Stormont Is Not Fit For Purpose, All Ireland Forum Needed
In the Dáil today, Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has called the Stormont Executive not fit for purpose, as Aontú calls on the government to predicate an All-Ireland Forum.
An Teachta Tóibín:
“The Good Friday Agreement and the Executive that flowed from that helped bring an end to the troubles and one of the most tragic conflicts in the world. The Good Friday Agreement was an incredible achievement. The institutions that were created, in comparison to what when before, were a incredible progress. However 23 years later these same institutions are proving to be incredibly dysfunctional. The New Decade, New Approach agreement came about because the 5 parties of the Executive couldn’t agree to work together. That the north was without an administration for 3 years and each of their MLAs was getting paid is the definition of dysfunction.”
“If you measure the Stormont on output it does not fair too well either. Aontú Derry Cllr Emmet Doyle have found out through FOI that from 2010 to just before Covid the 5 parties of the Stormont Executive presided over cutting 887 beds from the hospitals service in the north. Altnagelvin lost 31 beds alone, whilst Belfast City and Mater hospitals lost 145 and 76 respectively. There is no getting away from these figures, no distraction that they can pull off to hide. This has proved a catastrophe in the teeth of Covid as patients have been treated in Hospital Car parks. Additionally, the lack of reform in Policing has come into sharp relief under the 5 parties of the Executive. The shocking events of the Ormeau Rd in Belfast a few weeks ago is another example of why Nationalist confidence in policing is at an extremely low ebb.”
“Stormont and the Executive has an inbuilt instability. If one party, for example the DUP, seek to through their toys out of the pram the north is lurched into crisis. The people of the north of Ireland deserve better than instability and dysfunction. Stormont as its currently constituted is not fit for purpose and we in Aontú are calling for the government to constitute and All Ireland Forum to start the discussion on the development of stable all-Ireland democratic institutions.”
