Only delivery can breathe new life into devolution – Alex Kane

It’s surprising how many MLAs seemed miffed when Hilary Benn, having said there are “no easy answers”, further told them that the Executive, “like all governments, must live within its means (and) we will support it as it seeks to transform Northern Ireland’s public services”.

That makes sense to me. The point always needed to be reached at which the Executive finally realised that it wasn’t going to be bunged yet more cash just to keep the show on the road.

That’s been the habit down the years: jump from crisis to crisis, leave key issues unaddressed altogether, cobble together some sort of reboot and then demand (and there really isn’t a more accurate description for it) a billion or so for a heap of problems which haven’t been properly prioritised.

Even the recently-published Draft Programme for Government (which is out for consultation until November 4, followed by another few weeks of the individual departments trawling through the responses) fell into the usual hole.

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It listed nine ‘immediate’ priorities, but only after the consultation is complete and the final PfG is in place will it properly prioritise the commitments. Then it’s only at that point that the Executive “will still need to work together to develop and agree detailed policies before delivery begins”.

The reason for this torturous rigmarole is that the Executive still hasn’t grasped the reality of governance: you govern collectively, underpinned by joint responsibility. That’s the easiest and most cost-effective way of prioritising both spending and overall strategy.

The silo approach – with each department and Executive party doing its own thing and prioritising nothing higher than self-credit – has been and will continue to be a disaster.

Within hours of the draft PfG being published, the individual parties were making the pitches for their own ministers and extolling the virtues of their own policies.

No praise for each other. No sense of ‘being in this together for the better of everyone’. And I’m fairly sure that all of the parties will be encouraging responses to the consultation from individuals and groups which support their particular policies. It’s a stupid way of doing government.

Mr Benn was also right when he said: “We get the Executive needs to be able to plan for the future so we will take forward discussions on a long-term fiscal framework. And we will work with the Executive to see all parts of Northern Ireland flourish.”

That, of course, is the most sensible approach. The Executive is going to need more money than is available right now: and more than the additional funding which might be made available when the UK budget is published in October.

But I don’t see the Chancellor offering money without fully thought-through prioritising; and nor do I see her funding the vanity projects of individual ministers or departments.

The Executive needs to meet her with a jointly agreed PfG and with a plan of action which will stretch over a number of years. And yes, that will mean that some departments and ministers and parties will have to wait longer than others. Maybe even wait until after the next election in 2027.

My gut instinct is that the public will wait if it sees the demonstrable evidence of the Executive working together and making real progress on other key issues. And I also think the Chancellor will be inclined to show more flexibility if she believes that the Executive is working together on the same game plan.

Everybody knows there is no quick fix. What really makes them angry, though, is the seeming inability to even achieve slow fixes.

The other thing the NIO and Chancellor will be looking for is stability. The history of the Executive is a chequered one. No stability between 1999 (when the first Executive was formed) and 2007 (when the DUP and SF cut their deal). Mostly stable from 2007 until the end of 2016 (although there were a lot of crises, standoffs and rescue packages). And from 2017 to now the Executive has been down for five years and a bit cantankerous for the other three.

I think stability is going to be the yardstick by which the Chancellor will decide economic support. Maybe that’s why Gavin Robinson promised at the DUP conference that he wouldn’t withdraw from the assembly again. And Sinn Féin, which is having a tough time in the south, will also be staying put.

Right now it’s in the joint interests of the big two to keep the show on the road. But keeping the show on the road must also mean delivery: the sort of delivery which will lift spirits and breathe new life into devolution here.