On January 21, in preparation for a series of articles marking a year since Stormont’s restoration, The Irish News asked the Executive Office for some commentary and a list of some of the achievements of the past 12 months.
We’ve yet to hear back.
It’s insignificant in the scheme of things yet it speaks volumes about how the regional administration operates.
When the Stormont institutions were restored last year following the end of the DUP’s two-year boycott, newly-appointed First Minister Michelle O’Neill told the assembly it represented a “new dawn”.
Deputy First Minister Emma-Little Pengelly promised to “work tirelessly” to ensure the executive could deliver for all, helping fulfil the region’s “incredible potential”.
As the world’s media converged on Parliament Buildings last February, those offering words of encouragement to the fledgling administration included the then taoiseach Leo Varadkar and US president Joe Biden.
Expectations were high.
During the period the institutions were down – their second prolonged suspension inside five years – we were reminded countless times why we needed our regional government back: to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, to save crumbling public services, and to revive a dying Lough Neagh.
Ahead of restoration, which was preceded by the customary political drama, the would-be executive parties met with senior civil servants around 100 times, apparently “laying the groundwork” to ensure they would waste little time getting down to business. Through a collective effort, more funding was secured from the Treasury though in the months following inevitable financial pressures emerged.
At the outset, the rhetoric from Stormont’s leaders around maintaining stability and a determination to work together was positive, while the photo-opportunities conveyed a welcome sense of unity and purpose.
And let’s not kid ourselves, mandatory coalition isn’t easy – it’s the political equivalent of herding cats.
But a mandate was sought from Sinn Féin, and given, on the promise of change, and from the DUP on a “plan to fix the health service”.
Any assessment of the administration’s performance in its first year back should be measured against these stated intentions.
That’s not to neglect the role or the responsibility of executive’s two junior partners – Alliance with two ministers and the UUP with the health portfolio – but nothing comes to the table or gets passed without the approval of the two biggest parties.
No-one expected transformation to happen overnight, whether it be in health and social care, economic restructuring (both in the model and regional rebalance), or in the private and social housing sector, but with three years left of the mandate there was an opportunity to demonstrate ambition.
Yet the pace of progress has been sluggish. There’s already slippage with the legislative programme. An unbuilt Casement Park is becoming a metaphor for the regional administration.
A £25m fund to help parents with childcare costs notwithstanding, it’s difficult to identify any single strategic action taken by Stormont in its first 12 months that has impacted positively on people’s lives in a long-term way.
Health workers have had their pay rise, the worst-off pensioners are due a winter fuel payment (in spring), and belatedly a much-needed strategy has been introduced to tackle violence against women and girls.
But where are the big ideas, the measures that will improve people’s standard of living and their prospects?
Meanwhile, the near-medieval scenes that greet staff and patients in emergency departments every winter have returned, Belfast traffic has become increasingly gridlocked, and the housing crisis has deepened, with a failure invest in the wastewater system cited as the main reason. Lough Neagh won’t recover for decades; another metaphor for failure.
Consultations, announcements and signalling an intention to do something is not delivery. It’s just posturing.
Gestures of reconciliation are welcome but they don’t butter potatoes.
The phrase ‘reluctance to take difficult decisions’ comes to minds again and again. For all the talk, our leaders have yet to walk the walk.
At its worst, what’s going on resembles a complacency – or cowardice? – from Sinn Féin and the DUP caused by political advantage over respective smaller rivals that bears little relation to their record in government.
At its best it highlights a broken system that can’t accommodate anything remotely challenging.
Either way, the outcome is the same: inertia.
While we’ve been waiting for Stormont’s programme for government both the new administrations in London and Dublin have published theirs. We’re told ours is imminent but don’t expect anything that differs significantly from the broad strokes and aspirational statements of the draft.
It can only be described as an action plan if accompanied by action.
This time next year, the parties will begin thinking about the 2027 assembly election, so if political capital is to be spent, there can’t be any further delay.
Since Storm Éowyn, the first and deputy first ministers have been very visible and vocal in their response. They’ve shown decisiveness yet inadvertently, by their sudden conspicuousness, highlighted how little they’ve had to crow about in the past year.
