An Upper Bann MLA has reacted to the First Minister’s weekend calls for a border poll by demanding that Michelle O’Neill first instruct her Ministerial team to “get their acts together”.
The First Minister told Sky News that a referendum on Irish unity should proceed, saying it was a chance for the people of Northern Ireland to “take control of our own fortunes”.
Discussing the possibility of a border poll with Trevor Phillips on his Sunday Morning show, First Minister O’Neill said: “I think my party’s view is that we should have this by 2030. I think that’s only a short way away, so now is the time for the plan and the preparation.”
The sentiments did not sit well, for on the floor of the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday, DUP Assemblyman Jonny Buckley insisted there were more pressing issues which first needed to be addressed.
He took a swipe at his perceived performance of the Sinn Féin’s Ministerial trio – Liz Kimmins (Infrastructure), John O’Dowd (Finance) and Dr Caoimhe Archibald (Economy) – and described the departments which they lead as being “in chaos”.
Said Mr Buckley: “There are pothole pandemics. We have a Minister for the Economy who seems more intent on losing than creating jobs for the Northern Ireland economy and a Minister of Finance who has had to do a reverse ferret on a rates increase that would have decimated the hospitality sector.
“As sure as day follows night, however, once again, the Sinn Féin First Minister is calling for an Irish unity referendum. Once again, people right across Northern Ireland are asking the same question: why this and why now?
“Half a million people are on a waiting list for a consultant’s appointment, while families are driving on roads that are so riddled with potholes that they resemble those of the Third World.
“Communities in every county are seeing their services being stretched beyond breaking point. They see no urgency, no delivery and a Finance Minister who seems to have lost his grasp of the financial realities. Yet, the First Minister is telling those people — our constituents — that a divisive border poll is now the priority.
“How about the Sinn Féin First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, tells her Ministers in Infrastructure, the Economy and Finance to get their acts together and deal with people’s priorities or she appoints competent Ministers who can do just that?”
The DUP man said promises surrounding border polls had been “heard before”.
Mr Buckley added: “Sinn Féin told its supporters that the border poll would be delivered by 2016. Mind you, it said that in 1974, when it said that it would be a year of victory. Then, it was promised again in 2025.
“As each deadline passes, more promises fade. Each time they are wheeled out, more scrutiny arises as to Sinn Féin’s failures. It is the politics of distraction, with Sinn Féin constantly putting its own narrow ideological drive before the interests of ordinary people.
“When the pressures mount, the failures become impossible to ignore. The people are calling for action. They are calling for the Assembly to get on and deal with the real issues that are affecting them in education, health and infrastructure. Those are the issues that unite the people of Northern Ireland.”
In a direct challenge, he concluded: “My call to the Sinn Féin Front Bench and to its Back-Benchers is this: no more division and no more distraction. Get on with delivering for the people of Northern Ireland. We are all sick of the sideshow. We want to see real delivery. Are you up to it?”
