Recommendation 19

We note with interest the lively discussion both within and without this inquiry regarding the future of community designation and its application to voting procedures in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. As already acknowledged, Northern Ireland has changed since 1998 and the understanding employed by the Agreement of what should constitute cross-community government is in need of an update. There is merit in removing designations and, with safeguards, introducing, for example, qualified majority voting to ensure support throughout the Assembly. However, Northern Ireland remains a society with sectarian divisions and we believe that it would not be appropriate for us to pass judgment on the future of the overall role that community designation plays in the institutions. While we believe reforms can—and should—soon be made which could improve the stability of the institutions in the short to medium term, we recommend that the Government incorporates into the Review a full evaluation of the effect of community designation in facilitating effective, stable and—in the broadest sense—cross-community governance in Northern Ireland.