The recently reinstated Executive of Northern Ireland stands accused of engaging in mere “symbolism” rather than taking more substantial steps, Green Party’s new Senator Mal O’Hara stated. He held Sinn Féin and DUP’s ‘Joint First Ministers’ accountable for planning orchestrated photo shoots and going for the easiest tasks achievable.
O’Hara is the leader of the party in Northern Ireland and he confessed that symbolism plays a crucial role in demonstrating the progression towards reconciliation in the North. However, he questioned whether a Sinn Féin First Minister showing respect for ‘God Save the King’ and the Deputy from DUP attending a GAA match is the best achievable result 26 years post the Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking at the Green Party’s national conference in Dublin, O’Hara accused the Assembly of only discussing non-binding motions and having no proper plan for the government or legislative plan. He drew attention to worsening public finances, a quarter of the population on health waiting lists, increasing homelessness rates and billed public services as being on the brink of collapse. Despite these problems, the Assembly only finds time to discuss non-binding motions over and over again, which he referred to as showboating and grandstanding instead of representative democracy.
The senator claimed that the Belfast Agreement promised peace, prosperity and reconciliation but almost three decades later, the regions that were among the most impoverished in western Europe then continue to be so.
He delineated Northern Ireland as a place grappling with intergenerational trauma, underlining that it spends the least per capita on mental health and wellbeing compared to any other region of the UK. Further stressing the region’s social issues, he said that it has the highest levels of poverty and fatal drug-related incidents among men aged 25-40 in Europe, second only to Scotland.
O’Hara also expressed concern that an anti-poverty strategy promised since 2007 has not been implemented. He portrayed Northern Ireland as the poorest of the British Isles and called out the failure to achieve hoped-for reconciliation and integration measures. He pointed out persisting segregation in housing and schools, adding that merely 10 per cent of the schools have achieved integration.
Former Belfast City councillor, Mr O’Hara, who was deposed from his role during last year’s local elections, has experienced a substantial setback within his party. The party presently constitutes five councillors in Northern Ireland, though it was unsuccessful in maintaining its involvement in two Assembly positions during the 2022 election. Noting the considerable challenges encountered over the past few years, O’Hara urged his fellow party members to actively campaign for local contenders, signifying that his Assembly position was lost by a slim margin of 50 votes.
Subsequent to Sinn Féin senator Niall Ó Donnghaile’s resignation owing to health issues, O’Hara was recently designated as a Senator unanimously. He reported that Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin’s leader, had applauded his predecessor as a strong advocate for Northern nationalists and expressed his intention to foster that legacy.
However, O’Hara underscored the persisting issue of “crisis and collapse” from the 1998 agreement onwards, and pointed to a lack of change in strategy since its reinstatement in February, despite assurances of a revolutionised approach. He criticised the Executive for its reluctance to negotiate revenue generation, voicing grievances about public finance conditions and the dependence on the UK for additional funding. He also alluded to the historic neglect from the Conservative government and the perpetuating austerity measures which have been in effect intermittently for the past 26 years.
O’Hara championed devolved power for local authorities in Northern Ireland, and criticised a reputedly partisan approach to power distribution. He pointed to their inefficient handling of environmental concerns, outlining Northern Ireland’s concerning lead in emissions and its poor rankings in biodiversity loss globally. It has the largest unregulated landfill site in Western Europe and does not have an independent body to investigate this issue, inspite of support from the Assembly.
O’Hara, who was recently sworn into the Seanad, cautioned that the Greens have overlooked constitutional issues for an extended period and have subsequently suffered. Comparing the current situation to the German Greens near extinction in the 1990s, he emphasised they focused on environmentally concerned topics when the central focus was national unification.
Tune in to our Inside Politics podcast for prime political discussion and scrutiny.