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 5600494
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Executive Office takes seriously the cost of segregation. I have been a special adviser or a Minister in this Department for almost 20 years. In that time, one of the policy areas that I have worked on is Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC). It is not just about taking down the physical structures of division — for example, we had a signature project relating to the so-called peace walls — but about breaking down the barriers in people's minds and hearts. There have been hugely successful projects, including our Urban Villages initiative and T:BUC camps. Well in excess of 20,000 young people have been through those camps. They bring people together. Of course, it is not just a single approach. We need to address the issue across the piece, and I am fully committed to doing so. The Member's point goes much wider than just that issue; it goes to everything that we do. I have said at the Executive many times that every Department should be doing a line-by-line assessment of its budget and making sure that the money that we have is being used in the best possible way. We do not have the luxury of having waste, inefficiency and duplication. We must get it right. It is not just about how much money we receive but how we use that money.
226 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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