Debate contribution: Age Discrimination (Goods, Facilities and Services) Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Ms Carál Ní Chuilín on .
- MLA
- Ms Carál Ní Chuilín
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 20 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Age Discrimination (Goods, Facilities and Services) Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5798711
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank Claire Sugden for introducing the Bill. It was no mean feat, I am sure, particularly given the hoops that she had to jump through. The Committee discussed the Bill last Wednesday, and I looked through it over the weekend. I appreciate that this is Second Stage, so I will not get into any specifics. We welcome the Bill, and we look forward to its coming to the Committee. I will say that up front. I heard what the Bill sponsor had to say, and we have all had discussions with some of our older constituents. I declare an interest, because I am now an older constituent. People have had difficulties accessing goods, facilities and services, particularly from private institutions that provide mortgages and insurance and all the rest. I am deeply uncomfortable with clause 9, however. I understand the logic that the Member provided, because of what there was before, but all the obstacles to introducing equality legislation have mainly been put up by unionists. A Bill was blocked in 2011. The recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee on a Bill of Rights were blocked. Even the Executive Office Committee's inquiry into the gaps in equality legislation was left unresolved. Many things could have been shaved off this Bill had those other things happened, but I am still convinced that the Bill would have been needed. At the minute, the problem is attitudinal, which is backed up by a belief that this is the way things are. That makes people feel that it is a legislative issue. It is a political and financial decision to prevent access to goods and services for people who have reached the age of 60 or 65 and over, and we have all encountered that. I look forward to seeing the Bill progress and particularly to the clause-by-clause scrutiny. We will look attentively at clause 9. Clause 2, which is titled "Discrimination on the ground of age", is very clear, but, when you go to clause 9, you see that it states:
"does not apply ... to persons who have not attained the age of 16."
That is not the intention, but it jars. We will need to be creative and find a way around that. The Bill is a massive piece of work, and the sponsor has every right to be proud. We are talking in generalities at Second Stage, so, by way of example, we looked at fertility services under the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) agreement. Women face discrimination when they reach a certain age and their ability to become pregnant diminishes. Access to fertility services was therefore raised as an issue. I and others raised it all those years ago. We tried to help women move up the line, and families were quoted as saying, "You're discriminating against people who've been in the system for longer".
However, by the time they get around to those women, the clock has stopped, and their chance to start a family has passed. I do not know whether something like that will be dealt with by the Bill, but it has unintended consequences for many families. Issues were raised earlier about young people being placed in inappropriate accommodation, particularly in health and social care settings. You have experienced that yourself — I think that we all have. The situation regarding our budget has been going on for decades, and it is great that most of us recognise that the British Government have underfunded this place in relation to need. That impacts on children and young people's access to acute mental health services. Once they hit the age of 14, they are seen as being adults in an ED, even though we know that that is not appropriate for a 14-year-old in that setting. The former Health Minister Mike Nesbitt asked, "Are we expected to create specific services?". Well, maybe. That is what this is about. Maybe we should create separate services or different services, particularly in Health and Social Care, to allow people to access them on the basis of what is appropriate for their age. A lot of older people are languishing in hospitals. They are fit to be discharged, and they want to go home to their own beds and be in their own surroundings, but they cannot do so because of the lack of domiciliary care. When you look at the levels in health and social care, you can see the difference between public and private. Most domiciliary care services have been privatised, which is shameful and means that people who provide domiciliary care through Health and Social Care have better working conditions than those who do so in the private sector. Most of those people are women, and they face untold discrimination, particularly when you look at the increasing cost of living, particularly with fuel costs and things like that. Again, I do not know whether that will be addressed in the Bill.
Certainly.
825 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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