Reform of Stormont

Over a quarter of a century since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the level of violence in Northern Ireland has dramatically fallen and a concerted effort has been made to reduce divisions in society. The Agreement is celebrated around the world as a model on which to build a lasting peace.

Yet the governing institutions established through Strand One of the Agreement – principally, the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive – have had a mixed record of success. For much of the period since 1998 they have not functioned, including two recent spells between 2017 and 2020 and between 2022 and 2024. Some people – especially supporters of political parties identifying as neither nationalist or unionist – have come to view the institutions as operating inequitably. And there are widespread concerns about weaknesses in governance and poor delivery of public services.

This project has set out to explore possible reforms to Northern Ireland's governing institutions, without forming a judgement on the desirability of these ideas.

Its main output is Reform of Stormont: Options for Discussion, a report providing a technical analysis of possible reforms that have been or might reasonably be proposed, and that can plausibly be said to preserve the Agreement's underlying principles.

The report groups possible reforms into four categories: the process of Executive formation, other aspects of the Executive, the Assembly and other Strand One institutions. In each case, it examines what can be said about the reforms' likely effects. It also sets out key actors' views towards possible changes and discusses how reforms would come about. And it examines arguments for and against temporary reforms to allow some form of democratic government to continue if the institutions were to collapse again.

In the absence of any other systematic listing and assessment of reform proposals, this report sets out to inform some of the conversations that are already taking place about reforming the ways in which Northern Ireland's devolved government works.

Two of the report's authors, Professor Renwick and Alan Whysall, were at an event discussing its findings on 28 April at Queen's University Belfast. They were be joined by leading experts, Professor Katy Hayward and Director of Pivotal Ann Watt, to explore the ideas and possible ways forward set out in the report.

Project information

This project was led by Professor Alan Renwick in collaboration with Dr Conor J. Kelly and Alan Whysall. It ran between August 2024 and March 2025 and was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.