Politics

Gerry Carroll: Solutions must overcome Stormont’s fundamental flaws

The Irish News asked each of the parties represented at Stormont how they would make devolved government more stable. Today, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll argues that instability is guaranteed in the way the assembly is built

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll. Picture by Cliff Donaldson
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll. Picture by Cliff Donaldson People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll. Picture by Cliff Donaldson

AS bills continue to rise, so too does anger about the stasis at Stormont. But despite the urgent need to address the cost-of-living crisis, few could claim to be surprised about the impasse or the DUP’s impervious attitude to people’s plight.

This is just the latest political fallout in a state with a default crisis setting, one which has consistently failed to deliver for ordinary people. Recognition of this fact should not raise questions about whether Stormont can be restored but, rather, whether political institutions so fundamentally flawed should be resurrected at all.

Instability is guaranteed by an Assembly built and run on the basis of communal designations and divisions.

When the Good Friday Agreement was signed, a critical minority warned that the accord would effectively ‘institutionalise sectarianism’. Understandably, the desire for peace trumped those concerns, but that should not preclude an honest assessment of the resultant political failures.

The DUP is simply exercising a veto on power-sharing as enshrined in Stormont’s sectarian institutions.

Unfortunately, the denial of democracy extends beyond the Assembly boycott. We’ve seen the sectarian veto – under the guise of the petition of concern - used to thwart things like same-sex marriage, reproductive rights and Irish language legislation.

Time and again, popular movements have forced the Tories to legislate for their demands where Stormont has failed.

Stormont is broken and those in power have no plan to fix it. Persistent and protracted suspensions aside, this axiom was further demonstrated by the Secretary of State during the recent elections debacle.

Proposed reform of the institutions to allow for a voluntary coalition finds significant currency in this context.

Such a move would be welcome, but it would only be a stopgap measure that will not cure the sectarian rot at the heart of the northern state.

Even the DUP’s boycott of the Assembly has a sectarian dynamic. The party has reverted to its familiar tactic of stoking inter-communal tensions – this time over the protocol – to revive its ailing political fortunes.

However, the DUP faces an intractable problem. Its boycott gambit, aimed at winning back votes, has simultaneously fuelled conversations about Irish unity. Similarly, growing support for joint authority – flawed as it might be – indicate that people are looking to solutions beyond Stormont.

Democrats in name, the DUP arrogantly believes it has an innate right to veto Irish unity. People Before Profit utterly rejects this notion and believe people across this island should be given an imminent say on our constitutional future. That said, we reject the disquieting nationalist vision of a united Ireland, expounded by Sinn Féin, which will leave corporate welfare virtually untouched.

The crisis at Stormont should act as a catalyst in reshaping this island for the benefit of the majority and in moving beyond partition. That conversation must look at an all-Ireland NHS, the right to a home, and on a radical redistribution of wealth through taxation of the rich.

After 25 years of failure, illusions in the ability of Stormont to truly deliver are quickly waning. Where the politics of nationalism and unionism have failed the north, so too has the conservative politics of the southern establishment.

A better future lies beyond the failed states of the north and south, but it will be for our communities to unite and to mobilise to win real change. That fight must be taken up in the social and economic struggles of people across this island in the here and now.

Read more: 

  • Matthew O'Toole: Overcoming the politics of deadlock and confrontation
  • Michelle O'Neill: No fundamental change without people's consent
  • Naomi Long: Reform essential for Stormont's survival