- Written by Jayne McCormack
- BBC News NI Political Correspondent
The law is named after 6-year-old Daiti Mak Govan, who is awaiting a heart transplant.
The Northern Ireland Secretary has put fresh pressure on Stormont’s political parties to elect a speaker of parliament in a bid to pass stalled opt-out organ donation legislation.
BBC News NI has seen Chris Heaton-Harris’ letter pending the prospect that Westminster will resolve the issue.
The legislation is on hold due to the Stormont stalemate.
It was supposed to go into effect this spring.
The bill was passed by Congress in February 2022, but a secondary bill is needed to specify which organs and tissues are subject to the opt-out system.
Without it, the system will not take effect.
Stormont will not have a power-sharing government for 12 months due to a boycott by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) protesting the Northern Ireland Protocol.
On Friday, its leader, Sir Geoffrey Donaldson, met the parents of Dicey Mac Govern, whose family has been campaigning for changes to organ donation laws.
However, it is understood that the scope of the latest Executive Structure Bill may be too narrow for MPs to introduce amendments to the Organ Donation Act.
image source, Liam McBurney/Pennsylvania
Dighty, his parents and grandfather, met Heaton-Harris in Hillsboro last week.
In a letter to the Stormont party leadership on Thursday, Heaton-Harris said that if both parties recalled parliament, “this bill could be brought into force within days”.
“This only requires MLA [assembly members] “It’s about working together to elect the chairperson, not necessarily the prime minister and deputy prime minister.”
He said once the Speaker is installed, the MLAs can approve the necessary secondary bills.
Heaton-Harris said all of these could happen at once.
“This would be the quickest and most direct route to progressing this important legislation that Daiti and his family have campaigned so tirelessly for, rather than me introducing the first bill in the UK Parliament. “So, it’s going to be a long, long time. It’s a grueling process,” he added.
Heaton-Harris is also said to have informed Daithi’s parents of this.
Mr Daiti and his parents traveled to the UK earlier this week to undergo heart surgery at a hospital in Newcastle.
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Sinn Féin has launched a recall petition seeking to be able to elect a Speaker of Parliament who will be able to enact the Daithi Act.
The petition needs signatures from 30 MLAs to pass.
The party’s deputy leader Michelle O’Neill said the law had to cross a red line.
“Let’s elect a speaker and let this law be completed,” she added.
“I think little Daiti deserves it, and I think everyone who is waiting for an organ transplant deserves it.”
Appearing on BBC NI’s The View, the DUP’s Paul Givan said his party would meet on Monday morning to “take a position on what approach we will take” regarding the selection of a speaker.
Earlier, his party colleague Gordon Lyons said there was no reason why amendments could not be made to the Executive Formation Bill.
“This has been done in the past on issues such as abortion and victims’ pensions,” he added.
“There are now vehicles that can do that, and they should.”
Stormont’s parties have failed to elect a new council leader five times since last May’s election.
Without speakers, no other business can exist.
The DUP insists it will not support the selection of a Speaker until changes are made to the NI Protocol that it can support.
