LIVE: The Northern Ireland Assembly has again failed to elect a speaker to enable the crisis-hit devolved legislature to resume business

The father of Daithi MacGabhann, the six-year-old who inspired a new law around organ donation in Northern Ireland that has not been able to be enacted, said he was disappointed but not surprised by failure at Stormont today.

Mairtin McGabhann said a shout of “joke” in the Assembly chamber after the MLAs failed to elect a speaker shows his family are not the only ones left frustrated.

“It’s a very disappointing day for us, it’s Valentines Day, heart day, it’s also congenital heart defect day, and there was an opportunity here to have a bit of a fairy-tale ending where Daithi’s Law is concerned, and unfortunately that’s not to be,” he said.

“We’re not at all surprised but we’ve never lost hope, and even up until that last second we still had a wee bit of hope. But I suppose today gives us the opportunity now to solely focus on Westminster, the Secretary of State, to Jeffrey Donaldson’s amendment.

“We’ll want to speak with our MPs again, and there was talk of a joint amendment.

“It’s very clear from the floor (of the Assembly) today that all parties are in support and it’s just very disappointing that it couldn’t get over the line today.”

The Northern Ireland Assembly has again failed to elect a speaker to enable the crisis-hit devolved legislature to resume business.

The DUP again exercised its veto to block the election of a speaker during a recall sitting on Tuesday.

The party is preventing the functioning of the powersharing institutions in Belfast in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.

Colin McGrath added that Daithi MacGabhann had taught MLAs a “valuable lesson in strength, in resilience, in superhuman-will to overcome obstacles previously thought impossible to scale. He and his family have campaigned tirelessly to get this legislation.

“All of this while at six years of age he has had to wait four years on a heart. Last year we saw politics at its best (when the Bill was initially approved). What will we see today?

“We have the power to act, we could elect a speaker, lay the necessary motion and finish the legislation and help save Daithi’s life and the other 133 people. Mr Acting Speaker, what in the name of humanity is stopping us?”

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath said the ongoing failure to elect a speaker was an “absolute embarrassment”.

“The business we are here to address today isn’t about political parties. It isn’t about me, it isn’t about the SDLP, it isn’t about Sinn Fein or the DUP or any of us. It is about the 134 families whose loved ones are watching us here today, waiting on an urgent organ transplant and who have placed their faith in us to be able to make that possible,” he said.

Mr McGrath said passing the regulations at Westminster was the “second-best option” as it would delay the implementation of the regulations.

“Everyone that is on that transplant list deserves so much more better than second-best option,” he said.

He added: “Why is there an urgency? Because up to 15 people die every year here, needlessly, on the organ donation list, because we have 134 people who are now today waiting for an organ transplant.

“For those people on the organ list that are waiting, every minute counts for them, and every day we delay this legislation does not help them with their odds of getting a proper organ match.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Robin Swann, who was health minister when Daithi’s Law was first approved by the Assembly, said the legislation was one of his proudest achievements.

He said it was a law that would “not just save lives, but change lives”.

Mr Swann said the discourse leading up to the recall sitting had been influenced by party politics.

He then recalled a playful encounter he and then-first and deputy first ministers Paul Givan and Michelle O’Neill had with Daithi and his family at Stormont Castle.

“The fighting spirit that our former first minister (Mr Givan) referred to actually saw Daithi put a right hook on his chin,” he said.

“Mr Acting Speaker in regards to this legislation and the discourse we’ve had up to it, I’m sure there’s many have wanted to be in the same place.”

Mr Swann said while his preference was for the law to be implemented at Stormont he urged the Government to ensure it went through at Westminster.

“Our former first minister was right, we’ve seen the Secretary of State and I’ve seen Westminster act at pace on many other pieces of legislation in regards to this,” he said.

“This should not be a stumbling block to him or to Westminster.”