The smaller Assembly parties are planning no birthday parties to mark the second year of restored devolution.

he UUP argues the institution isn’t working; The SDLP complains the people at the top are not on top of the issues; Alliance, the only multi-member party outside the Executive, lambasts a lack of achievement. And they all single out the 11-plus transfer issue as the biggest debacle.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said: “‘What has become clear over this last year is that the Assembly isn’t really working and that devolution isn’t making the difference for the better that it was supposed to make.

“Indeed, the very nature of the arrangements between the DUP and Sinn Fein has ensured that the Executive Committee is dysfunctional, with the UUP and SDLP in it rather than of it. Theoretically, this is a four-party coalition, at the minute this is simply not the case.”

The Employment and Learning Minister used his Sinn Fein education ‘partner’ Caitriona Ruane to illustrate his chief concern. “You only have to look at the running sore of the transfer fiasco — this disaster has blown a hole in any claims that there is ministerial accountability or control at the heart of the system and we need to end the pretence that a self-serving veto is the same as accountability,” he said.

“The fact that grammar schools have been forced to opt out is a signal that neither the Executive Committee nor Programme for Government has any control over such an important aspect of policy. This is just one of the testimonies of Peter Robinson and the DUP’s failure to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.”

SDLP Assembly Group chair Alban Maginness said: “It is clear people are no longer mesmerised by the mere fact of devolution. The parties who are top politically are not on top of the issues.

“Many are disappointed at the DUP and Sinn Fein’s paralysis and inability to address the economic crisis. Instead they have elected to stick their heads in the sand and have refused to change the budget. In contrast the SDLP came up with an innovative and imaginative document New Priorities in Difficult Times that identified £400m of finance that could kick-start the economy.

“Furthermore, eight years after the 11-plus was ‘abolished’ we are a matter of months away from an unregulated system of confusion and chaos. Sensible SDLP proposals for an interim solution were ignored,” he said.

As a positive he cited the SDLP’s Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie’s Winter Fuel Payment which was delayed until spring due to the DUP-Sinn Fein Executive stand-off over devolution of justice and policing.

Lagan Valley Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn said: “The second year of the Assembly was disappointing in terms of workrate from the Stormont Executive. This period was blighted with delays in important legislation and a lengthy stalemate within government. Again the Executive failed to address key issues that could free up vital public money and boost our economy — they have not provided an action plan on ending segregation and came up with little or no radical measures to deal with the recession.”

He also criticised lack of movement on the ‘green’ economy and the transfer issue.

From outside the Assembly, Traditional Unionist leader Jim Allister challenged First Minister Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to admit how many official papers are log-jammed, and for how long.