Debate contribution: Holding Ministers to Account

Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 10 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Paula Bradshaw

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

10 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Holding Ministers to Account

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5225047

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The motion before us today addresses what the Alliance Party views as one of the greatest threats to the stability of devolution, and that is the structural failure of accountability. Across the institutions, there is fundamental and dangerous imbalance. Ministers are given immense power, but the mechanisms to hold them to account are weak, inconsistent and often paralysed by political deadlock. That is not a theoretical concern: we have seen repeatedly how that systemic weakness erodes public trust and damages the integrity of government here. We have seen crises around the renewable heat incentive (RHI) and Red Sky that have shown spectacular mismanagement and colossal failure of duty, yet there was no political or institutional means to ensure that the Minister involved was promptly removed or sanctioned. We have witnessed Ministers acting unilaterally and taking critical policy decisions without collective Executive agreement. In those cases, it has fallen to the courts, as I just mentioned to Mr Brett, not the Assembly, to rule that Ministers have acted unlawfully or outside their legal duty. That failure means that the ministerial code is treated more like a set of optional guidelines than mandatory standards. Crucially, that is why the Functioning of Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, which was introduced by Mr Gaston's predecessor, is so important. Its core purpose was sound. It aimed to strengthen the legal duties around collective responsibility and prevent Ministers from acting as solitary agents. The Act was intended to codify the expectation that Ministers work together, ensuring that decisions are not taken unilaterally but are legally and explicitly bound by the collective will of the Executive. I will pick up on Mr Brett's point towards the end of his speech. He criticised the call in the motion. I understand why he put that at the feet of the First Minister and deputy First Minister because they are the co-chairs of the Executive Government here.

Yes, I agree. They need to take full ownership of addressing the deficit here. We must be clear that legislation that dictates how the Executive should function is only half the battle. The Assembly has failed to create and implement the internal institutional enforcement mechanisms that are required to make the Act meaningful. For the Alliance Party, achieving real accountability requires two key changes to the institutions.

We need a clear, independent and transparent process for dealing with breaches of the ministerial code that removes the power of sanction from the partisan politics of the Executive. That process must apply to everyone, regardless of party or position. Furthermore, when a Minister acts outside their authority or contrary to the law, breaching the collective principles that the 2021 Act reinforced, it must ultimately be the authority of the Assembly, representing the people, that delivers the consequence. We should also note the ongoing importance of ensuring that Ministers neither act in a way that glorifies terrorism or paramilitarism nor show favour to those who participated in such things. Their task is to heal wounds, not repeat them. Accountability cannot depend on political convenience or legal rulings after the damage is done; it must be built into the system. Our goal in the Assembly is to forge institutions that are stable because they are fair, transparent and bound by consequence, not because they are frozen by inertia. We will not support the Sinn Féin amendment. I will allow my colleague Michelle Guy, who sits on the AER Committee, to speak to that. I have spoken to Mr Gaston about the ability of the Commissioner for Standards to put forward sanctions. The TUV amendment removes the provision for reform, which is a key part of the Alliance Party's aspirations for this place. Reforming our internal systems is the only way to honour the promise of partnership agreement. Let us move forward from a system that shields Ministers to one that earns unequivocal public trust.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:43 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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