As support and momentum for Dylan Quinn’s protest continues to build, the MLAs for Fermanagh-South Tyrone and their parties have responded to his video by calling on each other to do what is needed and get back to work.
It has been over a week since Dylan Quinn uploaded his video urging the people of Fermanagh and further afield to join him and show that they are tired of the current deadlock at Stormont with an organised protest on August 28 in Enniskillen.
Responding to his video, Sinn Fein, the DUP and UUP all agreed on one thing, Stormont needs to start working again for the people but how this comes about is perhaps easier said than done.
 “I absolutely support the call that ‘we deserve better’. We deserve rights. Everyone in our society should be treated with equality and respect. That is not the case and that needs to stop now,” said Jemma Dolan Sinn Fein MLA.
“The DUP need to stop the denial of rights so that we can all get back into government here to legislate for and uphold the rights of all our people.”
Colm Gildernew agreed with his colleague.
“Of course we deserve better. We’re approaching the 50th anniversary of the first Civil Rights march and here we are still calling for civil rights, for equality and for respect.
“Elsewhere on these islands people enjoy marriage equality, language rights, the rights to an inquest and women’s healthcare rights. We deserve better than to be denied these same rights.”
While Seán Lynch added, “In the 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement, we have persevered in good faith with the expectation that rights which were agreed would be delivered. It has become clear in recent years that the DUP and the British Government are content to withhold rights. We all deserve better than that.” 
The DUP also responded saying they understand the annoyance of the people of Northern Ireland at the current stalemate. 
“The DUP shares the frustration of the organisers of this protest. Since Sinn Fein collapsed the Northern Ireland Executive important decisions cannot be made,” said a DUP spokesperson.
“Our education system, health service and roads network rely on a functioning Executive in order to improve the lives of us all. 
“The DUP will return to Government today, but unfortunately Sinn Fein have placed a narrow party agenda ahead of the needs of the vast majority of citizens living here. 
“We trust that in the near future agreement can be reached to ensure that the people of County Fermanagh have a fully functioning Government in place.”
Ulster Unionist MLA Rosemary Barton says something needs to be done to the state of political paralysis in Northern Ireland.
“We need people making decisions to stop the country grinding to a halt.  With each day the crisis in our health service deepens, which is why our party made the call for health to be repatriated to Westminster while Northern Ireland remains without an Assembly and Executive.   
“If the UK Government has no new ideas or initiatives that will see the institutions restored, then the Prime Minister must act and appoint Ministers to begin taking vital decisions.  The drift cannot be allowed to continue.”  
Since the video was uploaded on Facebook, things have moved quickly with over 500,000 views and Dylan has been in contact with people all over Northern Ireland, something he was not expecting. 
Dylan revealed that there were now 17 locations across Northern Ireland where people are planning to protest.
“I suppose the speed at which people jumped at taking the opportunity to share their voice shows there is frustration at the situation and that’s the bit that has caught me a little bit unawares.
 “People started contacting me who were interested in supporting it and through social media we managed to communicate and start to put this together so that we can all engage in this and get our voices out.
“I wanted it to start in Enniskillen so we can show it doesn’t matter where you are living it doesn’t have to always happen in Belfast or Derry, it can happen here because we have a right to have our voices heard and I think they are just not being heard.”
With August 28 getting closer the call to protest does not look like slowing down with Dylan determined to get people to “share their voice” and hold the politicians to account.