Opinion

ANALYSIS: A year on from Stormont's restoration it's a case of same old, same old...

Simon Coveney and Julian Smith announce the restoration of the Stormont institutions. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire
Simon Coveney and Julian Smith announce the restoration of the Stormont institutions. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire Simon Coveney and Julian Smith announce the restoration of the Stormont institutions. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire

THE deal a year ago which led to the restoration of the Stormont institutions arrived with some toe-curling hubris and self-congratulation. Coaxed up the aisle by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and then Secretary of State Julian Smith, the DUP and Sinn Féin renewed their vows in Stormont’s marriage of convenience.

A health service on its knees, overseen for the previous three years by a civil servant, was crying out for reform. A strained, underfunded education system was pleading for a minister to return it to its once-lauded ‘world class’ status, while a floundering regional economy, bereft of the necessary skills for the 21st century, needed a fresh figurehead to transform and rebalance it.

The cavalry duly arrived and the accompanying New Decade New Approach document set out how the rebooted executive planned to usher in a new era of governance that left a culture of secrecy and side deals behind.

Instead of the dysfunction that finally imploded in 2017 around the self-inflicted RHI scandal, Stormont’s parties signed up to a series of pledges that if implemented would transform the previous lumbering, reactionary administration into one of the most effective and open governments in Europe.

Alas, the newlyweds had no sooner finished their honeymoon than their plans were to falter – seemingly not because of a lack of will and determination but due to a global pandemic that robbed New Stormont- Nua-Cnoc an Anfa- of its momentum for change.

There had of course been hints before coronavirus arrived that New Decade New Approach was nothing more than a list of lofty aspirations which would be ignored once feet were firmly back under the executive table. Beyond making the very public appointment of special advisers and publishing their salaries, there was little to differentiate the administration from what had gone before.

With lockdown imposed, the commitments to transform Northern Ireland's public services and its economy, tackle climate change and finally grasping the nettle of sectarianism fell by the wayside, as the executive’s energies became solely focused on stemming the spread of Covid-19.

Initially, the DUP and Sinn Féin presented a united front, insofar as they relegated the smaller parties to bit player roles in the executive drama, hammering out deals between them ahead of meetings then presenting them pre-cooked for approval to the sole SDLP, Ulster Unionist and Alliance ministers.

But soon, with an air of inevitability, the new-found partnership at Stormont’s helm fractured as senior Sinn Féin figures flouted their own public health guidelines by attending the funeral of Bobby Storey in June. With a degree of justification, Arlene Foster refused to take part in joint press conferences with her counterpart Michelle O’Neill. It was a public manifestation of the mutual distrust and antipathy that permeates the institutions, hostilities that are only paused when both big parties can garner some selfish advantage.

There is scant evidence of a ‘new approach’ and every indication that Stormont has lapsed into its old ways, with the Covid crisis providing cover for yet more side deals and even less transparency. There’s every indication that the silo mentality has returned and the art of can-kicking further refined.

The debacle earlier this week over tightening coronavirus regulations is a case in point. Two days of wrangling followed by piecemeal information, badly disseminated, accompanied by what appears to be a clear reluctance to take responsibility for collective decisions.

The new post-Covid era, when it finally arrives, will demand a genuine new approach that goes beyond rhetoric. The same old, same old attitude will not only be ineffective – it may well prove electorally costly.