Debate contribution: Building Political Consensus
Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on .
- MLA
- Ms Paula Bradshaw
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 13 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Opposition Business
- Heading
- Building Political Consensus
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5789743
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I support the motion, although I find some elements of it vague and contradictory. I was hoping that the proposer would clear those up for me. Unfortunately, he did not. No one can dispute that Northern Ireland's DUP/Sinn Féin duopoly leaves increasingly difficult challenges untouched while it engages in a series of tactics designed to block progress and divert attention. Unfortunately, we have not seen anything different in recent weeks. The proposer of the motion talked about setting out what we should be doing and investing in in Northern Ireland. Two and a half years after devolution was restored, it is lamentable that we still have not seen the Investment 2050 strategy presented to the Assembly, for that would set out a long-term vision for investment in our education facilities, housing and hospitals. The problem, however, is that the motion calls for "continued political disagreement" not to be a barrier to reform: how do we get consensus if there is that disagreement? Ten years ago, all parties signed up to the seven Bengoa principles. Those included moving towards integrated systems; reducing per-capita costs; expanding out-of-hospital care; and the impossibility of maintaining current services on current budgets. Yet, in fact, every time a move is taken in that direction — a move that inevitably involves closing services at one location in order to make them more integrated and cost-effective at another or to shift them out of a hospital setting — we see a host of representatives protesting against it.
249 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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