Letter: Direct rule is Northern Ireland’s best chance of functioning government

​The recent comments from Lord Empey stating that those unionists opposed to restoration of the Stormont executive are “doing Sinn Fein’s dirty work” (DUP 'doing Sinn Fein's dirty work' by keeping Stormont suspended: Lord Empey, News Letter, June 28) demonstrated a poor understanding of both the Northern Ireland Protocol and the record of the executive since 1998.

Lord Empey talks about how a restored Stormont may present opportunities to undo some of the damage done “as a result of Brexit”.

Yet both the Ulster Unionists and the DUP have already attempted this failed strategy of mitigation when they agreed to restore the executive in January 2020. This despite the fact that the Tory government voted for the protocol in October 2019.

Despite the initial cooperation of both unionist parties, any reasoned alternative to an Irish Sea border was simply dismissed by the government in the name of political expediency.

It was not until such times as grassroots loyalist protests pressured the DUP into withdrawing from the executive that any attempts were made to address unionist concerns.

A second flaw in Lord Empey’s logic is the belief that a restored executive is needed to make Northern Ireland work. The record of the assembly suggests otherwise.

Power-sharing was never a system of government designed for efficient government or to navigate “economic storms”.

Its sole purpose was to cement the peace process by creating a government were both unionists and nationalists (and specifically Sinn Fein), would always retain permanent representation regardless of their performance in office.

The practical outworking of this was to create an executive composed of four to five parties who hold not only irreconcilable visions for the Province’s constitutional future, but also on almost every major social-economic issue.

The system’s inability to remove any major party from power (along with over-generous funding from Westminster) means our local parties have been allowed to avoid making deeply unpopular, but necessary decisions, on issues like austerity and the introduction of water charges.

Lord Empey is right in one regard. Good governance in Northern Ireland has been neglected for too long and this is to the detriment of its citizens’ wellbeing.

Yet if he is truly worried about republicans claiming that Northern Ireland is a “failed political entity”, then the most constructive thing he could call for is the imposition of direct rule.

This would provide both functioning government for the Province, whilst denying Sinn Fein their long-term aspiration of being in government in both parts of the island.

Kirk McDowell, Belfast BT5

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