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Failure to reform Stormont is "condemning devolution to death by a thousand collapses", the Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has said.

Speaking at her party conference in Belfast, she said Northern Ireland wants a "stable functioning government" without excuses or delay.

Mrs Long also told members that change was needed to the political institutions at Stormont.

"The fact that the institutions are suspended for at least the third time, and the second time since 2017, is irrefutable evidence that real change is needed," she said.

Read more: Long urges stable government 'without excuses or delay'

Naomi Long concludes her speech with a pitch to voters, saying that the Alliance Party is "sick and tired of the politics of fear, distraction and division" and promising instead to focus "on what really matters".

She says the Alliance Party wants to improve public services, including the health and education systems, and she vows to build a "society that works for us and empowers us".

She calls on voters to "send a message to the wreckers, the blockers, the wasters - the people who take the votes but deliver nothing for you in return".

The party leader says that voting for the Alliance Party will send a message to "those who hold Stormont and your future to ransom".

Naomi Long turns her attention to the forthcoming Northern Ireland council elections on 18 May.

She says the Alliance Party has the opportunity to "expand our representation right across every council in Northern Ireland".

Image source, Getty Images

The party has representatives on all of them except Mid Ulster and Mrs Long appears to have that as a key target.

"You gotta catch ‘em all," she says, admitting that she's a keen Pokémon Go! player in her spare time.

The election can provide a springboard ahead of the next Westminster and Stormont elections, says the party leader.

The new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland must not be allowed to lead to more instability at Stormont, says Naomi Long.

The Windsor Framework, agreed between the UK and the EU this week, changes the operation of the controversial post-Brexit trade arrangements known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

For the past year the DUP has not participated in the Stormont institutions in protest against the protocol.

Image source, PA Media

"The Windsor Framework is generally a much better deal than the Johnson/Frost protocol, which we have always acknowledged was clunky and bureaucratic and which needed to be refined," says the Alliance Party leader.

The so-called Stormont brake contained within the new framework gives MLAs a greater say in opposing new EU laws that would apply in Northern Ireland.

Mrs Long says the Stormont brake is at risk of being abused, citing past uses of the petition of concern mechanism to block legislation that had majority support in the assembly.

Naomi Long says the "debacle" over the passage of Dáithí's Law on organ donation was an example of how the Stormont impasse is harming Northern Ireland.

The implementation of an opt-out system for organ donation was held up because a final piece of legislation required for it could not be passed with Stormont in limbo.

Image source, PA Media

But in a surprise move the UK government pushed it through Parliament last month, meaning the opt-out system will take effect from 1 June.

The change was inspired by six-year-old Dáithí Mac Gabhann (above, with his father Máirtín), who needs a heart transplant.

The Alliance Party leader says she is "profoundly uncomfortable" with the lengths that Dáithí‘s family had to go to in their campaign for organ donation reform and the "several weeks of stress and uncertainty" they endured in recent weeks.

Naomi Long describes the Good Friday Agreement as a "foundation" to build on and not "the ceiling of our ambitions for Northern Ireland".

Image source, EPA

She says the Alliance Party's proposals for reform of Stormont would remove the veto allowing one party to bring down the institutions and would instead provide the opportunity for those who wish to govern to do so.

Mrs Long says her party's electoral success has made the case for reform of the institutions even stronger.

The Alliance Party leader calls for reform of the power-sharing institutions at Stormont.

The party published a policy document last year, which included a proposal for reforms to cross-community voting in the assembly to reflect the growing of number of MLAs designated as neither unionist or nationalist.

Image source, Getty Images

"We do not want to be patronised and patted on the head," says Mrs Long.

"We want our mandate - our votes and our voters' votes - to be treated as equal to everyone else's."

Naomi Long criticises the DUP's continued boycott of the Stormont executive and its refusal to nominate a Speaker to allow the assembly to function.

She says assembly members from her party and others have been "denied the opportunity to perform in full".

Mrs Long goes on to thank her team of MLAs for "not just hanging in there for the past 10 months but for giving 100%".

She also acknowledges that while it is no fault of their own, it is right that MLAs' pay has been cut.

Naomi Long tells Alliance Party members that their "biggest achievement" since they last met came at last May's assembly election.

The party added 10 MLAs to their number on the blue benches, taking their Stormont team to a total of 17.

Image source, Pacemaker

"We grew our team from seven to 17, leapfrogging from the fifth party to the third," says Mrs Long.

"It was, without doubt, an incredible election for Alliance, building on the momentum of previous success and keeping the Alliance surge moving forward."

Naomi Long opens by saying that the Alliance Party has a "record of delivery" and she emphasises what can be achieved when the Stormont assembly is functioning.

She points out the legislation spearheaded by the party ahead of last year's assembly election, including one on human trafficking and another on integrated education.

The assembly hasn't been able to function, with the exception of a few emergency recalls, since before the election due to the DUP's protest against post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.

Naomi Long begins by sending good wishes to Det Ch Insp John Caldwell (below), one of Northern Ireland's top detectives who was shot in Omagh last month.

He's critically ill in hospital, having had emergency surgery after the attack by two gunmen.

Image source, Pacemaker

The Alliance Party leader says it was a "merciless and chilling attack".

Mrs Long says police officers have the support and solidarity of her party.

Press the play button at the top of this page to watch the speech.

Born in 1971, Naomi Long grew up in the heart of her Belfast East constituency.

She got into politics after seeing "men in grey suits shouting at each other on the television" in the 1970s and 1980s - that, to her, was a sign of "failure" at Stormont.

Image source, Getty

Since then she has been a lord mayor of Belfast, an MP (at the expense of the DUP's Peter Robinson in 2010, above), an MEP and Stormont's justice minister.

But perhaps most notable has been her leadership of the Alliance Party, guiding it to repeated election successes in recent years.

The significant gains her party made in the 2022 Stormont assembly election will go down in history.

Read more: Profile - Alliance Party leader Naomi Long

Last year the Alliance Party become the third biggest at Stormont after a strong performance in the Northern Ireland Assembly election.

The centre-ground party won 17 seats - up from the eight it won in 2017 - and 13.5% of first preference votes.

Image source, Getty Images

It was set up in 1970 and for many years was Northern Ireland's fifth largest party overall.

The party defines itself as separate from the traditional unionist and nationalist blocs in Northern Ireland's politics.

Read more: What is the Alliance Party?

Stephen Walker
BBC News NI political correspondent

Failure to reform Stormont is "condemning devolution to death by a thousand collapses", the Alliance Party leader will say in her speech.

Naomi Long will tell her party members that Northern Ireland wants a "stable, functioning government" without excuses or delay.

Image source, Getty Images

Mrs Long is also expected to say that change is needed to the political institutions as Northern Ireland marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement next month.

The new post-Brexit trade deal for Northern Ireland - the Windsor Framework - will also feature in her speech.

Read more: Long due to give speech at Alliance Party conference

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Alliance Party leader Naomi Long's speech to her party's first conference since its success at last year's Stormont assembly election.

Image source, PA Media

Party members have gathered at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast and they have already heard from a number of speakers this morning.

Mrs Long (above) is due to deliver her address to delegates at about 12:20 GMT.

You can watch the speech live and we'll also provide a text commentary throughout.