The Alliance Party is considering going into opposition when a new powersharing executive is formed at Stormont, an MLA has said.
Kellie Armstrong said it could be a “lot of fun being in opposition and tearing lumps out of people”.
An executive is expected to be formed in the coming days after the DUP agreed a deal with the Government which will bring an end to its two-year boycott of the institutions.
The powersharing executive allows the main Stormont parties to nominate MLAs as ministers.
However, parties can also decline to nominate a minister and go into opposition.
The cross-community Alliance Party’s leader, Naomi Long, was the justice minister in the previous executive.
The party secured 17 seats in the 2022 Assembly elections, making it the third largest at Stormont and eligible for two ministerial posts.
But Ms Armstrong told the BBC Talkback programme that the party was “having discussions” about the possibility of going into opposition.
She said: “It could be a lot of fun being in opposition and tearing lumps out of people.
“But Alliance has always said that we should have an executive back and we are seriously looking at that because if you want to get things changed you have to be in the executive.
“So, both sides are under discussion.”
She said that “everything is on the table”.
