It’s time to show true governance

The recent history of devolved government in Northern Ireland has been riddled with threats by one political party or another to pull out of agreed arrangements unless their demands are met. Such an approach to politics may seem juvenile, but in the context of this province is hardly surprising.

Relationships between the main nationalist and unionist parties have ranged from frosty to outright dislike at various times during the peace process. The Ulster Unionists and SDLP, at best, had a workmanlike relationship during the last administration. It would be expecting too much for the DUP and Sinn Fein to be any more harmonious in the latest power-sharing arrangement. Given the recent history of the Troubles and the bitterness which existed between Sinn Fein and the DUP in council chambers up and down the country, the astonishing thing is that they have agreed to work together at all.

But, having come to such an agreement, the electorate expects them to behave in a responsible and professional manner.Both parties have been backed by the majority of voters in their respective communities, as they constantly remind everyone. The voters anticipated them taking the major share of ministerial posts and the positions of First and Deputy First Ministers. It is now their job, along with the Ulster Unionists and SDLP, to run the province.

While the Executive and Assembly has set out a programme for government and get on with the day-to-day work of departments, the politicians, to date, have failed to come to grips with the most contentious issues. The most important of these is the devolution of policing and justice. There was hope earlier this month that the DUP and Sinn Fein were inching towards a resolution of this problem. They agreed that there should be a single policing and justice minister and that the job would go to a politician outside of their two parties.

Crucially, however, they have still failed to reach agreement on a date for the devolution of these powers to the Assembly and Executive. The British and Irish governments originally wanted the powers devolved last May, a year after the restoration of devolved government, but this was always a highly optimistic timetable. There was some logic in making sure that the new political arrangements were bedding down, especially given the change of leadership in the DUP, before taking responsibility for this powers. But it is a situation that cannot continue to drag on indefinitely.

Sinn Fein is threatening to collapse the new institutions by pulling its ministers out of the Executive if devolution of policing and justice does not happen soon. The party sees this as a way of forcing the PM, Gordon Brown, to put pressure on the DUP to agree to early devolution. The DUP, of course, will resist such obvious pressure and will dig in its heels even more, secure in the knowledge that it can blame Sinn Fein if devolution is threatened.

Sinn Fein cannot continue to throw its toys out of the pram every time a cherished project is delayed. Neither can the DUP continue to stonewall progress on policing and justice, an Irish Language Act or the building of a new sports stadium because those issues don’t suit its party political agenda.

Both Sinn Fein and the DUP are the major players in the new administration.

They have to take decisions which will be unpopular with their own constituencies, but that is the price of government.

Belfast Telegraph