Ulster Unionist Justice Spokesperson Tom Elliott has demanded the Government acts immediately to close the legal loophole whereby new legislation to ban double jobbing would still permit TDs sitting in the Dail to hold seats in the Stormont Assembly.
Mr Elliott said:
“The Ulster Unionist Party has long favoured an end to the practice of multiple mandates, whereby an elected representative holds more than one elected position.
Westminster is shortly to debate the Draft Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which aims to end double jobbing by 2015 in terms of Members of Parliament sitting as MLAs and vice versa and we fully support this.
Where we do have a problem is the idea that a member of another legislature – ie, the Dail – could also hold a seat at Stormont.
The Secretary of State must take urgent steps to ensure that this anomaly is removed and that any Member of the Stormont Assembly is prohibited from being a member of any other Legislature.”