Debate contribution: Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Pat Sheehan on 1 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Pat Sheehan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

1 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5581553

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Ordinarily, if I heard a DUP Member, especially a Minister, quoting Nelson Mandela, one of the great leaders, human beings and political ex-prisoners of the 20th and 21st centuries, I would look on it as a sign of progress. However, in quoting Madiba, the Minister's action was so cynical as to undermine whatever intention he had had in mind. Minister, if you want to talk about Mandela, I will be happy, as someone who met him, was in his company and shared some of the experiences of imprisonment, to do so any time that you want. The issue arose of the Executive having allowed the Bill to be introduced in the Assembly. The Minister has spoken previously of the Executive's "approving" legislation as they release it from the Executive and allow it to come to the Assembly. Let me say this: Sinn Féin Ministers approving a Bill to move forward to the Assembly is not and should not be taken as approval of any legislation or Bill. The Minister should remember that. He has said that on numerous occasions.

Not at the minute. Sinn Féin has allowed the legislative and democratic process to take its course in the Assembly. That is what democracy is all about. Legislation comes to the Floor; we have the opportunity to debate it; we go back and forth across the Chamber; we can vote in whichever way, we decide, we want to at the end of the debate; and, as the Chair of the Committee said, everybody has the right to amend or vote down the legislation. That is what will happen. That is the democratic process. I do not know why the Minister is concerned about that. At the opening of his contribution, the Minister made the point that he has had the Bill since November 2024. One of the issues that need to be nailed is that legislation is formulated overnight. We hear people in the community who do not understand the workings of legislation in particular say, "We need a new law for this; we need a new law for that. Why does the Assembly not bring in a law for whatever?". Of course, it takes time. My private Member's Bill — a small, two-clause Bill — has taken over two years — nearly two and a half years — to get to the stage that it is at now. I accept that Executive legislation takes priority, but the Minister will not get his way overnight. Of course, there will be discussions in the Executive. The Minister cannot just throw down a paper on the Executive table and expect everybody to say, "Oh, yes, let's go. Let's send it to the Assembly".

Of course there will be back and forth.

I will give way to whichever one of you gets up first.

470 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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