©Chloe Patterson, Nov 09

Outline the main differences between the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements. (16)

Deferral of Ministerial Decisions to the Executive

One of the most important differences between the Good Friday and St Andrews agreements is that the executive could now stop ministers from implementing certain decisions without gaining cross- community support within the executive. The sources states how this meant that unionists ‘could block’ any policies they didn’t agree with. This change to the Good Friday agreement was partly in response to two decisions taken by two Sinn Fein ministers in the Trimble/ Mallon Executive. Firstly, Martin McGuiness, on his last day in power before Stormont disbanded, abolished the 11+ exams which had been used for academic selection. However, as a result of the St Andrews agreement the current minister for education, Catrionia Ruane, cannot abolish academic selection completely, due to the executive’s veto over her, this has created a deadlock on the issue. Another minister of the Trimble/Mallon executive, Bairbre de Brun, granted maternity services to her own constituency’s hospital in West Belfast instead of City Hospital which was the favoured option of the health committee and the assembly as a whole. But ultimately it was the Health Ministers decision to make, although many felt that de Brun had broken the spirit, if no the letter, of the GFA. Therefore the change in the St Andrews Agreement prevents this from occurring and although it may have, which can be seen through the education department, it also prevents unilateral action such as de Brun’s.

Commitment to Power-Sharing

Another change to the Good Friday Agreement from St Andrews was a demand made by Sinn Fein, which was for all members on the executive to fully participate. This was due to DUP ministers, Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds, refusing to sit in executive meetings due to Sinn Fein’s presence. This action was part of the DUP’s opposition to the idea of sharing power with Sinn Fein, which also saw the DUP implement a policy to rotate their ministers. During this period, Robinson and Dodds threatened to resign if the government did not exclude the Sinn Fein members. So therefore the St Andrews commitments aimed to prevent such wrecking tactics, as all those who signed stated their intention to fully participate.

Commitment to Cross-Border Co-operation

Similarly, Sinn Fein also required the St Andrews Agreement to include a promise of support and involvement in the North South Ministerial Council. As during the earlier period of devolution, the two DUP ministers had point-blank refused to take part. Many people considered this a shame, as the DUP held the Regional Development brief, which includes transport, an area in which many cross-border issues arise. ©Chloe Patterson, Nov 09

The Support of the DUP

The last two points highlight, in my opinion, the most significant difference between the GFA and St Andrews; the support of the DUP. The Good Friday Agreement’s greatest weakness was the continual opposition of a large section of the unionist community, represented by the DUP. The party who once promised to “wreck” any attempt to powershare with Sinn Fein was now doing just that. John Hume once told Ian Paisley “the word 'no' were to be removed from the English language, you'd be speechless!” The greatest difference between GFA and St Andrews was that “Doctor No” said “yes!”

Rights Issues

The St Andrews also required the signatories to express a commitment to consider various rights issues, most notably a commitment to some sort of bill to "protect the development of the Irish language”. However a review of the parading policy was also mentioned.

Re-designation Ban

In addition to the above, another change made the St Andrews Agreement were the restrictions made on MLAs from re-designating during an assembly session. This was due to DUP’s annoyance over Alliance MLAs who re-designated from ‘Other’ to ‘Unionist’ so that they could save Trimble who was being abandoned by many of his own party in favour of DUP. Therefore this demand present in St Andrews agreement ensures that all of the MLAs state their designation at the beginning and remain the same for the duration of the parliamentary session unless they change political party.

A Roadmap for the Devolution of Policing a Justice Powers

Finally, the last point which I am going to outline is that the St Andrews Agreement signatories committed themselves to the devolution of Policing and Justice Powers. This was mainly a demand of the Sinn Fein party as they wished for immediate the removal of British Government control over the policing system. Although the DUP also wish for the devolution of Policing and Justice but they did not want it as immediately as Sinn Fein. This was due to their suspicion of Sinn Fein’s support of the police. The St Andrews Agreement set out a plan on how to devolve Policing and Justice and also proved the commitment of the DUP and the British Government on the issue to Sinn Fein. Crucially though, the agreement did not set a fixed time scale on the process, hence the continuing deadlock!