Debate contribution: Regional Balance Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Cara Hunter on 8 September 2026.

MLA: Ms Cara Hunter
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 8 September 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Regional Balance Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5674607

Text

I start by paying tribute to my incredible and inspiring colleague Sinéad McLaughlin. Sinéad has put her heart and soul into the Bill. She is a true Derry girl. As someone who married a Derry boy and whose father is from Strabane and previously served as a councillor in the Derg district electoral area, I have a profound understanding of the impact of regional imbalance and the need for things to be rectified. I personally thank Sinéad. It has taken a number of years to put the Bill together. Given the extensive research that she has done and the meetings that she has held, including with people on the ground, I have to put on record my admiration for her. She cares deeply about her city, her people and her community. Representing East Derry, I see very clearly why the principles behind the Bill matter. There is sometimes a tendency to say that the North is too small for regional imbalance to really exist. The experience of people in constituencies such as mine tells us otherwise. I really appreciate Maurice Bradley's comments today about the impact that changes at the Causeway Hospital would have on our people. We may be geographically close on a map, but that does not mean that everybody has equal access to opportunity. Whether you have reliable public transport matters; whether you can access further and higher education matters; whether good jobs exist within a realistic travelling distance matters; and whether businesses have the infrastructure and connectivity that they need to grow matters. Those things can look very different depending on which part of the North you live in. My constituency demonstrates that complexity.
East Derry includes towns and villages — it is a rural community with very different economic needs. A policy designed around the experiences of our largest urban centres will not necessarily work in the same way for those in my communities. Of course, we should not expect Coleraine, Limavady or our smaller rural communities to become Belfast, and I do not think that that is the expectation here. That is not what regional balance should mean. It should mean understanding the strengths and challenges in different places, and it should give communities the tools that they need to succeed. A good example is Coleraine town centre, which has gone downhill over the years. It used to be booming, and it had its own air of prosperity. We need to recapture that magic and invest in our local towns. Transport is an obvious example in my constituency. For the people who rely on public transport, the frequency and reliability of a service can determine whether a job is realistically accessible and open to them. The fact that somewhere is theoretically commutable does not mean that somebody can get there for the beginning of a shift or get home afterwards. I was contacted by a number of teenagers from the Limavady area who worked in the amusements in Portrush over the summer. They pointed out that it was ridiculous that they could not get to their shift on time unless they left home at 6.00 am. Their experience speaks to the challenges faced by those in our rural communities when they want to get to work and the importance of access to public transport. Those practical realities matter to our workers, students, families and, of course, our businesses. That is why it is welcome that the Bill takes a cross-departmental approach. Regional imbalance cannot be solved by the Economy Department alone. Decisions on transport, infrastructure, education and skills all influence the economic opportunities available in any given community. The Bill will require those decisions to be considered through the lens of regional disparity. It does not tell Ministers what decisions they must ultimately make, but it does require government to think about the regional consequences of those decisions. That is a perfectly reasonable expectation. Communities outside Belfast have heard commitments being made about regional balance for many years — decades, in fact. In my seven years as an MLA, it would not be a stretch to say that I seen that our communities and constituents feel overlooked, unheard and unseen. That is why the Bill is so important. The challenge is to turn those commitments into something lasting and measurable. The Bill gives us the opportunity to begin to do just that. Therefore, I am, of course, very happy to support the principles of the Bill at Second Stage and allow the further detailed work and scrutiny to begin at Committee Stage.

758 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Awaiting analysis

This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification