Stormont Executive was to go ‘where man has not gone before’
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The new powersharing Executive at Stormont was described in 1999 as being like the Starship Enterprise – going where “man has not gone before”.
Declassified state papers show civil servants in Northern Ireland were warned there was a risk that relations between ministers in the devolved administration could degenerate into “continual attrition between and within unionist and nationalist blocs”.
The Stormont Assembly was formally established in 1998, with the first election taking place in June and the first meeting in July.
Former Ulster Unionist leader Lord Trimble became First Minister designate with Seamus Mallon of the SDLP as deputy First Minister.
However, the Executive was to exist in shadow form without assuming full devolved powers until December 1999, mainly due to political disputes over IRA decommissioning of weapons.
The Executive itself will be an involuntary coalition with internal political tensions that could degenerate into continual attrition between and within unionist and nationalist blocs.
Several newly released files from 1999 detail efforts to prepare for the devolution of powers to Stormont ministers from the Northern Ireland Office.
One file contains a briefing paper prepared for senior civil servants on how to develop a programme for government for the new Executive.
The Good Friday Agreement had stated that a programme for government and budget should be agreed by the Assembly each year.
The note stated: “In seeking to formulate a programme for government one enters unchartered waters.
“The Executive itself will be an involuntary coalition with internal political tensions that could degenerate into continual attrition between and within unionist and nationalist blocs.
“Assembly members have up to now been in a ‘permanent opposition’ mode.
“They have not had to confront the hard decisions associated with priority-setting and resource allocation.
“The primary motivation of Assembly members will be to seek advantage for their particular constituencies rather than advancing the interests of the region as a whole.
“The community is imbued with a culture of dependency (‘blame them’) and inevitably there will be unrealistic expectations about the degree to which the Assembly can solve the region’s economic and social challenges.”
The paper said the new ministers would be on a “steep learning curve”.
It added: “Their instincts will be to explore the possibility of constructive change and innovative departures in policy-making.
“However, there is every likelihood that ministers will be swamped with the immediacy of delivering programmes and services and locked into a continual battle with Executive colleagues on departmental resources within the constraints of the existing NI block.
“Like the Starship Enterprise the Executive is tasked to go where man has not gone before – to formulate and implement an agreed comprehensive manifesto for the future of Northern Ireland; a joint venture between unionists and nationalists based on economic dynamism and social justice with the pursuit of one dependent on the other.
“The formulation of a programme for government in itself will have a unifying impact on the Executive.”
