Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a sense that there is inertia at the heart of the Executive and in the legislative process. There is also a sense that the two main parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, are dividing the spoils in order to please their own electoral bases. There is a concern to the effect that everything is being based on electoral considerations for both parties and that this is being done to the exclusion of other parties and communities. The economic dividend has not happened for many communities on both sides of the traditional divide across the North. There is a need to call it as it is and the key players - the British, Irish and American Governments - must exert pressure in order to get normal politics back on the rails. Those who occupy the middle ground in the North are amazed that flags, emblems and symbols are still dominating the discourse of party politics there and that bread-and-butter issues do not appear to attract the same attention or priority.

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