Stormont Executive accused of ‘failing to deliver’ over promised legislation

The Stormont Executive has been accused of “failing to deliver” and “focusing on sham fights and empty motions” rather than promised legislation.

Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole said a progress report on the legislative programme first published in May 2024, which promised to introduce all Bills by the end of 2024, reveals that little over half of the actual legislation has been introduced to the Assembly.

He claimed that instead the vast majority of Assembly time has been devoted to “empty motions from Executive parties”.

He also stressed that recent spats, such as disagreement between Sinn Fein and the DUP over Irish language signage at Grand Central Station, “should not distract from the core failure of the Executive to deliver against its own modest targets”.

“Mere hours on from the final Assembly sitting before the Easter recess, the Executive has slipped out a statement admitting that they have again failed to deliver on a legislative programme originally promised for 2024 – and it was light then,” he said.

“Legislative programme might seem like an abstract parliamentary term – but what this actually means is that they have failed to introduce measures to improve the lives of people across Northern Ireland on the timeline that they themselves set.

“Most of the legislation they have introduced sits at a very early stage, with no guarantees it will be passed in the remainder of this mandate.”

He added: “The Executive’s pathetic failure to deliver even its modest legislative promises is mirrored by certain Executive parties’ eagerness to dive into sham fights and culture wars to distract the public from their inability or unwillingness to deliver meaningful change.”

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, who chairs the Stormont Executive Committee which scrutinises the work of the Executive Office, was also critical of progress.

“We can see clearly now that more than a year on from restoration, and with promises made of an ‘ambitious’ legislative programme to be brought forward, still more than half of the Bills proposed have not been introduced well into 2025,” she said.

“Fundamentally, this speaks to ongoing backlogs and delays in the functioning of the Executive itself, responsibility for which rests with the First and deputy First Minister.

“It is well known how unnecessarily difficult it is proving for ministers even to get papers onto the Executive agenda. Indeed, it is yet another area where the case for reform of the institutions is clear.”