UUP's Aiken says Sinn Fein and Alliance are ignoring financial 'red flags' and haven't learned from RHI

The South Antrim MLA also accused the two parties of refusing to allow dissenting opinions to be recorded in an official report – and said that the RHI debacle shows Stormont can “ill afford to ignore real challenges to our constituents when problems have been so clearly highlighted”.

His remarks relate to a new EU law on waste regulations which will apply in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework.

Mr Aiken told MLAs that Recycle NI (the trade association for waste management companies in NI) believes that the new EU act would have a significant impact specific to everyday life of communities in Northern Ireland in a way that is liable to persist.

He said the organisation noted that “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”.

Despite that, Mr Aiken said that Sinn Fein and Alliance MLAs on the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee backed a position that it was “unable to reach a view” on whether the act would have a significant impact in a way that is likely to persist – the test for triggering a mechanism to flag a new EU law.

He said this decision was reached despite “very clear evidence to the contrary”.

Mr Aiken told the Assembly: “Furthermore, the Committee’s Alliance and Sinn Fein committee members have refused to allow dissenting opinions to be raised in the report, instead forcing members and the public to refer to Hansard to see any contrary views.

“Mr Speaker, one of the primary roles of this Assembly must be to scrutinise legislation effectively. The RHI debacle, or the recent decision of the High Court reference ill thought out legislation, should have taught us, 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 the dispassionate safeguard to EU regulations interfering significantly with Northern Ireland in respect to the rest of our nation.

“If the majority of the Committee continue on the course that they have now clearly set themselves upon it is clear that the this ‘safeguard’ is neither democratic or providing any scrutiny, we all deserve better”.

The purpose of the EU regulation is to bring in tighter regulations on the movement of waste – and there will be different rules for the movement of waste between member states and through ‘third countries’.

The regulation will prohibit the export of waste to non-OECD countries unless those countries prove they can deal with it in a sustainable manner.