Debate contribution: Regional Balance Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Pádraig Delargy on .
- MLA
- Mr Pádraig Delargy
- 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 5674532
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you. I suppose that I am talking about the wholescale blockage of any progress. I understand that what you suggest and what is in the Bill is about trying to advance across all Departments, and I am absolutely supportive of that. However, I am realistic as well, and the reality is that that might not be the case, because it can be blocked by certain parties. The difficulty here is that we have Ministers in certain Departments — not just Sinn Féin Departments but particularly in Sinn Féin Departments — who are delivering regional balance.
What I am worried about is wholescale blockage if the Executive have to sign off on the regional commitments.
I only caught the end of your point about Martin McGuinness, so I am not sure about it. I do not know of a bigger champion for regional balance than Martin McGuinness or of anybody who has delivered as much in Derry as Martin McGuinness did. I look right across our city at Na Piarsaigh's pitch, at the Peace Bridge and at Ebrington — Martin's legacy is right there as the champion of all of that. I do not want to get into a back and forth about the Executive, but I think that the narrative about the Executive is a bit lazy. It is a "Plague on all your houses" narrative, when it is the DUP that you should be calling out. If you are going to call out the fact that regional balance has been blocked, let us call out who has been blocking it. Let us not take an approach of, "Plague on all your houses". The other parties have come in here with a genuine commitment to regional balance to try to ensure that every area has equality. That has not happened because of one party, so it is a lazy narrative.
311 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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