SDLP Slams Executive's 'Failure To Engage Seriously On Reform'

The SDLP has criticised the Executive for its "failure to engage seriously on reform at Stormont".

Leader of the Opposition, Matthew O'Toole MLA, was speaking ahead of an SDLP motion on Tuesday (05 November) urging the Executive to re-establish the Executive sub-committee on Reform and to include specific outcomes on reform in the Programme for Government.

The SDLP Opposition is urging the Executive to bring forward reform that both prevents one party collapsing the Executive, and also finally delivers on the reform promised in 2020 in New Decade, New Approach following the publication of the RHI Inquiry report.

South Belfast MLA Mr O'Toole said: "After two lengthy collapses of the Stormont institutions that left us without a government for five of the past seven years, and the fiasco of the RHI scandal, it was widely accepted that we couldn't continue with Stormont in its current form. We had Executive parties committing themselves to reform in their election manifestos, at Westminster committees and in Stormont itself. Since the return of the Executive earlier this year they have not lifted one finger to deliver on those promises. "While it is unsurprising that Sinn Féin and the DUP are relaxed about retaining their respective vetoes and leaving Stormont largely unreformed, it is also clear that the Alliance Party has done nothing to make a reality of reform – despite trumpeting their own ownership of the reform agenda.

"When the Assembly returned we used our first Opposition Day to highlight the need for reform, but were told the Assembly and Executive Review Committee would be taking this forward. Indeed, Sinn Féin, the DUP and Alliance agreed that this dusty Bleak House-style institution should be charged with leading reform. This is a committee that has met just once, briefly, since Stormont returned and has brought nothing forward of substance. The Executive's own sub-committee on reform has not met since 2020 and that typifies how seriously these parties take Assembly reform.

"Nowhere is this more evident than in their failure to deliver on the recommendations of the RHI Inquiry. This scandal cost the public purse hundreds of millions, Sinn Féin collapsed the government and now their own Ministers have failed to implement these findings. These parties have shown no meaningful commitment to change. We saw with the recent appearance of the First Minister before the Executive Office Committee the contempt they have for good governance and transparency, and indeed the scandalous pushing out of the June monitoring round as a so-called mini-budget just days before the General Election.

"The Executive parties at Stormont may have no commitment or seriousness when it comes to reform, but the SDLP Opposition intends to call them out at every turn."