MLAs pass motion withholding consent for Brexit
Membership of Stormont scrutiny committees ratified
After a bit of a false start, MLAs managed to get through the first chunky piece of business since the assembly resumed play last week.
We'll be back tomorrow from 10:00 with live coverage of the Infrastructure Committee and in the afternoon at 14:00 we'll have this week's meeting of the Agriculture Committee.
Have a great evening!
Conor Macauley
BBC News NI Environment Correspondent
Finance Minister Conor Murphy has written to the chair of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Inquiry to make arrangements about the publication of its report.
Mr Murphy told Sir Patrick Coghlin (below) he had been informed by his officials it was "nearing completion".
Image source, PacemakerHe said he wanted to ensure that the process was free of "ministerial interference or any perception of it".
The inquiry is examining why the RHI scheme - the botched handling of which led to the collapse of Stormont in 2017 - did not contain the same cost controls as the similar initiative in Great Britain.
Read more: Coghlin asked for report plans
Everyone agrees for once.
Image source, NI AssemblyWithout the need for a formal division, MLAs pass the Executive Office motion withholding consent for the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
And with that the assembly adjourns for the day.
It's "right and proper" that the assembly gave its view on the Brexit bill today, says deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill as she wraps up the debate.
She says Stormont ministers will take every opportunity to press the government for funding to protect "key sectors of our economy" after Brexit.
Image source, NI AssemblyShe commends the business community in Northern Ireland on showing a united front against Brexit over the past three years, saying they were "consistent and strong" in reflecting their concerns.
The Sinn Féin vice-president vows that the executive will make sure the government and the EU will live up to the commitments they made to Northern Ireland.
And she finishes by promising that if the motion passes she and Arlene Foster will tell Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay the assembly has not given its consent for to the government to legislate on behalf of MLAs.
Gerry Carroll - the only People Before Profit MLA in the assembly - says he doesn't support Boris Johnson's plan for Brexit, "unlike those who were happy to shake his and and smile for the camera" with him when he visited Stormont last week (below).
Image source, Getty ImagesIndependent MLA Claire Sugden agrees with Jim Allister that members should have been given the opportunity to share their concerns on the withdrawal bill.
She says she'll support motion but that it's a hollow one and "far too little, far too late".
TUV leader Jim Allister, who earlier tried to have this debate postponed, gets his chance to speak.
He complains that he's not received a copy of the letter from the Brexit secretary that is the focus of this debate but First Minster Arlene Foster says the letter is in the assembly library for anyone to read.
Image source, PA MediaMr Allister turns to the "betrayal" of Northern Ireland contained in the Brexit deal.
The North Antrim MLA says that under the deal, Northern Ireland - to all intents and purposes - remains subject to the EU's custom's union and in effect goods will remain under the single market.
The first turn of the smaller parties to speak in this debate goes to Rachel Woods of the Green Party.
Co-opted to the assembly after the party's previous leader Steven Agnew stepped down last year, this is Ms Woods' maiden speech.
Image source, ReutersIt's "refreshing" to hear such widespread opposition to Brexit, she says, and wonders "who would've thought it was a good idea in the first place".
She says the climate crisis is a big issue overlooked in the debate so far and asks "why would we trust a government whose current record is summed up by an empty chair and a melting ice sculpture" (above).
She adds that this is the "first time in many years" that there's cross-party support "reflecting the will of the majority of people in Norther Ireland" and the Green Party will therefore support the Executive Office motion.
Foyle SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin is yet another member making her maiden speech.
Image source, PacemakerLondonderry - in the Foyle constituency - was the UK's first City of Culture in 2013
It's traditional for new members to praise their constituency and she reminds the assembly that she represents a beautiful area where "the Wild Atlantic Way meets the Causeway Coast".
Ms McLaughlin backs the motion to withhold consent for the Brexit bill.
It's maiden speech time for Matthew O'Toole, one of the SDLP's two newly co-opted MLAs.
The former Downing Street spokesman reminds us Brexit has been deeply divisive across the UK and says that's why a united message for the assembly is so important.
Image source, NI AssemblyHe says he's in the unique and slightly strange position of being a former civil servant who worked in Westminster during the Brexit vote.
Now the SDLP's MLA in South Belfast, he says he's at Stormont partly because of his frustration that Brexit was to be imposed on Northern Ireland without its consent.
Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI
A new code of conduct for Stormont's special ministerial advisers and how they are appointed has been made public, external.
Image source, PA MediaIt states that ministers are responsible for the management, conduct and discipline of their advisers, whose salaries are to be capped at £85,000 a year.
Read more here: Tighter rules on Stormont advisers
Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd says "the hardest bit is yet to come" - negotiating a trade deal with the EU.
The more unified and focused a voice the assembly can develop, the better, he tells his fellow MLAs.
