Debate contribution: Government: Making It Work
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Government: Making It Work
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5774277
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for his important question. We face huge issues, and that is partly why I am deeply frustrated and why I feel angry about what we have seen over the past week. Yes, there will always be challenges and issues that we need to navigate. I have been out and about speaking to so many people who are genuinely appalled, and I think that the First Minister and Sinn Féin need a wake-up call if they think that their actions have not landed really, really badly with the vast majority of people. Nobody was asking the First Minister to embrace the decisions of the Parades Commission or the courts, but they were asking her to fulfil her responsibilities as First Minister. That must mean working together on core principles and values, and that must include upholding the rule of law. That is so basic to what we are doing. Supporting the police is so basic to what we are doing. We have big challenges ahead in trying to fight for a Budget for the people of Northern Ireland and in trying to drive forward transformation and progress. That is what I am prepared to do, and that is why I am in this post. That is responsible leadership, and I have been despairing at the recklessness and disregard shown by the First Minister to these institutions, these posts and our reputation. It has been absolutely appalling.
239 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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