{"id":480050,"date":"2026-05-12T00:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/480050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T00:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:48:20","slug":"the-ni-executive-can-work-better-heres-how-a-review-of-the-latest-constitution-unit-report-slugger-otoole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/480050\/","title":{"rendered":"The NI Executive can work better. Here\u2019s how. A review of the latest Constitution Unit Report \u2013 Slugger O’Toole"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCL\u2019s Constitution Unit has done something remarkable. They\u2019ve produced a report on the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive, Towards a Programme of Reform <\/a>that\u2019s understated. Perhaps they think that NI politics is\u00a0 no longer quite the glaring anomaly compared to the upheavals across the water? \u00a0But no. The litany of failure is \u00a0fully recognised. The \u00a0perverse creation of power sharing as a brake on progress not\u00a0 an accelerator. The Assembly sitting out for five out of nine years, the evasion of huge problems, a reluctance \u00a0to raise extra revenue even in better times to make an impact on the appalling hospital waiting lists, crumbling infrastructure, \u00a0polluted water sources. Blame the system, the Brits, the Irish, certainly the other guy across the big ministerial table. Anybody but themselves. \u00a0This is what \u00a0cuts through to the public who despite it all nevertheless still broadly support communal or sectarian politics, though with declining enthusiasm. Ultimately it still makes them feel safe. The tradition of sharing out between unionist and nationalist rather than genuinely sharing has proved remarkably robust in the new era \u00a0of equality and equal treatment. \u00a0A third way led by the Alliance party remains in third place with no sign of breakthrough into left -right politics. \u00a0The mind numbing complexity of the processes passes most people by. So we are left trying to make the existing system work better. \u00a0Can an elite debate within the political class broaden \u00a0and deepen beyond it? This appears to be the hope. And this report is billed as a new start.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, a \u00a0urgent debate is needed \u00a0says the CU, \u00a0to ease rising tensions in the Assembly. \u00a0While \u00a0on the other hand, don\u2019t \u00a0for heaven\u2019s sake try anything ambitious. It\u2019s like a doctor listing \u00a0the patient\u2019s multiple ailments to their face and suggesting an aspirin. So leave the big reforms alone. Direct rule, joint authority aren\u2019t even mentioned. Everyone\u2019s \u00a0favourite idea \u00a0outside the two main parties , a voluntary coalition with or without a weighted majority is definitely ruled out; going with it would only \u00a0make things worse. This is a pity. \u00a0Commentary and analysis are all very well but the time for prescription is long overdue. \u00a0\u201c Compulsory\u201d power sharing deprives the people of the main catalyst\u00a0 for change, \u00a0elections that \u00a0\u00a0\u201cthrow the bastards out,\u201d rather than the paralysing effect of perpetually voting them into government and offering only a choice of prizes. \u00a0\u00a0For the \u201cessential review\u201d the CU wants to see, they recommend just a nudge here, a nudge there, hoping that the logic of the situation will work wonders with just a little more effort and a few more ideas. But when you survey the wreckage \u00a0of past reviews with their pathetically optimistic titles like the government sponsored Stormont House Agreement: Fresh Start in 2015 \u00a0and New Decade new Approach in 2020 \u00a0\u00a0you may wonder why \u00a0the CU want to leave it to themselves this time. Cunning plan or counsel of despair?<\/p>\n

And yet.. Suppressed at the back of their minds they all know the score. It appears in every Assembly mandate as a Programme of Government wish list that\u2019s never implemented. There is no measure or reform under the sun that hasn\u2019t be aired, \u00a0starting in about 2002 when Mark Durkan the SDLP\u2019s then DfM wanted to start dismantling \u201c the ugly scaffolding\u201d around \u00a0the structures. Why should it be different this time?<\/p>\n

