The last time a Stormont executive managed to agree a programme for government was for the period 2011 – 2015.
They also agreed one in 2016 which went out to public consultation. But before it could be passed the then Sinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuinness resigned in January 2017 and the executive fell.
When the executive returned in January 2020, Covid quickly came to dominate business and scuppered any chance of a programme for government being agreed.
SDLP assembly member Matthew O’Toole, Stormont’s leader of the opposition, said the executive has “never given a clear sense of what its priorities are”.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme, he called on the executive to tackle issues including the health service which he said was “broken”, a “house building crisis” and an “ecological crisis” at Lough Neagh.
Mr O’Toole said that in order to address these issues the programme for government would need to set “clear targets” that had a timeline and “specific actions” towards achieving them.
Ann Watt, director of the think tank, Pivotal, issued a report this week which, while recognising some progress had been made, said the failure to agree a programme for government was “a big shortcoming”.
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