Northern Ireland's opposition leader has accused the Stormont Executive's top leaders of "prioritising division over delivery" on the second anniversary of devolved government's restoration. Matthew O'Toole, the SDLP leader, said First Minister Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Fein and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP have failed to deliver on their own stated priorities.
The Assembly returned on February 3, 2024, ending a two-year suspension caused by DUP protest action over post-Brexit trading arrangements. O'Neill became the first nationalist First Minister upon the restoration.
Leaders refuse joint appearance
O'Toole told media that the two leaders conducted joint interviews on the first anniversary of restoration, but not this Tuesday. «They're literally divided in the sense that they won't even sit in the same room and do a joint interview to defend their record over the last two years,» he said.
He called this «a shocking indictment of the failure to work together.» O'Toole added: «The fact they won't even do that in the same room [...] does speak to a deeper need in our politics to change and reform how we do business here.»
Unfulfilled priorities
The SDLP leader criticized the Executive's failure to address urgent issues. «On day one, childcare was supposed to be a priority, along with child poverty, building social houses, fixing the crumbling waste water infrastructure,» O'Toole said. «Those are clear urgent priorities, the Executive has failed systematically to deal with them.»
O'Toole accused both parties of being «addicted» to theatrics. «This is an Executive which is good at occasional photo ops, at making nice once in a while, then one minute later when it suits they'll turn round and have theatrical fallings out, tribal nonsense, that's the oldest trick in the book, but Sinn Fein and the DUP are addicted to it,» he said.
The Assembly previously experienced a three-year suspension from 2017 to 2020 after Sinn Fein collapsed the government. O'Toole said the SDLP as a «constructive Opposition» will continue pressing for reforms «so we can focus on delivery, focus on the public's needs, not just stop this place collapsing but make it work better.»
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
