SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood MLA has said that as legislators elected politicians should be embarrassed that they had abandoned the electorate for for 591 days.
Mr Eastwood added that with Brexit hurtling down the tracks, too much is now at stake to allow this impasse to roll-on unchallenged.
There has been no powersharing Executive since January 2017 when the then Sinn Fein deputy first minister Martin McGuinness refused to sit in government with the DUP over what he called the DUP’s “arrogance” relating to the RHI boiler heating scandal.
The Foyle MLA said: “For our people to have been left for 589 days without a government is a truly sorry indictment of our politics here.
“A lot has been said about where the blame lies for our ongoing impasse. The focus must now lie in finding a solution.
“The SDLP have been consistent in calling on the two governments to step up and step in.
“As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement it is their duty to take the hard issues off the table by allowing Westminster to legislate for Marriage Equality and language issues, so all parties can get back to work.
“With Brexit our politics has now reached a defining moment.
“We cannot allow a hard Brexit to be thrust upon our people without a functioning Assembly to mitigate its devastating impacts,” he added.
