Sir, - While the current re-designation of Alliance members might seem a rather clumsy way of bypassing the current voting procedures in Stormont, the extent to which the current system discriminates against parties formed on non-sectarian grounds should be understood.
For each measure to pass, effectively there are three votes contained in one. The first two are that a quota of unionists and nationalists respectively must accept a measure, while the third is that an overall majority in the assembly must accept a measure. Therefore, a unionist or nationalist vote "counts" in two of three of the required targets, while an Alliance vote counts in only one.
I would like to suggest an alternative, that of requiring a quota of non-unionists and a quota of non-nationalists for a measure to pass, as well as the overall majority. In this way, a unionist or nationalist vote "counts" in two of three of the required targets as before, but an Alliance vote counts in all three. While not perfect, it removes the bias against bipartisan groupings.
More importantly, the initial regulations were intended to ensure that no section of the community could dominate the other, i.e. that the rule of the majority must be with the consent of the minority. The alternative voting system as suggested above would ensure this is true in a more meaningful way than the current regulations, recognising as it does that the minority in question does not solely consist of nationalists, but also people who believe that politics in Northern Ireland should be run on non-sectarian grounds. - Yours, etc.,
Ronnie O'Toole, Bachelors Walk, Dublin 1.