Strangford Ulster Unionist MLA, Philip Smith, has warned the DUP and Sinn Fein that it is now time for them to step up to the mark and deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.
Philip Smith said:
““The new Finance Minister Mairtin O’Muilleoir will take little comfort from the memo circulated by his predecessor Mervyn Storey just as Stormont broke up before the election campaign got under way. It was remarkably similar in tone to the note left by the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, for his Conservative successor in May 2010 – ‘I’m afraid there is no money.’
“The new Executive cannot repeat the mistakes of the past by prevaricating and refusing to take difficult decisions which only store up problems for a future date. We are now at that future date.
“The DUP and Sinn Fein have no-one else to blame from here on in. They are now in a two party coalition and it is up to them to agree a Programme for Government and deliver for Northern Ireland.
“As we approach the June Monitoring Round it is perfectly clear that we are already facing major pressures on the health service and looming cuts in Education. What we need is a PfG that spells out exactly what the DUP and Sinn Fein are proposing to do to address the problems that their previous failure to take action has caused.
“In the past the DUP and Sinn Fein were very clearly in government but could not be said to be governing. As we move forward into the new mandate, that has to change.”