The Church Leaders Group of Ireland invited the leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main political parties to a series of separate individual meetings on 3 November last, focussing on the restoration of good governance in Northern Ireland.
The meetings took place in Assembly
Buildings in Belfast.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the Church of Ireland, the
Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Ireland, the Roman Catholic
Church, and Irish Council of Churches said, “As part of civil society we
felt that it was important for us to reach out to each of Northern
Ireland’s main political parties, just as we did in September 2018,
under similar circumstances. We very much welcomed the opportunity to
engage and listen across our separate meetings, which were positive and
constructive.
“During the meetings we highlighted the feedback coming to us from
communities across Northern Ireland regarding the seriousness of the
current situation – indicating the real and sustained financial hardship
that is being experienced by many people, combined with the everyday
reality that many of the normal services that society depends upon were
close to breaking point. We also indicated to the party leaders that
this was leading to a rising sense of despair, and even hopelessness
throughout the community, linked to a growing anger at the current poor
state of governance.”
The Church Leaders continued, “with each of the parties we discussed the
urgent need for the restoration of Northern Ireland’s devolved
government. While it was acknowledged that this wouldn’t be a panacea
for all problems, it was however recognised as an important first step,
and was something that, if properly resourced by the UK government,
would make a real and meaningful difference to the everyday lives of
people.”
The Church Leaders stressed that the restoration of good governance in
Northern Ireland was also important in re-establishing hope and a vision
for the future. They indicated that while ultimately everyone will be
living with some challenging aspects, both of Brexit and of post-Brexit
arrangements, a devolved government will be ideally placed to capitalise
on the new opportunities opening up for Northern Ireland in the medium
and long-term.
During the meetings, the Church and Party Leaders also discussed the
significant budgetary pressures being faced by all Northern Ireland
departments. It was noted that Northern Ireland on the whole was being
underfunded by the UK government, and there was a necessity to move to a
more equitable needs-based funding model, as indicated in recent
reports of the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council.
As a result of these discussions with party leaders, which were both positive and constructive, the Church Leaders Group:
- Calls upon all political parties in Northern Ireland to have as a priority acting for the common good and in so doing genuinely to take account of the needs, concerns and aspirations of ‘the other’. This will mean reaching accommodations for the common good, which will balance the alleviation of their own concerns with the urgent need for the restoration of good governance in Northern Ireland.
- Calls upon the UK government urgently to take all
necessary steps to facilitate the restoration of good governance in
Northern Ireland, including the return of fully functioning and
resourced devolved institutions, North-South and East-West bodies. This
needs to involve:
- Urgently taking all steps possible to meet the outstanding concerns of all political parties, so that each will feel able to return to the devolved institutions.
- Providing the funding necessary to meet immediate budgetary pressures, while putting in place a more equitable needs-based funding model going into the future. Undertakings should also be given that necessary additional ‘transformation funding’ will be available in response to an agreed Northern Ireland executive plan for the transformation of public services.