Debate contribution: Executive Progress

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 19 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

19 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Executive Progress

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5322024

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Happy new year to you and to everyone in the Assembly. I am afraid that, so far, it has not been a new year blessed with delivery, focus and purpose from the Northern Ireland Executive. If you were to turn to the Executive Office website, the Executive Office being the Department that is the organising hub of devolved Government, you might expect to see a new year message, perhaps from the First Minister and deputy First Minister, of purpose, focus and energy, telling the public of the North what they can expect to see in this last full year of the Executive mandate. If you were to go on that website, you might expect to see clarity about what the priorities are for the First Minister and deputy First Minister and the entire Executive. If you thought that, you would be wrong, because, if you go to the Executive Office website, the last communication from that Department that you will see is from 11 December. Some statistics were published a day or two after that, but the last message is about a visit to London by the junior Ministers. I am sure that was very important and a useful engagement. The last piece of public communication from the Executive Office was more than a month ago. That speaks to something deeply troubling about our devolved Government. We are drifting towards the end of the mandate without any focus, purpose or urgency to deliver for the public of the North, and I do not think that it is good enough. No doubt I will be accused today of being negative. It is an accusation that is often levelled at me and my colleagues in the Opposition, and that is fine. Opposition politicians are there to be robust and to hold Ministers to account. That is our job, so we do not worry about being accused of being negative, but the public of Northern Ireland are far ahead of the Opposition. If you think that we are negative, you should go out and talk to your constituents, knock on the doors, stand on the street and hear what they have to say about delivery by the Executive. I promise you that it will be a hell of a lot more negative than I am and a hell of a lot more negative and scathing than my colleagues in the Opposition, because the public are deeply frustrated and insulted by what passes for devolved Government here in Northern Ireland. Two years ago, we were promised that a restored Executive would focus on doing what matters most. In fact, we were promised a programme for delivery. The First Minister and deputy First Minister both promised that there would be a focus on delivery. There is apparently a new delivery unit. We were told that we would have regular, annual updates on delivery against the Programme for Government targets. As far as I am aware, there has not been a single report yet. I am not aware of any report on the update on the delivery of the Programme for Government. In fact, it would be a pretty short update were it to come. It could almost be one line, because delivery has not been good enough. Our motion today is not simply about casting blame; it is about finding a way forward. It is about finding a better and more constructive way forward because the truth is that we simply cannot go on like this. The two main Executive parties are at one another's throats. They cannot agree on a draft multi-year Budget. They are indulging in petty sham fights in order to generate attention and to distract from their abysmal failure to deliver, and the public are over it. They have had it now for nearly two decades.

All the while, waiting lists have got worse; environmental degradation has intensified; our public services have declined; and the public simply want better. The bare minimum that they were promised two years ago was clarity and a plan. The Executive have failed consistently to deliver that.

Let me take the issues in turn, the first of which is the Executive's legislative programme. In spring 2024, the Executive published a very mild and fairly unambitious legislative programme. It was so unambitious that the First Minister and the deputy First Minister were at pains to say that it was not the limit of their aspirations. Well, they still have not delivered that 2024 legislative programme. Of the, I believe, 18 pieces of legislation that were promised in the programme, only a handful have made it to the statute book so far. Where are the landmark pieces of legislation that we were promised? I will pick out two in particular, because we need to be focused on specific areas where there has not been delivery. The first is the 'good jobs' Bill. We have been told consistently for more than two years that the delivery of a 'good jobs' Bill would be a major priority of the new Sinn Féin Economy Minister. Conor Murphy launched a consultation, which we welcomed, way back in early 2024. We are now two years on from that point. I do not know where the 'good jobs' Bill is, nor do I know whether the First Minister and the deputy First Minister know where it is. The public and the workers should be told, because they were promised landmark generational employment rights legislation, but we do not know where it is. If it is not introduced soon, it will be difficult for it to pass before the end of the mandate. I worry that that is the plan. I worry that the plan is to delay, delay, delay, and, if the Bill is not passed, someone else can be blamed. The Sinn Féin Minister can blame the DUP for blocking it in the Executive, or the Assembly can be blamed for not progressing it. I will move on to another piece of legislation: the legislation on hate crime. I am picking only two pieces of legislation, though I could pick a lot. The Alliance Party manifesto promised stand-alone hate crime legislation. Since we have been back, we have seen the epidemic of hate crime spike online and in person. There was a hate fest — a riot — in the middle of Belfast in August 2024. People ran riot through my constituency. There was a near-pogrom on the streets of Ballymena last year. You would have expected the Executive to show more urgency, not just on the racial equality strategy, which has not yet been updated, but on hate crime legislation. I do not know where the hate crime legislation is. The Justice Minister says that it is due to be part of the sentencing Bill, but I do not know where the sentencing Bill is. I could go on. I could go through the legislative programme and the vague, waffly Programme for Government, such as it is, and talk about the lack of delivery. The Programme for Government talked about social houses. In one of its very few areas of specific promise, it said that the Executive would seek to build 5,800 homes. That was admirably specific, compared with the rest of the Programme for Government. However, we know, almost definitely, that the Executive will not deliver 5,800 social homes. They may come nowhere near to meeting that target. We know that the Executive promised the transformation of healthcare. The Bengoa report was published 10 years ago, when the First Minister was Health Minister. A decade has passed since the Bengoa report was launched, and we still have no clarity. It has been sitting for so long that there probably are people who have finally managed to have their hips or knees replaced while they have been waiting for the Bengoa report to be implemented. Nothing has happened. The justice system continues to be shamefully slow. It continues to clog up victims and witnesses in a process that does not deliver for them. The list goes on and on. The multi-year Budget, which was announced by the Finance Minister, a couple of weeks ago, is not a draft multi-year Budget at all; in fact, it is a draft draft multi-year Budget. The first thing that happened after the apposition was that the other main party in government, the DUP, came out and said, "We do not agree with the draft multi-year Budget". What are the public in the North supposed to make of a Government who publish a draft Budget that they cannot even agree on amongst themselves in the Executive?

I see the deputy First Minister there: I am happy to allow her to intervene if she wants to give me an update on the agreement on the draft multi-year Budget.

That is not true, but here is the thing, deputy First Minister: we are not debating the SDLP's record in government. You jointly lead the Government now, so, deputy First Minister, if you are not going to support a draft multi-year Budget — something that you promised — come clean and tell the public. Two years ago, the two of you were good at taking photo opportunities together. Now, you do not even do that, because you see a joint political interest, as we get close to an election, in simply picking fights with one another — in having fights over flags and falling out theatrically. It does not really matter whether the public get an improved health service, whether potholes get filled or whether schools get built, as long as the DUP and Sinn Féin can fall out theatrically before an election, as they always do. All the things that I have said today about the legislative programme not being delivered and a draft multi-year Budget not being agreed do not really matter. I will get sneering looks from Sinn Féin and DUP Members, but you should ask yourselves why the public have such contempt for our politics. They have such contempt for our politics, because your parties cannot and will not deliver. Shame on the Executive and their failure to deliver, and shame on you for the contempt that you have held the public in for far too long. The Executive are not delivering. We will continue to hold you to account for that, and we will offer constructive solutions as to how to do it better. I hope that you take us up on those offers.

1,759 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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