Michelle O’Neill has defended the Stormont executive’s performance in its first year since restoration, claiming it has a “very strong track record of delivery”.
Speaking at Parliament Buildings on Monday alongside Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, the first minister said the devolved administration had been restored at the beginning of last February against a backdrop of “14 years of austerity, which crippled public services”.
However, she said the executive had “made huge strides forward”.
“I only have to point to things like a strategy to end violence against women and girls, public sector pay being settled, the A5 announcement, the Good Jobs bill, a huge, vast array of legislation, and I will be actually updating on that in the weeks ahead,” she said.
Ms O’Neill said she hoped to publish the executive’s programme for government “in advance of” the first anniversary of devolution’s restoration in less than three weeks’ time.
But the Sinn Féin deputy leader conceded that the situation facing the health service – the executive’s stated priority – was in a “dire and diabolical” state.
She said she was concerned by the scenes witnessed both inside and outside emergency departments in recent weeks, with patients facing long waits in the back of ambulances due to capacity issues.
Ms O’Neill also acknowledged the problems around the shortage of social care packages, resulting in lengthy delays discharging people who are otherwise fit to leave hospital.
The first minister stressed that the issues cannot be resolved by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt alone, as she called for an executive-wide approach to stabilising the health system.
“Our health situation is dire and it is diabolical, particularly for those people that have been in hospital EDs for over 24 hours, 36 hours, even longer for some people,” she told reporters.
“It’s dire for the healthcare staff as well, which is why we tried to deal with the public sector pay for all those workers from day one (after devolution returned last year).
“But we have work to do. One minister will not solve that. There needs to be a collective effort. I’ve made that case very clearly to the health minister. I made it at the Executive meeting last week.
“We need to work in tandem. The public want to hear what we’re going to do about it. We know what the challenges are. We know that the issue of discharges into social care are not there, the places, the beds aren’t there. So what are we going to do about it?
“That’s what I want us, as an executive, to talk about, not tearing strips off each other. As ministers working together for the better good of all the people that we serve. So I think, actually, we’ve got a very strong track record of delivery. Do I want to improve upon it? Yes.”
