Analysis in progress: 97,637 of 97,960 records assessed (99.7%). Totals and rankings will change until it finishes. Progress details
Mrs Deborah Erskine: Assembly records
All of Mrs Deborah Erskine’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
I, too, welcome the Veterans Commissioner to the Gallery today and thank him for the work that he and his office are doing with the veterans community. It is much appreciated. Minister, I welcome your statement, particularly in reference to the motion that was passed in the House on the need to support veterans.…
I absolutely agree. That lack of greater clarity risks delay. The interpretation could be inconsistent, and it could be open to legal challenge. It is really important that that be appropriately defined. That brings me on nicely to clause 11 and the principal definitions therein. My colleague talked about the Woodland…
I thank the Bill sponsor for that, but it does not include the likes of public safety, essential infrastructure, flood alleviation or the viability of a working farm.
OK. Thank you. We are obviously passionate about this, so we want to talk about the Bill and tease out the issues that will be raised at Committee Stage for the Committee to look at. What I have spoken about are issues that the Committee could consider at the next legislative stage. I touched on the Woodland Trust…
I thank the Member for that intervention. However, given that we will be looking at the Bill, that area could also be incorporated in that process. The fact that it was the case then does not make it right. There is still an issue for landowners. If the Bill reaches Committee Stage, stakeholders may raise that issue,…
That is my understanding of it. Those are some of my concerns about the aspects that I raised with my colleague Jonathan Buckley about the costs that could be incurred by farmers and landowners, who are already incurring an awful lot of costs in an awful lot of different areas.
OK. Moving on, I noticed that this has sometimes been an issue with legislation that the Infrastructure Committee looked at when I sat on it in the past. When we looked at the Reservoirs Bill, there was an issue with the number of reservoir engineers who were able to carry out the work there. We need to make sure that…
I thank the Member for his answer. He touched on expediency. As I have outlined, I am not sure how many skilled and qualified people we have across Northern Ireland for our 11 councils, so I am not sure that that point about expediency has actually been answered, given that we may see an influx of tree preservation…
It is hard to follow that bendy tree. I am quite disappointed that I spent some time in Newcastle on my summer holidays but never saw the bendy tree. I will have to go back to Newcastle and make a point of seeing it. In all seriousness, however, I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this Second Stage debate on…
I thank the Member for giving way. It is not for me to tell the Committee what to do in fleshing that out, but, when it comes to housebuilding, it is also important to look at local development plans. I have been asking questions about the delays in some councils, because those can have a knock-on impact on housing…
I thank the Member for giving way and for making that point. It is an important point to make when we are making legislation that affects people beyond these doors. I feel that I say that quite a bit in the Chamber. It is particularly true when you look at this legislation and how it would affect landowners. I…
I thank the Member for giving way. I am interested in this, obviously. The Member touched on council staff trying to enact what is there already. Will the Member outline — he may intend to — the enforcement difficulties that they have had? The Bill talks about the need for "qualified" people to look at this. The fact…
Minister, when it comes to staffing levels and the knock-on effect on other hospitals and trust areas, there are parallels to be drawn with other services, and that concerns me greatly. I asked you earlier about emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), where we have heard the same things…
Minister, you cannot use development of elective care overnight centres as an excuse to try to allay the very real concerns that people in Fermanagh have about the removal of emergency general surgery. In your answer, you referred to a figure for elective surgery accounting for 365 days of the year. In my quick…
There is an irony in what the First Minister has said, because she has been fixated on breaking up the Union instead of focusing on getting the settlement that we need for Northern Ireland. For once, the First Minister should focus on putting Northern Ireland first. Instead, she travelled last week to Cardiff, and…
Uncertain: close callConstitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereigntyCriteria met: Identity framing, Controversy escalation.
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail any action she will take to (i) ensure taxi affordability for all passengers; and (ii) mitigate the impact on passengers of the number of taxis operating under a Class C licence, for which there is no maximum fare.
To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any engagement he has had with (i) local councils; and (ii) community organisations, in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, regarding rural deprivation and social isolation, over the last two years.
To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any discussions he has had with the Home Office, regarding the impact of asylum accommodation on housing pressures in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, over the last two years.
To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any assessment his Department has made of the impact of asylum accommodation on social housing demand, in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, over the last two years.
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of occasions on which fire appliances have been withdrawn from service due to (i) mechanical faults; or (ii) fleet availability issues, in each of the last three years.