Debate contribution: Regional Balance Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Ms Aoife Finnegan on .
- MLA
- Ms Aoife Finnegan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 8 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Regional Balance Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5674474
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you for that. It also remains unclear how the Bill and its obligations sit alongside things such as the Rural Needs Act 2016. There is currently a legal duty to pay due regard to rural needs in respect of policy. Will the Bill just duplicate, or even contradict, that legislation by putting a duty on Departments to also pay due regard to regional imbalance? Those are issues that the Bill sponsor could seek clarity on and that Sinn Féin will look to iron out as the Bill progresses.
89 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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