DUP minister rejects claims ‘only one party’ is blocking Executive business

Stormont communities minister Gordon Lyons has insisted there is not “only one party holding up papers at the executive”, claiming he has been unable to secure approval for a proposal to establish a homelessness commission.

The DUP minister expressed his frustrations at not being able to get papers from his department on the agenda as relationships between the parties of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive continue to deteriorate in the wake of the Drumcree parading dispute.

Political fallout has continued after First Minister Michelle O’Neill was interviewed by police in relation to her participation in an allegedly unlawful protest on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in September that was held to try to block an Orange Order parade from Drumcree Church proceeding down the predominantly nationalist road.

The DUP has resisted pressure to withdraw deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly in order to remove Ms O’Neill from her post, but have stopped facilitating joint engagements.

This week the largest unionist party also used the petition of concern mechanism to block legislation around Irish-medium education proposed by a Sinn Féin MLA, and Sinn Féin Economy minister Caoimhe Archibald said the DUP were frustrating the party’s flagship employment rights legislation at executive level.

The first and deputy first minister have joint responsibility for setting the executive agenda.

Mr Lyons told Stormont’s communities committee on Thursday that he is seeking to bring forward policy proposals in relation to anti-social behaviour, saying there should be “more tools” to tackle the issue.

“We’ve got something in front of us now: proposals that are sensible that will help things before they become escalated, help deal with antisocial behaviour earlier, I think it’s reasonable, I think it’s straightforward,” he said.

He added: “This is a piece of work that would be really positive, because there are a number of people that can suffer from antisocial behaviour, and they often feel so utterly helpless. So I want to get this through.

“It has been with the executive for some time, but, unfortunately, I cannot seem to get it on the executive agenda, it is another paper that is being blocked.”

DUP MLA for South Antrim, Pam Cameron, asked if other papers were being “held up in a similar fashion”.

Mr Lyons said there were “a number” of proposals awaiting executive approval including on the establishment of a homelessness commission and on the social housing development programme.

“Those are the papers that I have outstanding at the executive, and I understand some papers won’t get through the executive because people have opposition to them on certain grounds, and that’s fine,” he said.

“But on these, I think these are good papers that can make a difference but we haven’t been able to get these on the agenda.

“So worth remembering whenever we hear lots about how apparently it’s only one party that is holding up papers at the executive.

“I have numerous proposals, and I’m particularly frustrated about the homelessness one.

“We talk so much about how important homelessness is, but when I put a specific proposal to the executive saying this is a priority for us, can we please discuss this, we don’t even get a discussion.

“I know the budgets are tight, and to govern is to choose, and we have different choices to make. I believe that homelessness and homelessness prevention should be a priority. Unfortunately, it’s not.”

Sinn Féin MLA for West Tyrone Paul Boggs raised the department’s long awaited anti-poverty strategy, which the minister said is undergoing additional work in relation to governance, as well as new interventions.

Mr Boggs said the sector needs to see “more and quicker”, and referred to the DUP this week voting against a Sinn Féin private members bill that provides financial support to children on free school meals outside of term time.

“It’s a brass neck for members of the DUP to come in here and talk about things not getting through the executive when their own party are blocking the executive office operating correctly, so it’s a double standard,” he said.

“What exactly, I suppose, can you say to the sector and the public today?

“What are you doing within your own department outside of an agreed anti-property strategy to try and help people with the cost of building and the tackling of poverty once and for all?”

In his reply Mr Lyons said: “Nearly everything that we do in our department tackles poverty in one way or another.

“It creates opportunities for people, it helps people to get into work, it gives people homes, it improves the homes that they are in, it improves place, which is an important part of tackling poverty as well, so we continue to do all of that work.

“We haven’t waited for this strategy to be in place, and we’re going to continue with those as well as putting new measures into place as well.”