Opinion

Analysis: Any future Stormont executive needs a change in attitude

Ian Knox cartoon 14/12/19 
Ian Knox cartoon 14/12/19  Ian Knox cartoon 14/12/19 

A FRESH round of talks begins at Stormont today, nearly two years on from the agreement that never was. While accounts of the detail differ, it is widely accepted that the DUP's negotiating team was ready to sign off on a deal in February 2018, only for its assembly members to veto the agreement, primarily due to its concessions on the Irish language.

Recoiling from the results of Thursday's Westminster election, there must be a substantial degree of regret in the DUP and Sinn Féin leaderships that they didn't see that deal over the line.

We've had three elections since and while the message from voters in May's European and local government elections wasn't entirely clear, the outcome of the general election was as unambiguous as it gets. Both Stormont's two biggest parties suffered serious setbacks. The DUP's loss of two MPs coupled with its failure to take North Down was a very obvious demonstration of an emerging electoral vulnerability but it was Sinn Féin, despite gaining an MP, which shed the most support.

Conversely, the SDLP, Alliance and the Ulster Unionists all grew their share of the vote, suggesting that if there were to be an assembly election in the near future, representation at Stormont would be more diffuse than it has been for the past decade or more.

This new reality is said to be a key motivating factor for the DUP and Sinn Féin as they embark on a new round of negotiations but it will also likely influence the character of a restored executive.

One characteristic of the previous DUP-Sinn Féin-dominated executive was a tendency to use ministers from smaller parties as 'mudguards', eschewing any sense of collective responsibility and heaping public blame on their minority partners. Arguably the best examples of this was the almost constant criticism heaped on UUP health minister Michael McGimpsey and that later directed at his party colleague Danny Kennedy over failing street lights – an issue that hasn't necessarily been resolved successfully since.

In the aftermath of the 2016 assembly election, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists hit the nuclear button and went into opposition, a move facilitated by fresh legislation. Alliance didn't have the necessary quota of MLAs to officially qualify as opposition though it did decline the offer of the justice minister's job, leaving Stormont's two biggest parties to work together on their own.

The DUP and Sinn Féin found this a very uncomfortable situation and it could be argued that the criticism from the opposition benches precipitated the collapse of the institutions in January 2017.

Sinn Féin has explicitly stated that it wants the smaller parties to join the executive, though so far any commitment from the junior partners has been conditional on genuine power-sharing. As well as providing cover for the larger parties and nullifying any major opposition, this approach also enlarges the pool from which ministers are drawn, an issue which could gain greater significance as the possibility of agreement approaches.

Some have questioned the calibre of personnel in the current crop of Stormont representatives, when compared to their predecessors, a situation made worse by the fact that three of the most capable MLAs – Colum Eastwood, Claire Hanna and Stephen Farry – are now MPs and unavailable for selection.

Given the gravity of the tasks in hand for any restored executive – tackling the crises in health, education and climate – it is vital that Stormont's new ministers undertake their duties in a an earnest and professional manner. There'll be no room for the sort of personal patronage which saw Jonathan Bell given a seat at the executive table.

Next time around, the people deserve better.