No end to the Stormont impasse in sight as Belgium’s unhappy milestone surpassed

Northern Ireland has marked 589 days without a fully functioning, elected government, surpassing Belgium’s record. Protesters using the hashtag #WeDeserveBetter have demanded restoration of the power-sharing executive.



How did Northern Ireland get here?

The power-sharing executive in Stormont imploded in January 2017 after the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and Sinn Féin quarrelled over a bungled renewable energy scheme, the Irish language, marriage equality and other issues. Neither side has blinked so the impasse continues, dragging on past the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement in April and now the unhappy record set by Belgium in 2010-11, still without any sign of compromise.

Who is running Northern Ireland?

The Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, and civil servants are keeping government departments operational – a far cry from the devolution and power-sharing between nationalists and unionists envisaged in the Good Friday agreement.

What is the impact of lacking fully functional governance?

Day to day, not much. Bureaucracy, and life, trundle on. And assembly members are still getting paid. But many decisions, such as compensating victims of abuse at state-run homes and institutions, have been deferred pending a resolution of the impasse. With Brexit reviving issues over the border it is a perilous time for drift.

“We are storing up hundreds of unmade decisions and ever greater problems that will be harder to deal with the longer they go untackled,” Seamus McAleavey, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, said in a statement.



Will Northern Ireland enter the Guinness Book of Records?

No. Belgium lacked a properly functioning government for 589 days when its then-prime minister, Yves Leterme, quit in April 2010. It had no government at all for 541 days when no new administration was formed after an election in June 2010. Guinness recordkeepers use this yardstick.

If you date Northern Ireland’s impasse to its snap election on 2 March 2017 it passed 541 days without a government on 24 August. If you date the impasse from 16 January 2017, when Sinn Féin missed a deadline to nominate a new deputy first minister to replace Martin McGuinness, who had resigned a week earlier, you get 589 days.

Nothern Ireland, however, is not an independent country – Westminister can still pass laws – so it escapes the ignominy of having set an official record.

What happens next?

In the short term, probably nothing.

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Bradley issued a statement acknowledging frustrations and and said the UK government wished to re-establish a locally elected, democratically accountable devolved government as soon as possible. “In the absence of an executive, the secretary of state continues to take the necessary decisions to protect the interests of Northern Ireland and ensure stable public finances, demonstrated by the recent Budget Act.”

#WeDeserveBetter protesters who have scheduled demonstrations across Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening hope a sense of shame and Brexit-infused urgency will finally force the DUP and Sinn Féin to return to Stormont and hammer out a deal. Few expect that to happen soon.



