Government in Northern Ireland: six months since power-sharing was restored

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In January 2020, government ministers returned to Stormont after a three-year hiatus. For over 1,000 days, the Northern Ireland assembly did not sit and there was no executive – Northern Ireland was effectively run by the Northern Ireland civil service, who could keep the show on the road but make little progress with a mounting in-tray of policy problems. Since the new power-sharing deal, New Decade, New Approach, was agreed, the executive have had to confront those problems, implement the findings of the inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, which precipitated the executive’s fall, prepare Northern Ireland for the implementation of the NI protocol, which was opposed by all NI parties, and now marshal Northern Ireland’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.

This event looked at the first six months since Stormont returned. How have the new power-sharing arrangements worked? How well is the executive performing? How can it meet the twin challenges of the approaching end of the Brexit transition period and the continued response to coronavirus? And what can be done to improve governance in Northern Ireland and deal with some of the weaknesses revealed in the RHI report?

On our panel to discuss these issues were:

• Rt Hon Julian Smith MP, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
• Sam McBride, Author Burned, Political Editor of Belfast News Letter and Northern Ireland Political Editor of the I Newspaper
• Professor Duncan Morrow, Professor in Politics at Ulster University
• Ann Watt, Director of Pivotal, Northern Ireland’s public policy think tank

The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.

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