Recap on health reform, no budget, big decisions looming

politicalOD

A brief gap while every day was Covid-19, a short recap on the need for accelerated Health reform. As if that were not a big enough challenge, money is being spent by the Stormont Executive while there is still no basic budget this financial year (none since 2016!), no programme for Government, and therefore no baseline to understand scale or impact of spend on future budgets. There are big decisions to be made very soon. The sort of coalition discussions happening now in the Republic of Ireland, on how to manage future deficits and set priorities, seem unimaginable with Sinn Fein at the table (and outside the door) at Stormont. Perhaps it is best suited to being a populist opposition, which it is set to be in the new Dail.