UUP leader Doug Beattie has apologised to the Assembly after claiming DUP MLAs were screaming and whining “like a girl”.
During his speech, Mr Beattie told DUP members: “I know that you think you can scream and whine like a girl from the sidelines. That’s up to you.”
Several MLAs voiced objection to the remark from their seats in the chamber while DUP MLA Philip Brett raised a point of order with Acting Speaker Alan Chambers.
Mr Brett appeared to make reference to a previous controversy when Mr Beattie apologised after being accused of misogyny over the contents of a series of historical tweets.
“Mr Speaker, the house will be aware of Mr Beattie’s history when it comes to misogyny but I’m just wondering is it in order, Mr Acting Speaker, to use such language in relation to women in this chamber?” he asked.
In response, Mr Chambers said: “The member is perfectly entitled to say whatever he wishes.”
Mr Beattie resumed his speech with an apology.
He said: “I’m a big enough man to say when I get something wrong. I got it wrong and I will apologise because I got it wrong, because I used a terminology.”
The apology came as the DUP was urged to drop its Stormont boycott to help deliver energy support payments to people in Northern Ireland struggling to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.
MLAs are meeting during a recalled sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly in another doomed attempt to restore the executive. However, the DUP labelled the recall a “stunt”, stating that it would not be supporting the election of a speaker.
The sitting began with the SDLP’s Patsy McGlone and the UUP’s Mike Nesbitt nominated for the vacant role of speaker. Several previous attempts to reconstitute the Assembly have already failed as the DUP has not supported the election of a speaker at the outset of the sittings.
Without a speaker in place, the Assembly cannot proceed with further business.
Sinn Fein ’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said any resolution to the protocol difficulties would not be resolved at Stormont.
Ms O’Neill said: “We all want these issues resolved and to see the economic and business stability and certainty that will flow from that agreement. But in the meantime, we are elected to be in this Assembly, to be in an Executive delivering and defending our public services and protecting our society from a Tory administration that has no interest in us or our people.”
Households in Northern Ireland are due to be credited with a £400 payment automatically, to help with energy costs this winter as part of a UK-wide scheme. In his autumn statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said all households in Northern Ireland would receive an additional £200 payment, in recognition of the region’s dependence on home heating oil.
While consumers in the rest of the UK have already begun to receive support payments, there has been no decision about how and when they will be made in Northern Ireland.
“So, I want to make a direct appeal to the party opposite. Come back into the Executive so we can fight for and deliver £600 out to the thousands of struggling families who so desperately need it,” Ms O’Neill said.
She added: “If we had an Executive that money would already be in people’s pockets. And shame on the DUP for blocking it. You have walked away.
“The people and communities we all represent are struggling and facing the same challenges and I will have your back in these tough times and will not give up fighting on your behalf. So, Jeffrey (Donaldson), pause your protest, elect a Speaker here today and let us all get back to the work we are mandated and paid to do.”
Representing the DUP, MLA Gordon Lyons said: “This recall of the Assembly is nothing more than a farce. We know it is a stunt, the public know it is a stunt and the other parties know it is a stunt also.”
Mr Lyons claimed Sinn Fein was using the recall as a way to “distract” from claims made at an ongoing Special Criminal Court trial in Dublin linking the party to organised criminality.
He also said the levers to deliver cost-of-living support were in Westminster, not Stormont. Referring to energy support payments, he added: “This was a scheme devised at Westminster, promised by Westminster and now needs to be delivered by Westminster.
“In the summertime, there was a way forward and a mechanism identified for delivery. Energy suppliers and the Utility Regulator worked hard to put that in place and at the last minute, the Government has started to consider alternative options.
“The time for dithering is over. They have the money, the systems and the capacity to deliver this and they need to get on with it. And that is key; there are things that we have the money, the power and the capacity to deliver and there are things which are outside our control.”
Speaking before the Assembly session began, Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie called on Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to hold a summit to brief Stormont parties on the progress of negotiations over the protocol.
Mr Beattie said: “Today’s recall is gesture politics and it is borne out of frustration because nothing has happened over this past number of months. Through the whole month of November nothing happened and we are now into the first week of December and nothing has happened, and there is not likely to be anything happening.
“We have squandered two months. It is looking like we will go into January with no plan to deal with the issues we now face. Political parties need to know what is going on and we are receiving absolutely no briefs.
“I am now calling on the Secretary of State to put a plan in place for early January, to instigate a summit for all of the parties. To get a brief from the UK Government, from the EU exactly where we are in regards to the protocol.”
On Tuesday evening, Mr Heaton-Harris reaffirmed his intention to cut MLAs’ pay by 27.5%, but did not clarify when exactly the cut would come into effect.
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