Image source, NI AssemblyPaula Bradshaw (above), the Alliance Party's South Belfast MLA, turns to the dangers posed by Brexit in healthcare.
She's concerned about the ability of health workers from the EU to work in the UK, the future of health co-operation with the Republic of Ireland and the EHIC health card used by travellers in the EU.
Northern Ireland is "rapidly sliding down the priority list" for the government and the EU, claims Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken, and he warns that business and industry will feel that.
Such a situation was all too predictable, he says.
Image source, NI AssemblyThe government's Brexit bill constrains the power of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Stormont executive, adds the South Antrim MLA.
He calls on the first and deputy first ministers to "build a full partnership approach" between the political parties, the civil service, business groups and academics to deal with the issues Northern Ireland faces.
Mr Aiken's party supports the Executive Office motion.
SDLP MLA Nichola Mallon - the infrastructure minister - reminds the assembly that 56% of voters in Northern Ireland who took part in the Brexit referendum wanted to remain in the EU.
Image source, NI AssemblyShe says the assembly must give the prime minister, the EU and the Irish government a united message that they collectively reject the Brexit bill.
Boris Johnson "ripped up our insurance policy - the backstop", adds the North Belfast politician.
Gary Middleton of the DUP says his party continues to believe Northern Ireland will have a bright future outside the EU.
But he says the proposed checks on goods would impose greater burdens on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and would have a negative effect on consumers.
Image source, NI AssemblySinn Féin's Karen Mullan (above) makes her first speech in the assembly - she focuses on the implications of Brexit on education.
She's particularly concerned about the removal of the Erasmus programme, which enables third-level students to study abroad in the EU - the Foyle MLA says the success of the scheme will be difficult to replicate.
Brexit will have a "detrimental impact across every sector of our society for many years to come", says Sinn Féin's Caomihe Archbald.
The parts of the Brexit deal that refer to Northern Ireland are as "noteworthy for the lack of detail as for what they actually do contain", according to the East Londonderry representative.
It's not clear how customs and VAT arrangements will work, she adds.
Image source, Getty ImagesShe refers to Chancellor Sajid Javid's insistence at the weekend that the UK would end alignment with EU rules after Brexit.
He told the Financial Times: "There will not be alignment, we will not be a ruletaker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union and we will do this by the end of the year."
Ms Archibald says if that's anything to go by it's likely there'll be a big negative effect for businesses, especially in the agri-food sector.
There's no point in going over the old debates about the rights or wrongs of Brexit, says DUP man Paul Givan, who insists MLAs are "best spending our energy" on dealing with the "new reality we are facing".
Image source, NI AssemblyHe's concerned the prime minister has made verbal promises - about trade access for Northern Ireland businesses, for example - but hasn't backed them up with assurances in the Conservative Party manifesto.
"Those commitments... need to be given legal effect - they need to bite when it comes to the future relationship," adds Mr Givan.
Image source, NI AssemblyAlliance Party MLA Kellie Armstrong says there's no such thing as a good or sensible Brexit.
Her party accepts it's happening at the end of this month, she adds, so it's time to take the rough edges off the Brexit deal and stand up to protect Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland is the area of the UK most affected by Brexit and the one least prepared, according to former UUP leader Mike Nesbitt.
Image source, Getty ImagesHe says Theresa May's mantra that "Brexit means Brexit" was as meaningless as "lunch means lunch".
The Strangford MLA, who was a vocal opponent of Brexit in the assembly chamber before Stormont's collapse, says that for Northern Ireland "lunch increasingly means a ham and cheese sandwich from the local gas station".
Conor Murphy, the finance minister, is first up to speak for Sinn Féin, and takes an early swipe at the DUP.
It's a pity, he says, that the apparent recognition on display today of the "damage that Brexit can do" didn't become the "consistent position over the last three years".
Image source, NI Assembly"The Brexit ambitions of the British government are damaging to the people that we represent here," he adds.
He refers to the farming community, for example, which he says faces a "huge question mark" about how sustainable the industry will be without European subsidies.
The Newry and Armagh MLA wraps up by saying the government is only concerned about "English nationalist interests", not about the best interests of the people MLAs represent.
The SDLP's Colin McGrath (below), who chairs the Executive Office Committee, regrets that its members did not have the opportunity to scrutinise the Brexit legislation.
He says the assembly should refuse to give consent to the bill and adds that he doesn't believe there's a good form of Brexit and the overwhelming consensus is that the imposition of borders is not a good thing.
Image source, NI AssemblyThe DUP's Christopher Stalford quotes Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning of the danger of leaving Northern Ireland behind as an "economic semi-colony of the European Union".
The South Belfast MLA says Mr Johnson said that when criticising the Brexit deal proposed by his predecessor Theresa May.
The assembly should not be prepared to tolerate such a situation, he adds.