Stormont: Proxy votes agreed for MLAs on parental leave

“When an MLA is absent from plenary due to maternity, paternity or similar leave there is no procedure to ensure their democratic role can be fulfilled,” Armstrong said.

Sinn Féin’s Sinead Ennis said it was a “progressive and inclusive step”.

“We are pleased that the introduction of proxy voting for MLAs in limited circumstances will enable those MLAs to ensure that a core part of the role they have been elected to do can still be delivered,” the deputy chairperson of the procedures committee added.

Proxy voting was one of a range of temporary measures introduced in the assembly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The outworking of the temporary solution prompted the speaker to write to the committee on procedures suggesting that it considered the instances in which proxy voting could be retained on a more permanent basis.

Subsequently, the committee considered this issue as part of its strategic planning and agreed to undertake a review of proxy voting.

In September 2020, the House of Commons agreed to make permanent arrangements for proxy voting for MPs who were absent from Westminster because of childbirth, care of an infant, newly adopted child or where there have been complications relating to childbirth.

The decision followed a pilot scheme developed and implemented in Parliament in 2019.

The DUP’s Diane Forsythe welcomed the standing order and said “it should be a basic requirement whether it be here in Northern Ireland or further afield” as it reflects “the challenges faced by those elected representatives who balance the position entrusted to them by the electorate with their role as a mother, father or foster carer”.