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The Northern Ireland Assembly has agreed to introduce proxy voting for MLAs on parental leave.

Kellie Armstrong, the chair of the procedures committee, explained that "as MLAs are not employees" they did not have "terms and conditions that would support people who have become parents".

The new procedure will allow members to have the ability to vote in the NI Assembly without physically being in Stormont.

Through proxy voting, MLAs who cannot attend can nominate another MLA to cast their vote.

"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".

Gerry Carroll said while he supported the changes he urged the committee to extend proxy voting to a wider range of circumstances.

The People Before Profit MLA said the current system is "too restrictive" and he hoped the procedures committee would look at issues around long term illness, geographical and weather factors.

Armstrong explained that the committee had discussed "a range of possible categories for proxy voting" including parental leave, long-term illness, bereavement, absence on official assembly business and whether it should be extended to committees as well as for plenary business.

However, she said the committee "felt that this would require a longer-term piece of work" and they didn't want to delay in making a difference to MLAs who avail of leave for "maternity, paternity, adoption etc, or will do in the future”.