Debate contribution: Public-sector Pay Rise
Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on .
- MLA
- Mr John O'Dowd
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 12 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Public-sector Pay Rise
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5786172
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As I have said three times now, I am working my way through the processes, legal and other, to see how we can secure a public-sector pay rise. It is an important topic that Mr O'Toole raises with me, but I thought that he might also use today as an opportunity to apologise to me for comments that he has made in the Chamber over the past two years about the A5. I have just looked back over his comments, some of which have flowed through his conversation today. He has accused me of:
"extreme incompetence" — [Official Report (Hansard), 30 June 2025, p14, col 1].
A:
"failed planning process that you"
— meaning me —
"oversaw". — [Official Report (Hansard), 30 June 2025, p47, col 1].
He has also accused my officials and I of needing to have:
"given more careful scrutiny" — [Official Report (Hansard), 30 September 2025, p37, col 2].
While also referring to:
"basic work simply not being done on your watch". — [Official Report (Hansard), 21 October 2025, p39, col 1].
I hoped that Mr O'Toole would take the opportunity to apologise to me. He has not, but I assure him that all the things that he has accused me of in relation to the A5 were false. The failings that he accuses me of around the Budget are also false.
226 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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