Northern Ireland is just eleven months shy of being without a government. As we enter the new year, pundits, politicos and politicians all sound more doubtful than ever about the return of the power-sharing institutions.

The DUP appear more concerned with their king-making status in Westminster, while Sinn Féin seem unconcerned about the lack of progress to create any sort of premise that devolution will be restored anytime soon.

But what is perplexing is the lack of public outcry about the loss of our democratic institutions, especially for a society that went through so much grief, pain and loss to achieve inclusive democracy.

Direct Rule has already hit Northern Ireland in the disguise of the budget set by Westminster. Without a resolution in the new year, direct rule ministers with little interest in Northern Ireland will take on government portfolios without a local mandate. Yet, still more people took to the streets to protest after the removal of the Union Flag at Belfast’s City Hall in 2012, than they have over the complete withdrawal of our democracy.

Why such disinterest?

 

Lack of affinity to the power-sharing institutions

The Northern Ireland power-sharing project has never really captured the hearts and minds of a majority of people here.

For the most part, nationalists continue to aspire for reunification and view Stormont as a mere interim solution, whereas unionism romanticises about British rule, particularly given the DUP’s newfound status in London. Arguably anything in between will be left susceptible to repeated episodes of political brinkmanship that leaves the middle-ground voiceless.

Any outcry to save the institutions seems motivated by the need to protect public services and local interests, rather than any desire surfacing from Northern Irish patriotism.

 

Immune to political drama

A year into the political vacuum – lo and behold – the world has kept on spinning. From the inception of the power-sharing institutions in 1998, the Northern Ireland Assembly has collapsed on four separate occasions. There have been so many eleventh hour agreements in the past that the public has resigned itself, with familiar ease, that the same will happen at some point down the line.

As the ‘big two’ squabble among themselves about red line issues, what they can sell to their base, and advocate on behalf of the wishes of ‘their side’, the rest of us continue to work, live and play together safe in the understanding that history will repeat itself and Stormont (an American diplomatic intervention later) will get back to governing. 

 

We have yet to feel the full financial burden of the stalemate

When it comes to the bedroom tax, water charges, prescription charges and an all-round higher cost of living, we are somewhat sheltered here in Northern Ireland. However, as soon as direct rule ministers land in Northern Ireland, that won’t be the case. It seems unlikely that an MP whose constituents across the water have to bear these extra costs, will find any rationale as to why they shouldn’t be implemented in Northern Ireland.

It is likely that once price of the stalemate is truly felt, packaged in the charges as listed above, it will finally spark a wider anger to the impasse than we have experienced for nearly a year.

So far it has been MLA pay and the wages of their staff that have caused the most annoyance from the public. When we feel the real consequences of the lack of a functioning Assembly and Executive at Stormont, perhaps people will become more concerned at the hibernation of democracy.