Alliance leader Naomi Long says Northern Ireland public should campaign to Stormont reform

https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2025-02-11/public-should-campaign-to-reform-stormont-naomi-long

The Alliance Party Leader Naomi Long has suggested that the public should push for reform at Stormont by contacting the Secretary of State.

She also voiced her frustration at delays to the long-awaited programme for government, urging her ministerial counterparts not to allow perfection to be the enemy of the good.

The Alliance Party has been calling for changes to how Stormont runs to prevent one party being able to trigger the collapse of the institutions again in the future.

In an interview on UTV's View From Stormont programme, Naomi Long said as well as voting for parties which want to reform the institutions, the public could take action to call for change.

Naomi Long said: "They can have a direct say by contacting the Secretary of State in terms of lobbying for it, just like I do.

"I see no reason why not, there are lots of public campaigns about important things and if the institutions remaining stable is important to the public."

The Alliance Party leader denied she was making the suggestion because her party is not making progress in convincing other parties as well as the British and Irish Governments to make changes.

Ms Long added: "I have actually had really good responses, I've written to the Taoiseach, I've written to the Tanaiste.

"I've had really positive responses from them about where they want to go with this and the fact that they are engaged."

Naomi Long also said the search for perfection should not delay Stormont's Programme for Government.

Stormont ministers agreed a draft Programme for Government last September, but a final programme has not yet been published.

The Justice Minister Naomi Long said: "In terms of the Programme for Government, the last we heard of it was it was with the Executive Office and it was due to come back to us at the Executive I think fairly imminently.

She said, "I think it is important when we consider these things as an Executive and as a society, that we don't allow the perfection to become the enemy of the good.

"We are never going to get a programme that everyone is going to be one hundred percent happy with, but we do have to do these things in a timely way.

"And I think that now we are a full year into this Executive, it's important that the programme is out there in a substantive form, that we are able to start delivering... it would be nice to have it as a guide for the public to hold us to account."

"Naomi Long was asked if she was frustrated by the delay in finalising the plan she said, "Of course, I get frustrated by delay all the time."