Inside Politics: 'NI ministers lack collective responsibility'

First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill

There has been a breakdown in "collective responsibility" within the Stormont Executive, former Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has said.

The Strangford MLA warned it was "coming at exactly the wrong time" as NI faced a "very serious situation" with rising Covid-19 case numbers.

He was speaking to BBC NI's Inside Politics webcast.

Mr Nesbitt added that transmission statistics "are going in the wrong direction at quite some speed".

He said his mailbox was being increasingly filled by messages from people who appear to be pandemic deniers, who are fed up and want to get on with their lives.

However, he said people "have to face the fact that we are into a second wave, numbers are going up and, almost inevitably, that means the deaths may well go up in the weeks and months ahead".

Appearing on the Strangford edition of Inside Politics Q&A, the Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong also expressed concern about the maintenance of collective responsibility by ministers.

Ms Armstrong argued there is a need for "a very clear and comprehensive agreement across the executive".

The Alliance MLA said that if Health Minister Robin Swann recommends that Northern Ireland "needs to go into a shut down, then we need to do that".

She acknowledged that a six-week lockdown would be "devastating for the economy" and "young people's mental health will be affected again".

However, Ms Armstrong argued that "if this is what it takes to save lives, then we have to consider what the recommendations are from the health minister, and we'll see what comes out of the executive later this week".

'Balanced approach'

The former DUP minister Michelle McIlveen told Inside Politics Q&A that the "figures that we've heard over the weekend do give us pause for thought".

Ms McIlveen called for a "very balanced approach" adding that ministers need to take their time to "make sure that we make the right decision because we not only have to protect life, we also have to protect livelihoods".

She said any initiative by the executive "needs to be based on very clear data, as we've moved very quickly from a situation last week where we were looking at more localised restrictions towards what looks like from the recommendations coming from [Chief Medical Officer] Michael McBride to possibly six weeks".

She added that all the latest developments "need to be taken in the round" in the context of what action is being taken in other parts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.