10 April 2025 

SDLP Leader of the Opposition Matthew O’Toole MLA has said the Executive’s latest acknowledgment of its continued failure to deliver last year’s legislative programme is an indictment of its inability to deliver and increasing focus on distracting the public with sham fights and culture wars.

He was speaking after the First and deputy First Minister updated the Assembly on progress against the legislative programme first published in May 2024 with a promise to introduce all Bills by the end of 2024.

But today’s statement concedes that little over half of the actual legislation has been introduced to the Assembly. Instead the vast majority of Assembly time has been devoted to empty motions from Executive parties.

Mr O’Toole also said the recent spats over Irish language signage and other cultural issues should not distract from the core failure of the Executive to deliver against its own modest targets.

South Belfast MLA Mr O’Toole said:

“Mere hours on from the final Assembly sitting before the Easter recess the Executive has slipped out a statement admitting that they have again failed to deliver on a legislative programme originally promised for 2024 – and it was light then. They have even started calling the 2024 programme the 2024/25 programme – an absurd sleight of hand designed to hide their shortcomings.

“Legislative programme might seem like an abstract parliamentary term – but what this actually means is that they have failed to introduce measures to improve the lives of people across Northern Ireland on the timeline that they themselves set. Most of the legislation they have introduced sits at a very early stage, with no guarantees it will be passed in the remainder of this mandate.

“The Executive’s pathetic failure to deliver even its modest legislative promises is mirrored by certain Executive parties’ eagerness to dive into sham fights and culture wars to distract the public from their inability or unwillingness to deliver meaningful change.”