Member's statement: Executive Delivery
Member's statement by Mr Matthew O'Toole on .
- MLA
- Mr Matthew O'Toole
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 1 July 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Executive Delivery
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5061101
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Today is the last day that we will sit in a plenary meeting before the summer break. In the past couple of weeks, families will have been looking at their children's report cards; they will have been looking at how their kids have been doing in school and college and thinking about how best to support them in the next stage of their education. Therefore, it is the right time to look at how the Executive have done. We are now more than 500 days in to the new Executive, who were formed in February 2024 after a two-year delay. When the Executive were formed, they promised the people of Northern Ireland that they would take action on health waiting lists, social housing and the disgraceful ecological catastrophe in our biggest natural resource: Lough Neagh. Critically, they promised that the life-saving A5 infrastructure project would be delivered. Gaels and people who want to see the development of west Belfast were promised that Casement Park would be delivered. Parents who are struggling with the cost of childcare were promised not just some support but a comprehensive childcare strategy. I am afraid that I, as leader of the Opposition, have to report today that none of those things has been delivered by the Executive. In fact, they are nowhere near to being delivered. The public deserve so much better than what they have received from the Executive. In the spirit of being detailed, I will go through where we are with some of those things. The Programme for Government promised 6,000 social homes by the end of the mandate. This year, if we are lucky, barely 1,000 will be built, so that target can be written off. On the A5, the then Infrastructure Minister — the now Finance Minister — failed to get the paperwork done. That project has been thrown into severe jeopardy. Who knows whether it will ever be built? It certainly will not be built in this mandate. On Lough Neagh — our biggest natural resource is an open-air cesspool — Sinn Féin joined the DUP in voting against the critical, fundamental action proposed in the Lough Neagh action plan. We heard a couple of weeks ago about an additional allocation from the UK Government for Casement Park, but, as yet, there is no plan. There is no sense of where the rest of the money is going to be found or of when the project is going to be delivered. There has been some funding for the childcare strategy, but that has been wiped out by the additional rises that families have faced. There is no comprehensive childcare strategy as yet. My SDLP colleagues and I promised to be a constructive Opposition, and we have been. Being a constructive Opposition means standing up for the people of Northern Ireland, who deserve so much better than the sound bites, photo ops and nonsense that they have received from the Executive. The First Minister claimed yesterday that she would not deliver the A5 by sound bites. In that case, I do not know how she is going to deliver it, because all that she has at the minute is sound bites.
I worry that our public are going to become totally disillusioned. We deserve so much better than what we are getting from the Executive.
555 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.09 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.83).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.93).
- Subject area: Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.07 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.04 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.07 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.07 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.83 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.09 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.93 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.06 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.47 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.22 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.11 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.09 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.05 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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