24 August 2026
SDLP Leader of the Opposition Matthew O'Toole MLA has said the public in Northern Ireland deserves better than the summer of inaction and distraction offered by the Executive, with Ministers failing to deliver on key priorities including agreeing a Budget.
Mr O'Toole also pointed to the contrast with the hugely successful Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast, with the event demonstrating the ambition and potential that exists across the North while politics remains stuck in a cycle of drift and dysfunction.
Matthew O'Toole MLA said:
"This has been a summer when serious problems have piled up while the Executive have been largely missing in action. We still don't have a Budget, leaving public services and community organisations facing huge uncertainty. Lough Neagh is once again covered in toxic sludge, and we have seen appalling racist violence that demanded a serious and coordinated response from government.
"Instead, Ministers have offered occasional photo-ops, punctuated by arguments, threats to the stability of our institutions and ministerial resignations. Agreeing a Budget is among the most basic responsibilities of any government, but months after publishing a supposedly 'transformational' plan, the Executive has made no meaningful progress towards agreeing one, beyond issuing empty pleas to the UK Government for more money. They still cannot tell people how they intend to fund the public services we all rely on.
"The contrast with the Fleadh could hardly have been clearer. More than a million people came together in Belfast for an extraordinary week that showed a city confident in itself, welcoming people from across this island and beyond, and capable of delivering something genuinely special. It was a glimpse of what this place can be when there is ambition, imagination and a determination to make things happen.
"There is no shortage of that drive among people here, but our politics remains stuck in the same old cycle. Basic decisions go unmade, responsibility is endlessly passed around, and every disagreement seems to carry the possibility of another political crisis. That is a miserable way to govern a place with so much potential.
"The public deserve better than a government that drifts through the summer while problems mount up around it. They are entitled to expect Ministers to make decisions, set priorities and take responsibility for delivering them. The ambition we saw on the streets of Belfast this summer needs to be matched by some urgency and purpose at Stormont.”