Member's statement: Legislative Programme

Member's statement by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 2 December 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

2 December 2024

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Legislative Programme

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4686397

Read the official Assembly record

Text

We now have the Order Papers for the rest of 2024, thanks to your good office. We know that, before the end of this year, we will debate the motion to extend or not extend the protocol. We also know that the Executive will not deliver on the legislation programme that they put before the Assembly earlier this year. They will not just not deliver on it; they will barely get halfway through the legislation programme that was presented to the Assembly earlier this year. On 11 June, the First Minister and deputy First Minister tabled a motion in the Assembly, asking us to note the Executive's legislation programme, which, at the time, it has to be said, was modest. It was a modest, slimmed-down legislation programme, and we were told that it was important to be realistic. Often, we, as politicians, hear about the importance of under-promising and over-delivering. Well, it appears that the Executive have under-promised and under-delivered. The legislative programme was full of limp, technical but important legislation — things like a financial provisions Bill, which is about giving legal authority to various Departments to spend certain types of money. That is important, but it is technical. By the way, it could have been prepared — I assume that there were civil servants preparing it — while this institution was in abeyance. We also expected to see by now a Fiscal Council Bill to put on a statutory footing the independent spending watchdog that has existed for a number of years. There was a range of other pieces of legislation, few of them particularly substantive. Of the 18 that we were promised earlier this year, by my count, half — barely 50% — will reach the Assembly. By the way, the legislation programme did not promise to get those things on the statute book or even to debate them at Second Stage: it was just about introducing legislation. Let me repeat that: the Executive have delivered barely half of their legislation programme. Let that sink in. We returned here in February with a promise to deliver. We have come here day after day and debated motion after motion, promising big things. We promised the people who sent us here that the Executive and Assembly would be focused on delivery, but the legislation programme simply is not being delivered. I am afraid that the job of the Opposition is to call out that kind of nonsense. Where are the Ministers who should be telling us where the legislation is? Let me, at least, pay tribute, which I do not always do, to the Justice Minister, who has introduced probably the most substantive legislation — the Justice Bill — which is being interrogated. At least it is there to be interrogated. The rest of the legislation programme simply has not been introduced. Why not? Where is it? If we want this place to have some kind of reputation for delivery and not to be seen simply as a dysfunctional, ridiculous place on a hill, we actually have to do what we say we will do. Let us have an explanation for where all of that legislation is.

528 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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