Are Stormont ministers' plans a Christmas wish list?

It's that time of year when children are sitting down to finalise their Santa wish list.

In their best handwriting, and under the scrutiny of cash-conscious parents, children carefully pen and post their festive inventories.

They know delivery is not going to be a problem - what they want they get, usually delivered on time and within budget.

Not so much the case at Stormont where this week we got two "wish lists" with little expectation of delivery anytime soon.

That is because the cash-conscious ministers who penned the lists know that budgets will be tight for the foreseeable future.

The lists, or strategies, were drawn up by both Health Minister Mike Nesbitt and Communities Minister Gordon Lyons.

Nesbitt's three year plan is proposing to stabilise, reform and improve delivery across almost every sector in health.

While the communities minister's top target is to build 100,000 private and social homes over the next 15 years.

The plans were laden with ambition but light on hard detail and costings.

What we got instead was a blueprint of what health and housing might look like if proper resources were in place.

Convincing a weary public that these plans are sustainable and deliverable remains the challenge.

Not least by an Executive which struggles with big decisions such as Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald's rates reform plan, which failed to win support from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and has now gone out to public consultation.

Four times the minister tried to bring it to the Executive for approval, and four times she failed to get it agreed.

The delay means the plan will not be ready for the next financial year.

Such divisions could also be to blame for the Executive's failure to deliver on its 2024 legislative programme.

Fewer than 50% of the bills planned for this year have been introduced.

Some of the bills proposed by Stormont ministers yet to be introduced include: legislation to enshrine rights for the sign language community, a bill to update public health laws and legislation specifically on financial redress for those affected by mother and baby homes.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill admitted to assembly member (MLAs) that only seven of the 20 bills proposed by the Executive have been brought to the assembly so far.

She said she was disappointed by what she called the "slippage" and said the Executive would set a clear plan in the new year.

That didn't impress the Social Democratic and Labour Party's (SDLP) Mathew O'Toole who challenged O'Neill.

"The First Minister was keen to talk about Santa's delivery but less keen to talk about the Executive's failure to deliver even half of the legislation they promised just a few months ago," he said.

"They set themselves a low bar and missed it, by a long way."

In June, the executive published a programme listing the legislation it intended to progress in 2024.

The first minister said the executive's priority was to ensure that outstanding bills are introduced in a timely manner and that she and the deputy first minister had written to other departments, asking for an updates.

But it is understood senior civil servants have been frustrated at the lack of political urgency to get bills moving.

Some also questioned if the Executive was too ambitious in its target, with ministers under pressure to make up for the five lost years of government since 2017.

In Scotland, 15 bills were passed in 2024, while in Wales only six made it into legislation.

Former Permanent Secretary Dr Andrew McCormick warned against pushing through bills through without proper scrutiny.

"I think the legislative process needs to be done carefully and thoughtfully, rushed legislation is usually bad legislation," he suggested.

"The Assembly hasn't been back all that long in terms of perspective of a legislative process, so I think it's better that things take time and to get it right."

Another key test is the draft budget for 2025/26, which is yet to be agreed.

It was hoped ministers could sign off on the final allocations before Christmas and before putting it out for consultation to be finalised for the start of the financial year.

That might still happen this week, with an Executive meeting planned for Thursday.

Or we could end up with Ministers only agreeing to send the draft budget out for consultation without the full support of the Executive.

That happened before back in 2021 when Conor Murphy was the finance minister, but his draft budget was scuppered when the DUP then collapsed the institutions in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol.

We could get a re-run this week.

Such a scenario will not be on the finance minister's wish list.