Just before midnight New Year’s Eve, I will open the back door to let the old year out.
To be honest, I am less sure about opening the front door as we are starting 2021 where we left off in 2020 with Covid restrictions and a very dysfunctional Stormont administration.
Remember the optimism in January 2020 with the New Decade, New Approach promises which were to accompany the return of a power sharing executive? Don’t worry if you don’t, as those who signed the deal have forgotten it too.
At the time of writing, the education minister is rigidly sticking to the absurd notion that primary school children should sit transfer tests in January. This would seem to be more motivated by ideological zeal than any rational approach to measuring academic performance during a pandemic.
But if a minister believes children of ten years of age should stand or fall on a singular performance, then how much more so should the ministers be judged on the record of a whole year?
Let’s start at the top with Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill. To their credit they started well but soon derailed. Both have been undermined by their own parties. O’Neill faced an almost unprecedented challenge to her position as northern leader from John O’Dowd.
Foster has endured a year of sniping from the DUP sidelines and stupid stunts by contrarian MPs. As a joint office the two politicians needed to be on the same page but only these two could turn a pandemic into a constitutional issue. O’Neill lost all credibility on public health messaging in the aftermath of the Storey funeral. As a team, the Executive Office is a big failure. In terms of individual performance, Foster is the better communicator.
The best of the Sinn Féin ministers is undoubtedly the competent Conor Murphy. He has been workmanlike and ploughed away at creating a range of innovative financial support schemes during the pandemic. He has obviously learned a lot since his last ministerial term.
It’s hard to evaluate either Deirdre Hargey and Carál Ní Chuilín who shared the communities portfolio during this difficult year for arts and social enterprises.
Robin Swann has been consistently outstanding. He failed as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party but has resurrected his reputation as a minister of health. Swann always sounds sombre but these are sobering days. At times he looks as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders which is unsurprising given the wrangling between Sinn Féin and the DUP who dip in and out of public health messaging as it suits them.
Colum Eastwood, whilst not in the executive, has proven Mark Durkan wrong by competently leading the SDLP from Westminster. Since January, he has hardly put a foot wrong in the handling of the pandemic and Brexit. However, to use a football analogy, his executive workhorse in midfield is Nichola Mallon, the infrastructure minister. She is solidly dependable and delivers.
Naomi Long, Alliance leader and justice minister, is a skilful politician though the ministry somewhat limits her obvious talents. The profile of Chris Lyttle, chair of the education committee has risen considerably which is no bad thing in a party dominated by a singularly popular figure.
Edwin Poots is one of the contrarian DUP figures who Arlene Foster has to contend with inside the executive and his apparent undermining of her also damages his own standing. That said, he is a pragmatic minister.
Which is more than can be said of Peter Weir. He is an earnest politician but is too dogmatic when testing times require adaptability. Diane Dodds occasionally seems overwhelmed by the scale of her post and the full impact of Brexit has yet to hit the economy.
If the ministers were given an end of term report, it might read: “ Has ability, tries hard, could do more. Improvements expected with more combined effort”.
