Debate contribution: Building Political Consensus

Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 13 October 2026.

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 5789749

Text

Thank you. I suppose that that is why I raised the issue of the lack of the investment strategy, because we need to move beyond each political cycle. Civil servants will come and go and Budgets will fluctuate, but we need a course of action to ensure that this generation and future generations have the facilities and public services that they need. The motion also talks about:
"the sustainability of the school estate",
with pupil numbers declining sharply. The fact is that it is not sustainable, yet, again, every time rationalisation is attempted, you will see the same sorts of protest; indeed, you will even see the odd petition in the Chamber. We need to be clear that it is easy to talk about difficult decisions and moving beyond the electoral cycle, but are we, including those who tabled the motion, really prepared to do it? The problem is that, if you have backed your local school, your local hospital or your local community in opposition to significant changes in how we fund our water and sewerage infrastructure, how will you sign up to consensus that means shifting services away from your local hospital, merging local schools and changing fundamentally the way that we support and fund NI Water?
Yes.
I agree. It is incredibly frustrating, because we have known for decades that we needed to plan our school estate and our hospital infrastructure. When parties all come together to oppose even the most obvious change, like merging dilapidated minor injury units into better-resourced, full-time, urgent care centres a few miles away, that impedes any consensus for meaningful transformation. If the only consensus that can be delivered is not to have to face up to local pressure groups, the challenging problems that the proposer refers to will inevitably go unanswered. The proposer will get no argument from me or my party colleagues that it is not a key requirement, if we are to have any hope of addressing more challenging issues and delivering meaningful transformation, that transformation take place. In the previous debate, we talked about the institutional reforms that are needed: I will not rehearse those, but the sectarian veto system means that blockage and delay predominate where real progress is needed. I would genuinely be interested to hear more from the proposer about how they intend to face up to local pressure when key difficult decisions have to be made.
I recognise that people are instinctively risk-averse and that it is easier to defend the status quo than present a vision for something different. However, the status quo should not be a comfortable option for us as legislators and political leaders. We need to move beyond that position to one of discomfort. Talking is easy; acting is trickier. I wonder how many of us will grasp that in the months and years ahead.

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

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