One big thing is different this time. The looming threat of a Budget crisis is real. \u00a0\u00a0Westminster\u2019s custom of \u00a0bailing out the Executive\u2019s \u00a0budget is over. \u00a0Rachel Reeves\u2019 iron- clad fiscal rules won\u2019t allow it. A legacy \u00a0premium will no longer subsidise the disappointingly small economic peace dividend . Northern Ireland still enjoys a 124% level of \u00a0English spending according to the Barnett formula. \u00a0\u00a0But \u00a0124% of what? The English fiscal floor of 100% \u00a0starts a continuous decline this year. Experts agree that the level of need NI ranges from 128%- 132%. \u00a0And the Executive is heading for a \u00a3400mn overspend they\u2019ll have to pay back from reducing resources. \u00a0So how do they fill the gap? \u00a0Even if they try to evade it they\u2019ll be held responsible for it anyway. The Executive is confronted with a choice of raising extra revenue at a difficult time or savage cuts, probably both. \u00a0The choices mean trade -offs and setting real targets across the piece with outcomes described, a change in \u00a0the practice for half a lifetime. \u00a0Faced with the choices, precedent suggests \u00a0that rather than dealing with them they \u00a0will walk away. This I suspect is the Constitution Unit\u2019s unspoken fear.<\/p>\n

Up to now the Assembly has been only too happy to divert to the identity issues of confidence, like the present rumbling dispute \u00a0over dual language street names, regarded by Sinn Fein as a test case for parity of esteem and the DUP as an alien \u00a0encroachment on their space. \u00a0Is there another motive here, that by \u00a0boldly entering unionist territory in this way they are provoking unionist intransigence and show the limitations to \u00a0making the northern state work? We can probably dismiss the unworthy thought that Sinn Fein are seeking a pretext to quit the Assembly and\u00a0 stake all on working for a border poll. Far too much of a gamble\u00a0 And they need to show consistency north and\u00a0 south whatever\u00a0 the impatience within their northern core, in order to impress southern voters with their enthusiasm\u00a0 for winning office. But there you have it, the state of mutual trust and collaboration after nearly thirty years of peace.<\/p>\n

Yet all may not be lost. Tucked away is a modest proposal from the SDLP \u00a0that might \u00a0trigger a new approach. \u00a0Reverse the disaster of the St Andrew\u2019s Agreement \u00a0of 2006 to nominate the First and deputy First Ministers separately as the price of the DUP\u2019s full \u00a0participation in the Executive so they didn\u2019t have to vote \u00a0for Sinn Fein. That worked well for them didn\u2019t it? it produced \u00a0the unforeseen consequence of a Sinn Fein First Minister in fifteen \u00a0years \u00a0even without a nationalist bloc majority. The \u00a0proposal argues that the restoration of joint \u00a0nomination of \u00a0FM and d DFM by the parties, rebranded as joint first ministers, would \u00a0cascade jointery down the line, \u00a0preventing a single party from collapsing the Assembly, begin merging \u00a0in effect two governments into a single Executive, promote collective responsibility and provide the mutual cover for difficult decisions, so essential for effective government. The Justice department should no longer be subject to mutual veto but \u00a0made eligible to all parties like any other department. This deceptively simple reform could\u00a0 contribute mightily\u00a0 to effective government.<\/p>\n

The CU report \u00a0with its emphasis on structure and process leaves the vision thing to civil society. (That is, a vision of a \u00a0better North not the dream of a united Ireland nor the illusion of a Union with a glorious past ). \u00a0Vision is needed to inspire and create the elusive sense of \u00a0common purpose so lacking in their shared \u00a0political culture \u00a0to focus on the \u00a0right\u00a0 policies and win support for doing the right thing . What to do, raise more revenue or impose cuts alongside efficiency improvements or both? The choices have been available \u00a0since the GFA nearly thirty years ago. Work for the common good, make people\u2019s lives better, the slogans of reform.\u00a0 Meaning start to end double spend for Catholics and Protestants separately\u00a0 in a programme based on the common\u00a0 good, a better concept than \u201d efficiencies\u201d\u00a0 Target the services most needing improvement that people can recognise. Convert some acute hospitals into primary care centres and \u00a0expand specialisms \u00a0in existing centres of excellence to improve treatment standards and reduce waiting times. Drop resistance \u00a0to \u00a0charging \u00a0water rates in common with the rest of the UK to depollute Lough Neagh and increase water production and allow more houses to be built. \u00a0\u00a0End informal academic selection and transfer tests and co-site \u00a0or integrate schools to save money \u00a0for spending \u00a0on the likes of \u201c poor Protestant boys\u201d who are \u00a0the single most disadvantaged group in society. Repeal the local climate change legislation that the court has ruled prevents the A5 from being rebuilt. \u00a0Embrace the offer of I billion euros wholeheartedly from the Republic\u2019s Shared Future Fund. Stop regarding is as the trojan horse\u00a0 to achieving unity. New Enterprise trains are on order at last.<\/p>\n

