Clare Bailey: Stormont stalemate a 'dereliction of duty'
New Green party leader calls for fresh talks
Clare Bailey has called for round table talks to end the power-sharing crisis.
She was speaking after she was elected as the new Green party leader earlier this week.
Ms Bailey replaces Steven Agnew after seven years in charge.
He announced he would step down during the summer.
She paid tribute to her predecessor:
"We're in the position that we're in today, with that membership and with those great ideas and that energy because of what Steven has built," she said.
She added: "So hopefully I can fill those shoes and take the party to the next stage."
Ms Bailey has been the MLA for South Belfast since 2010 and studied politics at Queen's University.
She told DT Cool FM she's proud to be a woman in politics:
"I think it's a great time...it's important to note also that we're standing in the centenary year of the partial suffrage, so when some women were granted the right to vote.
"I'm now the fourth female leader of parties in Northern Ireland so we can see women coming forward."
But she also believes more needs to be done to encourage more women to take on leadership roles and get involved in politics here:
"What we're missing is female experience and women's experience coming through into social policy.
"So I think that we still have far to go, we're seeing a drop off of the number of women in public life in general in Northern Ireland in general.
"There's much to be done to bring that forward because if we're not including the majority experiences then everybody loses."
Clare told us efforts to restore power-sharing have been neglected due to Brexit.
Her party has been calling for a people's vote on Theresa May's draft proposals, due to be signed off at an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday.
The 48-year-old insists any decisions on the blueprint should be decided by the electorate:
"It's the least-worst possible option for Northern Ireland and we're going to keep campaigning for the people's vote.
"We were the first party to bring the notion of a people's vote up so I think that when we had the referendum back in 2016, the people made their voices heard.
"Now this deal needs to be put back to the people to say 'is this ok?"
Despite the political landscape focusing on Brexit talks and the implications of leaving the EU in 2019, Clare says the priority in Northern Ireland must be the Stormont stalemate.
She has called for all political parties to be involved in power-sharing talks, not just Sinn Fein and the DUP.
Ms Bailey says round table talks are the only option in the absence of agreement between the main parties:
"The sooner Sinn Fein and the DUP can get themselves back round the table the better but I don't think it should be left to them either.
"I think that we need all parties and wider civic society back at that table to look at where we are, where we need to go and come up with a sustainable plan for the way forward."
She told us she has little confidence in political leaders in the main two parties here and the UK government to get the devolved institutions restored.
"I don't believe that they (Sinn Fein and the DUP) will come up with a solution which is why we need all parties back round the table, we need an independent facilitator and we certainly need the Secretary of State to step up and do her duty here as well."
She has urged the entire Northern Ireland community to have their say in the future of the province:
"20 years ago when we came up with the Good Friday Agreement, everyone was at that table.
"Parties who were elected, parties who were unelected, wider civic society, churches, the business sector, our community and voluntary sector.
"It was everyone who came up with this deal and we need that approach again."