The key areas on the Assembly list ahead of return | UK News

Schools in Northern Ireland may have been back for some time, but Stormont’s summer break officially ends this weekend.

On Monday, assembly members (MLAs) will be back on the hill with big challenges to confront.

Here are five areas to keep an eye on this autumn.

After a summer of discontent which saw racial tensions spill over in parts of Northern Ireland, it’s fair to say there hasn’t exactly been a joint response from the executive to it.

With more racist attacks in the past week and calls for political leadership, the first and deputy first ministers have been coming under pressure to explain what they are doing to handle things.

The pair sent out a strong signal of support following the first executive meeting after summer on Thursday, where Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly condemned the violence and sounded frustrated by it – with figures now at a record high.

While words are important, actions matter too and the problem when it comes to speaking from the same page is that their parties – Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – don’t actually agree on how immigration and the asylum system should be managed.

And while the matter is reserved to politicians in Westminster to legislate for changes, expect this issue to become a battle line that will feature prominently in assembly debates and at upcoming party conferences in the weeks ahead – the DUP’s is first in September.

Also watch out for Wednesday 10 September when the first and deputy first ministers are due to appear before the Executive Office committee, and no doubt this issue will crop up again.

From one political row to another, while there was some progress over funding to redevelop the west Belfast GAA stadium before summer, it would appear to have come to a halt once more.

The UK Government committed £50m towards the project in June, but even with other funding promised from Stormont and Dublin there is still a gap of about £100m.

The Stormont executive is contributing £62.5m towards the project, the GAA will pay £15m, while the Irish government has pledged about £43m.

The GAA had said it would engage with the executive to ensure a full funding package is delivered, but Gordon Lyons – in his capacity as Sports Minister – has insisted the GAA will need to increase its contribution and potentially redraw its plans to make it more affordable.

All Stormont departments are calling for extra cash to meet their responsibilities and allow for transformation, and while this has been a flagship project for the executive since 2011, that doesn’t mean it’s any further up the priority list for additional money that might be found.

And with that in mind, as autumn approaches so too does the prospect of the next government Budget – which will take place on Wednesday 26 November.

It is, rather uniquely, an issue that always brings our parties together as they face off with Treasury for what they call “equitable” funding – essentially arguing that Northern Ireland remains funded well below its level of need.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was in Belfast over the summer and took home that same message after meeting executive ministers.

Time and again the response back from London is that Stormont is receiving its fair share of the financial pie and that all governments have to take difficult decisions.

The problem is that in a four-party mandatory coalition like Stormont, making those decisions is even more complicated and more often than not, have ended up on the back burner.

You might not have seen that much of it since Stormont returned from its two-year impasse in January 2024, but one of the assembly’s primary jobs is to legislate.

The executive parties have faced criticism from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) – Stormont’s official opposition – that they aren’t bringing enough legislation and fear that much could end up being rushed through before the next assembly election, scheduled for May 2027.

About 10 bills including laws for sign language protections and compensation to survivors of mother and baby homes are currently going through the legislative process.

There’s also a wide-ranging sentencing bill expected from the Justice Minister Naomi Long in the next few months, which aims to tighten laws around sentencing for offences and toughen up hate crime legislation.

Stormont tends to exist in periods of crisis and collapse, followed by times of stable but slow government.

As of now we would appear to be in the latter phase, but the risk of crisis often tends to linger the closer the next assembly election gets.