Last Thursday, the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee considered, and its Alliance Party and Sinn Féin members approved, a report on regulation (EU) 2024/1157 and associated amending regulations.

The regulations refer to waste management in Northern Ireland. In the report are two comments — one from our legal advice and the second from industry — that Members who believe in effective scrutiny should consider. First, paragraph 32 of the report states:

"Having considered its commissioned legal advice, the Committee concluded that the replacement EU act significantly differs, in part, from the content or scope of the EU instrument which it amends or replaces."

Then, in its published response, Recycle NI, the trade association for waste management companies in Northern Ireland, when asked:

"Does it appear likely that the EU act would have a significant impact specific to everyday life ... in Northern Ireland ... ?", answered yes. Its explanation included the comment:

"this could add significant costs to the treatment of recycled materials generated in Northern Ireland, which would be passed on to ratepayers and could impact on Northern Ireland's ability to meet future recycling targets ... This in turn could attract monetary fines that would impact on ratepayers or taxpayers."

Given those two very real flags that there could be a significant impact on everyday life in Northern Ireland, how do you think the Democratic Scrutiny Committee acted? The report agreed by the Alliance and Sinn Féin members stated that the Committee:

"concluded that it was unable to reach a view on whether the replacement EU act would have a significant impact specific to everyday life of communities in Northern Ireland".

It was "unable to reach" a decision, despite the clear evidence. Furthermore, the Alliance and Sinn Féin members have refused to allow dissenting opinions to be raised in the report, instead saying that, for any contrary views, reference will have to be made to Hansard.

One of the primary roles of the Assembly must be to scrutinise legislation effectively. The renewable heat incentive debacle and the recent decision of the High Court, with its references to ill-thought-out legislation, should have taught us that we can ill afford to ignore real challenges to our constituents when problems have been so clearly highlighted. The Windsor Framework Committee is supposed to act as a dispassionate safeguard against EU regulations interfering significantly with Northern Ireland in comparison with the rest of our nation. If the majority of the Committee members continue on the course that they have clearly set for themselves, it will be clear that that safeguard is not democratic, nor does it provide any scrutiny. We all deserve better.