Stormont Ministers to try again to agree programme for government
The Northern Ireland Executive will try again later to agree its long-delayed programme for government a day after the decision was postponed.A scheduled meeting of the four-party devolved administration was pulled on Wednesday after Alliance Party minister Andrew Muir said he wanted more time to review the final document.He characterised it as a "storm in a teacup", but the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) described the further delay as a "farce".The draft programme for government was agreed in September 2024 and sent out for public consultation.
'Farce'
The 88-page document, entitled Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most, sets out the executive's key priorities.A final version was expected to be agreed before the first anniversary of the restoration of Stormont's power-sharing government in early February.Muir said he was "confident" the programme for government would be agreed when ministers hold their meeting on Thursday morning.He told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme on Wednesday his "only ask" was that the "finalised document would be received before the meeting so we could consider it".SDLP assembly member Matthew O'Toole, leader of the opposition at Stormont, criticised the further delay."This farce typifies the dysfunction we have seen since the return of the Stormont institutions last year," he said.Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister said it was "the latest episode in the Stormont farce", describing the institutions as an "unworkable system of government".
Taoiseach visit
Later on Thursday, First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly are due to meet the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin.It will be his first visit to Northern Ireland since becoming taoiseach again in January following elections in November.Martin is also expected to hold meetings with Alliance leader Naomi Long and SDLP leader Claire Hanna, and speak by phone with Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Mike Nesbitt.He will be greeted at Stormont's Parliament Buildings by Northern Ireland Assembly speaker Edwin Poots.The taoiseach is also due to give a keynote address at the Dublin Belfast Economic Corridor Summit at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Belfast.
When was the last programme for government agreed?
It has been some time since a Stormont executive agreed a finalised programme for government.The last time an executive managed to get one over the line was during the assembly's fourth term between 2011 and 2015.One was also agreed in 2016 and went out to public consultation.But before it could be passed, the power-sharing institutions collapsed following the resignation of then Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
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