NI Election 2022: Watch - Alliance leader calls for Stormont Executive to get up and running
Naomi Long urged the DUP today (Monday) to "step up to the plate" and enter a new Stormont Executive.
The Alliance Party leader led her 17-strong team of MLAs to Assembly buildings to tell media they were turning up for work as they had promised the electorate during their election campaign.
"As promised in the election campaign we're here on Monday morning on day one ready to start delivering for the people of Northern Ireland," she told media in the Great Hall at Stormont.
"I want us to sit down, get the negotiations under way on the programme for government and the budget, and I want to see us getting government up and running as quickly as possible.
"We're going to see a functioning Assembly hopefully pretty soon, that will be the easier part of all of this, but to get a functioning Executive we need the DUP to step up to the plate. With power comes responsibility, and people now need to take the responsibility seriously.
"I think the DUP need to reflect on their mishandling of Brexit, on the fact they had huge influence at Westminster and overplayed their hand.
"It would be foolhardy for them to overplay their hand with devolution because that is a gamble that Northern Ireland can't afford to take."