Ironically what it took was for us not to have a government for two and a half years. Back when our devolved Assembly at Stormont was functioning, there was a majority vote in favour, but the DUP had been persistently using the Petition of Concern to stop progress on these issues. The Petition was designed, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, as a course corrector in case anyone ever tried to pass legislation that was sectarian in nature. Of course, the DUP used it entirely out of that context, as a cudgel to whack anything that smacked of progress.