Debate contribution: Independent Reconfiguration Committee
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 7 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Question for Urgent Oral Answer
- Heading
- Independent Reconfiguration Committee
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5670135
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member not only for his kind words today but for being one of the earliest to contact me privately to wish me all the best. I believe that, for over 10 years, health has been a priority for many Members, be that in their service to their constituents or because they have a particular interest in the health sphere. The Member raises an important point that relates to why the IRC exists. There have been contentious changes in the past. In the past, the bridge between the clinical advice, which, potentially, is right and often is and where the community is has, unfortunately, been missing. Community confidence is missing. As I see it, a significant pillar of what the IRC will do is establish and build community confidence that, if a decision is right and it is the right decision to make, it can be made with confidence. Over the past couple of weeks, I have listened to radio commentary on the subject; I think that it was Professor John Compton. I do not want to misrepresent his words, but, whilst he said that he would support the clinical evidence for making changes, he said that it was vital that we bring our constituents and communities with us. I intend to learn from what might have been the right pathway in the past to make sure that the steps in the future are the right decisions: not a rushed decision but the right decision.
247 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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