Charting The Course Ahead

By Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP

Twelve months ago, we called time on the NI Executive and said the Protocol must be replaced with arrangements that unionists can support. We didn’t take such a position lightly or just to be thran. We did and do so because we want a thriving Northern Ireland, firmly within the UK, for our grandchildren.

Our headlines are Windsor Framework and Protocol heavy because without further change, the very foundations of Northern Ireland are being eroded but once it is addressed, and that will take as long as it takes, our path ahead is no less challenging.

Our Five Point Plan – our platform for the 2022 Assembly election – will only have one point ticked when we deal with the NI Protocol. We will still have four further points to address. Our health service needs reform with proper funding. Our infrastructure needs massive investment to make us fit for the next generation and our schools must be readied to meet the needs of the twenty-first century. To that end, a few weeks ago I restructured all our spokespeople. Each MLA has a specific role and responsibility to engage with people in their sector and develop policy ideas which can improve Northern Ireland.

Just as the pilot or the captain charts their course, so too must we. It is not good enough to just observe the terrain around us and react. We’re on a long journey and we must look beyond. We must plan the route. We must recall the experience of those who have travelled this path before, navigate the dangers and ensure we are equipped for the journey because there is a great destination that is within reach.

Our destination is to make Northern Ireland a place of peace, stability and prosperity. We want to ensure that the people in every district and community benefit and see their standard of living improve and their way of life become more enjoyable. We want to demonstrate that democratic standards apply and fairness and equality of opportunity is the right of all. We strive to make Northern Ireland the most prosperous part of the United Kingdom.

I am glad that I am not on this journey alone. Our team is strong and getting stronger. Unionism cannot continue to splinter in different directions. There are some people who seem to only focus on hunting for heretics in unionism. That has never been my philosophy. My goal has always been to strengthen the pro-union voice in Northern Ireland. Growing the support for our cause must be the objective.

Drawing together all the strands of people who are pro-union is not easy but the consequence of allowing unionism to continue fracturing will be a Northern Ireland led by Sinn Fein whose goal is to remove us from the United Kingdom. We are democrats. We will respect the outcome of elections but I do not believe a majority of those living in Northern Ireland want to spend the next decade talking about a border poll. I believe the majority want us to replace the Protocol so the foundation is underpinned and then focus on creating jobs, building better schools, roads, hospitals and houses.

Progress in our Province has been painstakingly slow at times but it was achieved on the basis of consensus and with a recognition that the institutional arrangements cannot work if they allow one tradition to dominate another. That’s why over the course of numerous talks processes, this Party fought hard to put right past wrongs and secure a fair deal for Unionism – and it is why we are committed to showing that same leadership today.

To say Unionism has been patient in the face of the Protocol’s provocation would be an understatement. The DUP re-entered the Executive and Assembly in January 2020 on the basis of a Government commitment to restore Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market. More than three years later, that pledge has joined a list of Protocol promises by this, and previous, governments that have fallen by the wayside.

During this time, we repeatedly warned of political consequences should alternative arrangements not be found to address the growing social, economic and constitutional harm of the Irish Sea border. On 1 July 2021 in my first speeches as your Leader, I warned that devolution and the Protocol were not compatible and set out in detail our tests for judging any future arrangements. Despite affording time and space for the UK and EU to find durable solutions, progress was moving at a snail’s pace, if at all. For that reason we were forced in all good conscience to withdraw our First Minister twelve months ago to bring matters to a head. Whether the other parties want to accept it or not, this action has provided the impetus for a new series of high-level talks between the UK and EU. The Windsor Framework is a step forward with progress made, but there is more to do.

The recent High Court judgement which reversed our Minister’s instruction to cease Protocol checks on goods entering NI ports was disappointing but I believe it also vindicated the principled action we have taken.

Whilst we haven’t yet reached our end goal with regards to the NI Protocol, this party must take the credit for progress made.

None of the local parties are calling for ‘rigorous implementation’ anymore. Instead they are talking up ‘solutions.’ Even the Taoiseach has admitted ‘mistakes’ were made on the NI Protocol.

Whilst London and Brussels have recognised that any solution must command the support of unionists as well as nationalists, words only go so far, they must demonstrate this by their actions. They cannot be under any illusions that any deal which serves their own narrow political interests but does not represent an accord with all communities and traditions in Northern Ireland is doomed to fail.

I was in Washington DC during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations – which now last a week in America – and attended events organised by the American, British, and Irish administrations. My message at each event was the same, let’s get Stormont restored with arrangements that unionists and nationalists can support.

I will return to Washington later this year because I want the Party to build new and enduring relationships in America which help Northern Ireland.

We have much in common with US lawmakers who stand with us on our support for the unborn, our support for the state of Israel and our determination to ensure everyone has a job. I was tremendously encouraged by conversations with members of Congress and Senators who align with our values and want to help Northern Ireland.

It is incredible that for decades Sinn Fein has dominated the conversations on Capitol Hill with regard to Northern Ireland and raised millions of dollars for Sinn Fein in the process, yet all the time Sinn Fein is opposed to practically every area of American foreign policy. Whilst we want to use our relationships in the United States to help Northern Ireland prosper, Sinn Fein’s focus in America on that same week was a series of newspaper adverts across the States calling for a divisive border poll.

Make no mistake, Sinn Fein’s number one goal is a border poll and they couldn’t care less about the divisions and acrimony that is caused in the process.

That is why Sinn Fein was not in the least part concerned about whether the Protocol was good or bad for Northern Ireland. Others, however, should have known better. For the Alliance Party to continue dismissing such concerns as a manufactured outrage was obscene. It is further evidence that they are more wedded to ‘Remainer’ ideology than the need to uphold the principle of consent and restore the delicate balance of relations here.

If Northern Ireland is to have fair and durable institutions going forward, the debris of the Protocol must be cleared from our politics, and for good. It should be of encouragement to you, as it is to me, that the bulk of Unionism stands squarely behind the leadership that the DUP has provided.

Voters are coalescing around the DUP and that is due in no small part to the unity of purpose we have displayed across all levels of representation. I want to capitalise on this to win even more recruits to our cause and by promoting stronger and closer cooperation in forthcoming elections. Greater unity in unionism remains a key goal for us.

As we navigate the way ahead, we know our goal and that is where we must keep focused. We must not get distracted and lose focus.

We must keep building the team and building a better Northern Ireland.

Although these days are challenging, and the future uncertain, I believe we can take heart from the fact that we have a just cause.

When our grandchildren look back on this period, may they be able to say that we held the line and secured a positive future for Northern Ireland, one free from the divisions of the Protocol and based on consensus and fairness.