| 5°C Belfast

Viewpoint: Do the job you were elected to do

The honeymoon for the new administration at Stormont is well and truly over, just 15 months after the unlikely marriage of the DUP and Sinn Fein. Both parties are raising the stakes over the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Executive.

Sinn Fein has threatened to pull its ministers out of the Executive unless the powers are devolved soon and the DUP says such threats will only make it dig in its heels further.

First Minister Peter Robinson has sternly warned that if the next meeting of the Executive, scheduled for just over three weeks time, does not take place that will have serious consequences for the good government of Northern Ireland. Like Sinn Fein, Mr Robinson may be engaging in megaphone diplomacy, but the longer both parties keep this stand-off going the more potential there is for a real crisis.

Both parties may feel they have right on their side, and both may be playing tough to their own constituencies. However, their role as the dominant partners in the power-sharing administration, means

that they have a wider responsibility than mere party politics. The impression both have given throughout this summer — there has only been one meeting of the Executive since Mr Robinson became DUP leader and First Minister — is of two parties constantly sniping at each other.

There is little doubt that both will try to keep this stand-off going right to the wire and that the British and Irish governments may have to step in to attempt to broker a deal. It is a task that Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen, who are facing enough domestic difficulties, could well do without. And it is a task that

they should not have to deal with. When the main political parties in Northern Ireland agreed to form a devolved power-sharing government, it was on the understanding that they would be responsible for the further administration of the province. If they have to keep running back to the British and Irish governments every time they are faced with a difficult decision, it throws in doubt the wisdom of having a devolved administration.

Both Sinn Fein and the DUP should think of the consequences of this current impasse and the threat to the stability of the Executive. There are political

opportunists and dissident terrorists sitting on the sidelines who would be delighted if the power-sharing experiment was to fail. The parties must also think of the message they are sending out about Northern Ireland. Earlier this year top executives from the US were being wooed to invest here. They, most assuredly, will not spend one dollar in Northern Ireland if they think that the days of political instability are about to return.

No-one pretends that it is easy for the extremes of nationalism and unionism to work together. The Assembly and Executive is an unwieldy administration, but everyone realises that power-sharing is the only form of government able to command any consensus in Northern Ireland. The voters accepted this and gave the dominant positions in the administration to Sinn Fein and the DUP. Their expectation, indeed their demand, is that the parties get on with the job they were elected to do. That means sitting down around a table and hammering out their differences.

Belfast Telegraph

Top Videos

Privacy