NI politics: Bid to elect assembly speaker amid Dáithí's Law delays

Northern Ireland's Assembly will be recalled on Tuesday in a bid to elect a speaker and debate implementing stalled organ-donation legislation.

A petition proposed by Sinn Féin and backed by Alliance has achieved the necessary 30 signatures.

The DUP has blocked the assembly's functioning for over a year in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements.

Ex-health minister Robin Swann has said opt-out organ donation law in NI should not be part of a "political stand-off".

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Paul Givan said his party would meet on Monday to "take a position" about electing a speaker.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said the organ donation law could be in place within days if the assembly was recalled.

Mr Swann was the minister who introduced the Organ and Consent Bill - known as Dáithí's Law - in the assembly in 2021.

It is named after six-year-old Dáithí Mac Gabhann from Belfast, who needs a heart transplant.

Speaking to BBC News NI Ulster Unionist Party MLA Mr Swann said the delays to enacting the system were "frustrating and disappointing".

"There shouldn't be a roadblock on this at this time," he said.

The legislation would introduce an opt-out system, which would make everyone over 18 an organ donor unless they specifically state otherwise.

The Department of Health said organ donations in relation to anyone under 18 will still require parental consent.

It added that once the remaining bits of legislation are passed, a three-month lead-in time will be required to facilitate implementation planning and public awareness campaigns before the system goes live.

Dáithí's parents have led a long-running campaign for the law to be finalised and enacted but is being held up by the political crisis at Stormont.

'My loyalty is to Dáithí'

Mr Swann said Dáithí's parents should not have to deal with that when they were trying to prioritise their son's health.

"It's heart-wrenching and a hard enough emotional point for them to be dealing with, without getting caught up in the politics of this," the UUP politician said.

Dáithí, his parents and his grandfather, met the Northern Ireland secretary at Hillsborough Castle last week

Speaking on Friday, Dáithí's father Máirtín Mac Gabhann said he would put pressure on politicians to finally approve the organ donation law.

"I have no loyalties to any of the political parties - my loyalty is to Dáithí," he said.

'Nothing more important'

Dáithí's Law was passed in the assembly in February 2022 but additional legislation is needed to specify which organs and tissues are covered under the opt-out system.

Without that the system cannot come into effect.

Mr Mac Gabhann said he had "a bit more faith" that the legislation could finally be approved by Stormont assembly members.

"There's nothing more important to me than Dáithí's Law in the political world," he told BBC News NI on Friday.

• NI secretary increases pressure to pass organ law

• Transplant boy's family consider legal action

"If this is a possibility through the assembly or whether it's Westminster we will look at all avenues and we will put pressure on all the parties."

He said he was due to speak to Mr Givan of the DUP on Friday.

Dáithí and his parents travelled to England this week for the boy to have a cardiac procedure at a hospital in Newcastle.

Last week Mr Heaton-Harris said a proposal to take the legislation through Westminster instead of Stormont would take too long to complete.

On Thursday he wrote to the political parties to say that if they returned to Stormont they could have "this legislation in place in a matter of days".

"This would be the quickest, most straightforward path to progressing this important legislation that Dáithí and his family have campaigned so tirelessly for," he told the parties in a letter seen by BBC News NI.

But DUP MP Ian Paisley accused him of "political blackmail" and said Mr Heaton-Harris had the power to pass Dáithí's Law "within a stroke of his pen".

"The government should take a very hard stand and say we are in charge, the Northern Ireland Office are in charge," said the North Antrim MP on Friday.

"They can enact this though the House of Commons immediately and it will be a far faster process than the assembly getting back up and running."

Mr Swann has written to the top civil servant at the Department of Health to ask if it has taken necessary steps around procedural legislation to ensure it can be passed by MLAs if an assembly recall goes ahead next week.

It follows a letter from outgoing assembly Speaker Alex Maskey on Friday, who said it was "theoretically possible" to pass the legislation in one sitting next week as long as the Department of Health had already laid technical regulations.