Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“Today’s failure at Stormont is but the latest episode of failure by the parties of failure within the failed institutions.
“The very fact that such a summit had to be convened is testimony to the chronic failure of Belfast Agreement devolution.
“How many years of failure does it take before the penny finally drops that a system which defies the basic tenets of democracy is bound to fail. Mandatory coalition, with its guarantee of places as of right in government, denial of the right to vote parties out of government and denial, even, of an Opposition, can never succeed.
“These talks were never about fixing what is wrong with Stormont, but were only ever about the self-serving agenda of patching it up till it lurches to its next crisis.
“It’s time to face facts. Mandatory coalition cannot and will not work. Only a coalition of the willing, manifested through voluntary coalition and challenged by an Opposition, will ever succeed.
“What we need is an election with a coalition of the willing formed by those who can agree a programme for government and command the requisite majority, with those who can’t agree forming the Opposition. That is the only route to workable and durable devolution.”