Parties call on Bradley to start Stormont talks without delay

THE Secretary of State has been urged to immediately reconvene a talks process that could restore a devolved government to Northern Ireland.

Karen Bradley was challenged by the leaders of the Alliance Party and SDLP after it emerged that more than 160 pieces of legislation have been held up by the impasse.

Key decisions around issues such as the Programme for Government and an action plan to tackle paramilitary activity, criminality and organised crime are sitting on a shelf because there are no ministers to sign them off.

The delays were reported by the Belfast Telegraph yesterday. Alliance leader Naomi Long said that new powers for civil servants introduced recently, giving them greater control of decisions, will only go so far and that the only way forward was a restoration of the Assembly.

“We have been clear the current situation has been completely unsustainable for some time,” she said.

“With each passing day, cru-

From left: Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, Secretary of State Karen Bradley and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood

cial decisions are not able to be taken and the services which people rely on are getting deeper into financial difficulty and falling further behind where they ought to be.

“That not only causes real suffering to people today but also carries with it a lost opportunity cost, with planning and infrastructure delays holding up investment and job creation.

“The recent Bill in Westminster has only a limited impact on

Yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph

those delays. Despite the suffering caused to our constituents, our families, our friends, there is simply no urgency around efforts to restore the Assembly.

“I have made clear to the Secretary of State she has a legal and moral duty to appoint an independent facilitator and get talks under way without any further delay. Waiting until the new year is unacceptable.

“She has nothing to lose — any party daring to refuse to attend and make every effort to end this suspension would stand condemned by their own actions and by the public, and rightly so.

“Further, their salaries should also be stopped if they don’t turn up. Karen Bradley needs to grasp

the nettle and get on with it.” Echoing Mrs Long’s call, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood added that the full scale of the political stalemate should come as a shock to no one.

“Without a functioning Executive, major legislative decisions will merely catch dust on a departmental shelf,” he said.

“It is time for the Secretary of State to stop sitting on her hands and convene a talks process immediately.

“There is a crisis in our health service, chronic underfunding in schools, our economy is barely growing and Brexit is on the horizon.

“We now urgently need a process to bring devolution back.”