DUP says Executive ‘delivering’ as SDLP brands it ‘comatose’

The Stormont Executive is not “comatose” and is responding to the needs of the people of Northern Ireland, DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said.

As the Northern Ireland Assembly returned from its summer recess, opposition leader Matthew O’Toole said it had to do better, accusing Stormont ministers of failing people in the region.

Mr Robinson met his party group ahead of the first plenary session and also issued a call for unity from ministers.

Flanked by deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, DUP deputy leader Michelle McIlveen and ministers Paul Givan and Gordon Lyons, Mr Robinson said: “There is a determination to respond to the needs of people in Northern Ireland.

“Whilst others today will be talking about distractions and elections elsewhere, the DUP’s focus and the focus of the people of Northern Ireland is to ensure that this Assembly responds to their needs.”

Responding to remarks by Mr O’Toole, the DUP leader said: “It is not comatose, it is action which causes more ire from the SDLP.”

Mr Robinson was asked about relations between the parties in the powersharing Executive. Earlier this year, Sinn Fein First Minister Michelle O’Neill called for the resignation of DUP minister Mr Lyons during race riots in Northern Ireland.

He said: “She (Ms O’Neill) was wrong then, she would be wrong to do it again today, were she to.

“Last week it was important that Emma, as deputy First Minister and the collective Executive put out a statement on issues, showing we shouldn’t have a society where people are vulnerable, feel threatened, feel unsafe in their homes.

“That is the collective leadership that I think we need to see in Northern Ireland.

“It would have been nice had there been collective leadership at the start of the summer too.

“Sadly, we didn’t get that but we haven’t changed where we are.

“Our focus is on delivering for people in Northern Ireland and we will continue to work in that vein.”

Ms Little-Pengelly said there were a number of key challenges facing the Executive in coming months. She also repeated the party’s call for the UK Government to tackle bureaucracy caused by the post-Brexit Windsor Framework.

She said: “We do want to grow the economy but we need to work to ensure the UK Government is stepping up, to grow our economy, to bring forward those necessary proposals to ensure that growth.

“The UK Government promised unfettered, internal UK trade; they have not delivered that.

“We will be continuing to drive that delivery, not just within the Executive, but making sure that people know about the delivery we are doing, day in and day out in those departments but also to hold the feet of the UK Government to the fire, to make sure they are delivering on those big non-devolved issues.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna called on the Executive to repair the “disillusionment and the disconnect” between people in Northern Ireland and politics.

She said: “We don’t think it has to be like this, we know that we deserve better and we can have better.”

Mr O’Toole added: “The Executive is not just failing, it is pretty much comatose.

“The public out there in Northern Ireland have no idea what the Executive is delivering for them and that is because the Executive isn’t delivering anything for them.

“We have set them six questions that should be straightforward to answer – are waiting lists coming down? Are they building 6,000 social homes? Are the levels of nutrients going into Lough Neagh coming down? Are they dealing with the issues in terms of building the A5 and building Casement Park? Is work going to have started on those by 2027?

“Finally, and most obviously, are they still going to be here in 2027?

“Those should be easy questions for the Executive to answer and I think it is right that we as a constructive opposition ask them.”

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said the Executive was making difficult decisions.

He said: “I had never been a member of the Executive before May of last year.

“I find I have good relations right around the table.

“I think in health we are making some really difficult decisions, although the public and the commentariat may not think we are making difficult decisions.

“I will be talking about one of them this afternoon when I got the Executive to agree to the indefinite ban on puberty blockers, but in return I wanted to put resource into the gender identity service because it was being put to me, particularly by the parents of children who wanted to get into that service, that it existed only in name, there wasn’t even a waiting list.”