The Stormont executive collapsed during September leading to a further round of talks aimed at resolving the regular political crises which lead to the suspension of the Northern Ireland Government.
The collapse followed accusations of Provisional IRA involvement in the murder of Kevin McGuigan in East Belfast and allegations of DUP involvement in multi-million euro corruption relating to the sale of properties formerly controlled by the Republic’s National Assets Management Agency (NAMA).
Overshadowing the collapse were the demands of the UK Conservative Government that the Executive introduces major changes and cuts to social welfare provision, something that Sinn Féin has claimed it will resist.
In an opinion article published in the Belfast Telegraph, Workers’ Party North Belfast representative Gemma Weir called for a fundamental change in the structures of the Northern Ireland Assembly in order to end these episodic crises.
“The current model of devolution has failed to realise the ambitions of the Good Friday Agreement,” she said, “It has also failed to bring about the political, social and economic changes that we all demanded.”
Weir added: “If we are to avoid the cycle of crises, then radical change is required, including: the introduction of a formal Opposition; the party, or parties, with the most seats forming the Executive, and; an end to the designation of MLAs as unionist or nationalist.”
The reality that the Executive “is implementing a home-grown austerity programme, in the form of the Stormont House Agreement” was also highlighted by Weir.
She said: “Some 20,000 jobs will be stripped out of the public service and the Executive has borrowed £750m to fund the redundancies. The Stormont House Agreement will also see the sell-off of profitable state assets, like Belfast Harbour Estate and Translink.
“But the central plank of the Stormont House Agreement – and the only economic strategy the Stormont Executive has – is to lower corporation tax.”
She said lowering corporation tax will cost between £350m and £500m and that if this “bright idea” was scrapped “there would be no need for any welfare cuts.”
