Debate contribution: Budget Discussions
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Budget Discussions
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5600486
Read the official Assembly record
Text
There is no doubt that that proposal has been welcomed by many people, but it goes only a small way towards supporting hard-pressed families. This is the reality that we face: the median income is lower in Northern Ireland than it is anywhere else across the UK. That means that our families, including working families, are most impacted by a rise in energy costs, for example, or any increase in bills. We must recognise that. I will always have the backs of hard-working families. We recognise the pressures that they are under. The increases in childcare costs, energy bills and the cost of the petrol or diesel that they need to put into their cars to get to the places that they need to go are hitting families hard, hard, hard, and we need to be there to support them. I will continue to lobby the UK Government to provide more support and help to our hard-working families, but, of course, again, our Departments must do everything that they can to use the money that they get in the best possible way to support those families.
186 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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