Hain appoints committee chairman
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain today appointed the Stormont Assembly's two deputy speakers to chair a crucial committee preparing for the return of devolved government.
After a week of deadlock between unionists, nationalists and cross-community politicians on who should chair the Preparation for Government Committee, Mr Hain decided to take the decision himself.
He said: "I would have preferred not to have had to issue a decision on this procedural matter."
Deputy Speakers Jim Wells of the Democratic Unionist Party and Francie Molloy of Sinn Féin will chair the committee which has been tasked with identifying issues ahead of the November 24 deadline for the return of a power-sharing government.
Assembly members on the committee last week rowed over how the committee should be chaired.
The Democratic Unionists had wanted Stormont Speaker Eileen Bell to take charge of the committee.
She refused, seeking legal advice to back her refusal.
The other parties on the committee - Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, the SDLP and the cross-community Alliance Party - suggested that the chairmanship should be rotated between all the parties but that was vetoed by the DUP.
Mr Hain issued a direction to the Assembly speaker today calling a meeting of the Preparation for Government Committee at 4pm and announcing that Mr Wells and Mr Molloy would from now on chair its meetings.
His statement stressed that the deputy speakers would chair the meetings as impartial presiding officers and not as representatives of their respective parties.
