Ministers working to finalise programme for government – Little-Pengelly

Stormont ministers are working to finalise a programme for government, Emma Little-Pengelly has said.

The deputy First Minister said publication and consultation dates for the government plan are under consideration due to the pre-election period.

Ms Little-Pengelly faced questions about when the programme for government would be produced at Stormont on Monday.

First Minister Ms O’Neill recently told MLAs that the General Election would make it very difficult to publish the plan ahead of the summer recess.

Ms O’Neill said the Executive Office was receiving legal advice on whether it would be possible to publish the document before July 4.

Providing an update, Ms Little-Pengelly said: “We are working to finalise a draft programme for government and hope to begin consultation soon.

“Publication and consultation dates are under consideration due to the pre-election period.

“We want to hear views on the draft document from as many people as possible during the consultation period.”

The SDLP’s Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole pointed out that more than 100 meetings had taken place between Executive parties and the civil service between the collapse of the devolved powersharing institutions in 2022 and their restoration earlier this year.

Pointing out that the institutions had been restored for four months with no programme for government so far, he added: “What on earth were you talking about?”

Ms Little-Pengelly said: “These are two entirely different processes.

“As far this programme for government goes this is a process which commenced when we took on these roles.”

She added: “Because of the election being called it does have an impact on when we can publish and commence our publication.

“It is something I took the opportunity to mention last week to the First Minister of Scotland and Wales and I know they are also in a similar position in relation to their programmes for government, where they have got to a point where it is reasonably well developed but they will have to pause the publication of that until after the election period.”