1 July 2025 

First Minister Michelle O’Neill MLA must work to improve the NI Executive’s abysmal record of delivery after a litany of failures including progress on the A5, Casement Park, Lough Neagh and multiple other critical priorities since the Executive returned last year, the SDLP Leader of the Opposition has said.

Challenging the First Minister in the final questions session before the NI Assembly goes into summer recess, Matthew O'Toole MLA said:

“The Executive’s report card deserves a failing grade. Ministers have failed to do the basics to deliver vital projects – most recently, the Infrastructure Minister's abject mishandling of A5 planning processes and the failure to offer any direction for the Casement Park project, even after nearly £100 million extra was provided by Governments in London and Dublin.

“On Lough Neagh, in the First Minister’s own constituency, and where she has promised action to rescue the precious natural resource, her party voted with the DUP to block any action on agricultural pollution of the lough.

“To this list of non-delivery, can be added the almost instantaneous failure to meet the social housing target set by the Executive just weeks after their Programme for Government was published and the absence of any clear targets on waiting list reduction.

"I hope the First Minister has a break over the summer and returns with a focus on delivery above platitudes and photo opportunities. If the Government in Dublin had the delivery record of the Government Michelle O'Neill leads, her party would rightly roast them for their ineptitude. Citizens in the North deserve the same standards."