Stormont ministers finally agree draft programme for government

Ministers signed off on the delayed blueprint when they met at Stormont Castle on Thursday morning.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly spoke to reporters at a press conference following the agreement (David Young/PA) (PA Wire)

Stormont ministers have finally agreed a draft programme for government.

Ministers signed off on the delayed blueprint when they met at Stormont Castle on Thursday morning.

It will not be officially published until Monday as protocol dictates that it should be presented to MLAs in the Assembly first.

It will then be subject to an eight-week public consultation exercise.

The programme for government will set out the priorities for the devolved powersharing Executive for the remaining two-and-a-half years of the Assembly term.

First Minister and Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill, deputy First Minister and DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly, Justice Minister and Alliance Party leader Naomi Long and Health Minister and UUP leader-elect Mike Nesbitt spoke to reporters at a press conference on Thursday following the agreement.

When asked why it had taken so long to get to this point, Ms O’Neill said she was proud of the Executive coming together “in a holistic way” to address the fact that public services in Northern Ireland are “at a crisis point”.

She said the four parties had done a lot of work over many areas but coming together to form a programme of government was “complex”.

Ms O’Neil said the government was content for the public to “judge us in terms of delivery”.

Ms Little-Pengelly said there would always be differences between parties but the programme was a piece of compromise that does not reflect the agenda of one particular faction.

We’ve identified our immediate priorities

Michelle O’Neill, First Minister

Asked whether there was a risk the programme was simply a “wish list”, Ms O’Neill said: “I think we all recognise that we are bringing forward a programme for government in a very difficult financial circumstance.

“We all equally recognise that since we have a new government in London, that Labour are continuing with a policy of austerity which makes it a very challenging environment for us all to operate, but…this is a very scalable programme for government.

“We’ve identified our immediate priorities. We’ve also laid the groundwork to do more things tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after so it’s very much about immediate priorities and then also what we can do tomorrow around health, education, justice, safer communities, particularly given the summer that we’ve been in.”

Ms O’Neill added: “None of us are naive, we know how challenging this is.”

She said the battle for additional finances is “top of our agenda”.

Ms Little-Pengelly said that despite the “difficult budget situation”, the programme aims to improve lives for people in Northern Ireland in meaningful ways.

The DUP politician said there are nine priorities within the programme for government at Stormont:

– To grow a globally competitive and sustainable economy.

– Deliver affordable childcare.

– Cut health waiting times.

– Ending violence against women and girls.

– Better support for children and young people with special educational needs.

– Provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing.

– Safer communities.

– Protect Lough Neagh and the environment.

– Reform and transformation of public services.

The deputy First Minister said: “Those of us in government have a responsibility to lead, a responsibility to listen and a responsibility to act and, despite the difficult budget situation, we can still improve lives in a meaningful way by focusing on a small number of prioritised actions that will make a real difference.

“We have clearly set out in our programme for government the priorities for the remainder of this term, and we’ll use the next number of weeks to engage with people right throughout Northern Ireland about our plan.

“We genuinely want to hear from people about how we can act to improve lives for the better.”

At Thursday’s meeting, ministers also agreed a strategy and action plan aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and a three-year action plan for a domestic and sexual abuse strategy.

The Executive also extended the work of a programme designed to tackle paramilitarism and organised crime for a further three years.

Justice minister Ms Long said no-one in the Executive underestimated the challenge the administration was facing in the remaining years of the mandate.

“It is not an exhaustive list of everything that this Executive will do,” she added.

“There will be many ordinary pieces of work that we do, our legislative programme and many other pieces of work that we do which will lie outside of it.

“But what it does is prioritise certain aspects of the work of the Executive, particularly those elements that are cross-cutting.

“It also will not all be able to be delivered in one go. It will be very much dependent on our financial situation. But it is scalable and it is realistic and I believe that it is positive.”

Mr Nesbitt said it was important that the programme for government, once finalised, was closely linked to the allocations made in Stormont’s budget.

“There are huge challenges for health, but there are huge challenges for every minister and every department,” he said.

“And what is devolution about, if it’s not about four people, like the four people you’re looking at, coming together, forming relationships and doing their best in terms of better outcomes for the people we serve.”

Leader of the Stormont opposition, SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole, said the public was still none the wiser as to what the draft programme for government actually contained.

The SDLP will publish an alternative strategy when the Assembly returns on Monday, titled A Plan for Change, which it insists contains clear targets and goals.

“Once again, the Executive has proved adept at PR but deficient at clarity or delivery,” said Mr O’Toole.

“Today’s announcement contained no specific targets or actions but rather a press conference in which Executive parties patted one another on the back for agreeing on broad aspirations.

“The public might have expected more clarity not just on vague aspiration but what exactly the Executive intends to do, how and when. What is the target for reducing waiting lists, how will that target be achieved and when can patients expect to see meaningful improvements in the failing health service.

“Until the Executive gets into this level of detail and clarity, after years of collapse and dysfunction, they cannot expect the public to trust this as-yet-unpublished programme for government, they cannot expect to be hailed as heroes for simply agreeing vague aspirations.

“Less waffle, more delivery is needed.”