After seven long months, the Executive's Programme for Government is all talk and no timeline
The Northern Ireland Executive has finally agreed a draft Programme for Government, and while this may sound like progress, it’s hard not to feel underwhelmed. After seven long months of inaction, missed deadlines, and an embarrassing report from the think tank Pivotal branding the Executive’s failure as a result of "enormous shortcomings," Thursday’s announcement was supposed to be a turning point. But once again, it was nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
The press conference at Stormont Castle was nothing short of a PR exercise, with First Minister Michelle O'Neill, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly alongside the Justice and Health Ministers providing little more than vague promises and hollow reassurances. They trotted out nine so-called “priorities” for the Executive, yet there was no concrete plan, no timeline, and no measurable outcomes. We are told that more detail will come in a statement to the Assembly on Monday but how do they plan to cut health waiting times? When will they act to protect Lough Neagh? What exactly will they do to make communities safer? We’re left in the dark on all fronts.
Let’s be real, words without a plan are empty. Declaring broad goals with no details on how to achieve them is nothing more than a political tactic designed to placate the public while buying more time. Matthew O’Toole, the SDLP's Leader of the Opposition, hit the nail on the head when he acknowledged that this Executive is adept at photo ops and PR spin, but utterly lacking when it comes to delivery.
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In politics, we should judge our leaders by what they accomplish, not by what they promise to do and if we are to go on the Executive's record of the last eight years of intermittent government and little in the way of delivery, it is clear the people of Northern Ireland deserve better than politicians who excel at patting themselves on the back without achieving any meaningful progress. If anything, Thursday’s announcement only confirmed the Executive’s tendency to delay, waffle, and shy away from the hard decisions that governing requires.
The First Minister’s claim that negotiations had been “complex” is a tired excuse. Governance is complex by its very nature; it’s the job of leaders to navigate those complexities and find solutions and it is not like the parties hadn't been discussing these issues in the negotiations which preceded the restoration of the Executive earlier this year.
Instead, Emma Little-Pengelly proudly announced that they had focused on “what they could agree on,” as if that were an achievement in itself. In reality, it’s a damning indictment of their inability—or unwillingness—to confront the bigger issues where disagreement exists.
The people of Northern Ireland deserve more than vague platitudes. They deserve an Executive that is focused on solving the real and urgent problems they face every day—whether that’s crumbling healthcare, environmental degradation, or public safety. Seven months of dithering has left us no closer to those solutions, and with no real timeline for action in sight, we’re left wondering: how much longer are we supposed to wait?
It’s time for this Executive to understand that the days of coasting on slogans and staged photo ops are over. The electorate is watching, and while the next election may be just under three years away, no amount of hollow promises and meaningless motions will cover up their failures when the time for accountability comes.
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