Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill has hailed the Stormont Executive’s long-awaited programme for government as a “significant milestone”.
Unveiled to the Assembly on Monday, its main targets include tackling the North’s spiralling waiting lists by treating an additional 70,000 patients by 2027 – the end of the current Assembly mandate – and building more than 5,000 new social homes.
It is the North’s first programme for government since 2012.
The 100-page document, called Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most, identifies three key missions – people, planet and prosperity – with an underpinning commitment to peace.
Ms O’Neill told the Assembly that the Executive would be “open and transparent” about the progress made on its commitments.
“We will update our actions on an annual basis, we will keep everyone informed about the budget position and we’ll also publish annual reports,” she said.
Pledges are also made to increase renewable electricity capacity by 40 per cent and ensure that the parents of 13,500 eligible children benefit from a 15 per cent childcare subsidy “this year”.
Other aims include the introduction of an employment rights Bill.
Transformation of the education system to improve the lives of children and young people with special educational needs – estimated at almost one in five pupils – is also earmarked.
On childcare, a “comprehensive” early learning and childcare strategy will be in place by 2027 to deliver “improved outcomes for children and parents”.
A draft version of the programme was published last September before going out to public consultation.
Much of the detail in the blueprint – which received more than 1,400 responses during the consultation period – is contained in the final paper.
Nine policy areas are identified as key priorities for the next two years: to grow a globally competitive and sustainable economy; to deliver more affordable, accessible, high-quality early learning and childcare; to cut health waiting times; to end violence against women and girls; better support for children and young people with special educational needs; to provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing; to make communities safer; to protect Lough Neagh and the environment; and to reform and transform public services.
Ms O’Neill warned there were “tough challenges ahead” but said she and her ministerial colleagues were committed to “working together to make that real and positive difference in people’s lives, in families' lives, in workers' lives, in communities' lives”.
“This executive will have people’s backs and we will do everything we can to keep leading.”
The leader of the Assembly Opposition, the SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole, was, however, scathing in his assessment of the programme, branding it “late, limp and listless”.
“This document contains aspirations we share but is far short of the clear, targeted plan that the people of Northern Ireland deserve after so many so many years of failure,” he said.
Addressing the Assembly during a debate on the paper, Mr O’Toole said someone had got in touch with the SDLP last week to say they had been “red-flagged for referral to a consultant gynaecologist a year ago”.
“When she phoned recently to ask how long the waiting list was she was told that it could be years,” he told the chamber.
“She and the other hundreds of thousands on waiting lists aren’t obsessed with the mechanics of politics, they do deserve a clear sense of how people who achieved and sought power intend to use that power.
“This programme is better than nothing, it’s a modest improvement but it’s a missed opportunity.”
He added: “Is this it?”
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank-and-file serving officers, was also critical and said it was “beyond disappointing” that the document failed to deliver on “cast-iron promises on police numbers and general funding”.
“This is dismaying. It is a standstill agenda,” said federation chair Liam Kelly.