To make the vision real, civil society needs to breach their reserve<\/p>\n

\u00a0and contribute ideas and pressure for change. \u00a0The lobby they formed to cope \u00a0with \u201cthe border \u00a0in the Irish Sea\u201d\u00a0 showed what can be \u00a0achieved. Up to now the parties\u00a0 feared exposing\u00a0 \u00a0bankruptcy of ideas \u00a0and their control of policy and \u00a0kept the people who really run affairs at arms\u2019 length. That \u00a0must change.<\/p>\n

Next \u00a0year\u2019s\u00a0 Assembly elections will test what sort of appetite there is for change. Calls for Sinn Fein to pull out of the Assembly because of the DUP\u2019s refusal \u201cto agree on anything\u201d will be ignored. In their manifesto \u00a0Sinn Fein are likely\u00a0 to link support for the Assembly with demands for the British government to set criteria \u00a0for a border poll and the Irish government to become persuaders for unity. They might even call for the size of the nationalist vote to become the criteria to maximise turnout. It isn\u2019t unrealistic to suggest that the vote could exceed \u00a040%. \u00a0\u00a0If Sinn Fein are tempted \u00a0to rely on this beguiling scenario, the other parties including the SDLP should \u00a0refocus on the public\u2019s real needs for long overdue Executive action, without\u00a0 prejudice to \u00a0any party\u2019s constitutional preference. \u00a0I realise as I type, that this would amount to a revolution in attitude. But hopes that the moment for constitutional change has arrived since the emergence of nationalist leaders in all\u00a0 three devolved jurisdictions are likely to be disappointed. Once the dust has settled and nothing much happens immediately over a border poll, the parties are left with their own problems to solve, for the very first time alone.\u00a0 The size of the challenge should evoke a radically different response from what has prevailed over thirty years. Failure will.disgrace the profession of politics and cast fresh doubt about northerners\u2019 ability to organise themselves for government. The legacy of the Troubles\u00a0 is a fading excuse, when normal life outside politics has\u00a0 made some remarkable strides of renewal. Nor are\u00a0 the difficulties facing most western governments with divided communities.\u00a0 We have had more experience of division than most, and frankly less severe than some.\u00a0 The net effect of persistent failure would tend to weaken the unionists\u2019 position more than the nationalists\u2019\u00a0 who have a wider canvas to draw on outside the state. Unionists should heed the warning. Reactive defensiveness is not the answer. Can it\u00a0 even be respectable, not to recognise each other\u2019s strengths over their weaknesses, and fail to participate in each other\u2019s traditions to which we all belong to a greater or lesser extent according to personal choice?<\/p>\n

Surprisingly perhaps the Northern public haven\u2019t given up on the Assembly. Polls \u00a0over the past two years record 44%\u00a0 support for its survival but with changes but only 30% believing it\u2019s functioning well. Most unsure or don\u2019t know. Around evens or a slight majority support some form of voluntary coalition and for \u00a0preventing the withdrawal\u00a0 of any single party \u00a0from collapsing the Assembly.<\/p>\n

The pitches that divided unionism are likely to make are still chronically uncertain. Will they group around making the Assembly work as their distinctive appeal \u00a0or revert to tradition as the champions of the Union in its present state of flux? The comparative stability enacted but \u00a0far from fully implemented of the Good Friday Agreement might appeal to unionists, the TUV aside, as a new departure\u00a0 with little pressure for Irish unity coming from governments in power in London and Dublin but distinct support \u00a0for internal change coming from both.<\/p>\n

If a border poll became a bargaining chip \u00a0for supporting the Assembly with the threat of withdrawal in the background, the stick and carrot strategy created for New Decade New Approach should be applied. Single party withdrawal would fail to \u00a0collapse the Assembly and if the Executive were not reconstituted within a stated time frame, elections would be called until the intransigents complied or the political map redrawn. So one way or another the Assembly and Executive seem set on survival, with the requirement to do much better than that. Wouldn\u2019t it be great of the local parties \u00a0chose to show the Brits how to operate a multiparty system?<\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London<\/p>\n

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