctant to share information in future, which may damage relations between the two governments.

Civil servants in other government departments, either in Whitehall or Stormont, also helped the NIO. Disclosure could affect those working relationships too.

Releasing details could also have “an impact on the positive working relationship between the UK Government and devolved administration”. This suggests that a published Plan B may cause tension between the NIO and the Executive parties.

Despite its refusal, the NIO did say that “disclosure would provide greater transparency and accountability and increased levels of public interest and trust” in how policy was developed.

Separately, NIO and Irish Government officials met 25 times and held four video conferences between 28 March 2006 and 6 March 2007. Most of the meetings, 16 in all, took place in London and would therefore have been hosted by the NIO. However, it claims that “no formal agendas or minutes” were kept.

Practicalities

With no Assembly, there could be no Executive or North/South Ministerial Council. The British-Irish Council had continued as it involved five other governments but it had no executive power.

The Irish Government’s involvement would have reflected the North/South strand in the Good Friday Agreement, to satisfy nationalists. Joint sovereignty was out of the question due to the Good Friday Agreement’s referendum guarantee but joint decisions could be carried out through UK laws.

The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference could easily have provided summit meetings for making those decisions. No summit has taken place since January 2007 but its joint secretariat in Windsor House (pictured) continues as a formal contact point between the NIO and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

Among the parties, the DUP has given the most vivid picture of Plan B in practice:

• a ban on academic selection;

• an Irish Language Act;

• higher regional rates; and

• water charges.

Indeed, water bills were to be sent out at the start of April 2007 but were cancelled at the last minute. Carrying forward the original Review of Public Administration would also have meant:

• a single health and social services authority (from April 2008);

• a single education and skills authority (from April 2008); and

• seven powerful super-councils (from 2009).

Public pressure to restore devolution would certainly have intensified. Peter Hain, though, had pledged to make direct rule more accountable in Parliament. Orders would be properly debated in the same way as Bills, with proper committee scrutiny. Labour’s majority would, however, normally win.

No further light can be shed for now, unless there is a leak or revelation in ministerial memoirs. Plan B could stay under lock and key until the 30-year-rule releases Cabinet archives in 2036 or 2037.

Meetings between Northern Ireland Office and Irish Government officials
Date	Location
2006
28 March	London
30 March	Dublin
4 April	Videoconference (London-Dublin)
11 April	Belfast
9 May	Videoconference (London-Dublin)
18 May	Hillsborough
13 June	Videoconference (London-Dublin)
19 June	Belfast
21 June	London
26 June	Hillsborough
19 July	London
24 July	Belfast
11 September	Dublin
20 September	Dublin
27 September	Videoconference (London-Dublin)
6 October	London
10 October	London
20 October	London
21 October	Belfast
1 November	London
8 November	London
31 November	London
2007
10 January	London
24 January	London
6 February	London
19 February	London
27 February (twice)	London
6 March	London

St Andrews progress report

Achieved

– Support for policing (January 2007)

– Devolution (May 2007)

– Parading review report (April 2008)

– Victims Commissioners (June 2008)

– British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (October 2008)

– Justice devolution (April 2010)

Not achieved

– British-Irish Council Standing Secretariat

– Irish Language Act

– North/South Consultative Forum

– North/South Parliamentary Forum

– Single Equality Bill