Call for suspension of Stormont flags body

The Executive Office said it is not currently possible to say when the flags commission will complete its work

It was meant to report back within 18 months, but has yet to complete its work.

Sinn Fein and the UUP said the panel’s work has been made harder by the lack of an executive.

The Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (FICT) was set up by the Executive Office in June 2016, as part of the Fresh Start Agreement.

Just over six months later, the power-sharing executive and Northern Ireland collapsed and Northern Ireland has been without a functioning devolved government ever since.

UUP leader Robin Swann said he was concerned that the commission could “disappear into a political vacuum at a cost of nearly £650,000”.

He said his party, through its representative on the panel - Doug Beattie - had recommended the commission be suspended.

“I am concerned, and I think the public will rightly be concerned, that further costs are being incurred at a time when the commission does not even have an executive to hand their final report to,” Mr Swann told the BBC.

Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon said it was her party’s view that in the absence of an executive, the political climate was “not conducive to reaching an accommodation or agreement on the outstanding issues”.

“Sinn Féin’s position is that the work of the commission should be suspended until an executive is reformed,” she said.

“Other members of the commission - with the exception of UUP representative Doug Beattie - disagreed, and a number of meetings of the commission have been scheduled for June, July and August.”

On Saturday, BBC News NI revealed that the total cost for the commission, from when it was set up in June 2016 to March 2018, was £647,094.

The Executive Office said the commission had been tasked with examining a range of “long standing, complex and challenging areas in relation to the expression of national and cultural identity” within Northern Ireland.

It is also “not possible” at this stage to confirm when its work will be concluded, it added.

A DUP spokesperson said the commission had an important role to play.

It is “deeply disappointing that some of those who complain most loudly about flags continue to block devolution, meaning no ministers are in place to consider a report produced by the group,” they added.

The SDLP and Alliance Party said they supported FICT when it was initially set up, but that the slow pace of progress was concerning.