Northern Ireland’s government will lurch from crisis to crisis because the centre-ground has been sacrificed, it was claimed today.
The British and Irish governments bolstered Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) at the expense of the moderates, Fine Gael MEP and former Alliance Party leader John Cushnahan told the party's annual conference in Bangor, Co Down.
He was speaking as majority coalition partners Sinn Fein and the DUP fight deadlock over issues like devolution of policing and justice to a local minister and education reform.
"It isn't the role of the Alliance Party to be a fig leaf papering over the cracks and tensions between two squabbling sectarian parties," Mr Cushnahan said.
The centrist Alliance Party is one of the candidates for a Stormont policing and justice ministry after Sinn Fein and the DUP agreed they would not take on the role
Mr Cushnahan added while it was understandable former Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-Irish premier Bertie Ahern would seek a settlement it was wrong to concentrate their entire efforts on the DUP and Sinn Fein.
"In effect the broad political centre of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party was sacrificed and that's why the Executive will continue to lurch from one political crisis to another," he added.
He said it was not an obligation for the Alliance Party to take on responsibility for policing and justice power without real power, a reference to the suggestion the post could have something short of full Executive status.
"The terms would have to...serve the real interests of the entire Northern Ireland community and in the context of an Executive that would immediately work together," he added.