Year ahead will be a test of leaders’ abilities to reform governance

The single issue wholly within our control, amid much uncertainty, is public sector pay, writes Gerard Howlin

2017 is set to be a test of capacity to change and reform governance, north and south on the island. It is likely to see the beginning, if not completion of major changes, of leadership within Sinn Féin. Unfolding events do not match the scale of opportunity, provided by the depth of crisis, offered to the then newly elected Fine Gael-Labour coalition nearly six years ago, but current events are nonetheless pressing. Something will give.

History teaches, it is usually political momentum in the face of the baulking hulk of institutional stasis. That’s essentially what happened after 2011, when a crisis was largely wasted. Then a determined, but narrowly focused, and institutionally conservative government succeeded in completing the restoration of order to the public finances.