Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on 3 August 2022.

MLA: Ms Michelle O'Neill
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 3 August 2022
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Assembly Business
Heading: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4177950

Text

Today marks 90 days since the Assembly election was held, where the public voted for change and gave all the parties represented in the Chamber a mandate to form a Government and to set a Budget to give workers and families a break. The DUP, through its continued boycott of the institutions and its failure to accept the democratic outcome of the election, is denying the public the representation to which they are entitled and that they deserve. It is wholly unacceptable, it is untenable and it cannot continue. The Good Friday Agreement is the governing constitutional framework under which this part of the world operates. It is the rule book, if you like. It must therefore be fully applied and upheld. This is a test of power-sharing and equality for the DUP. The majority of newly elected MLAs and Assembly parties want to come together and want to make politics work so that we can deliver for all the people across the community. We need to elect a Speaker and restore the Assembly. We need to form a Government, and we need to set a Budget to deliver public services. We need to provide financial support to households, fund our health service and cut waiting lists, which, at this moment, leave tens of thousands of people crippled in pain as they await treatment and surgery. Those essential public services are being constantly undermined and severely hampered because of the actions of the DUP. I listened to Jeffrey Donaldson on the radio this morning talk about how things are all fine and dandy, everything is great in Departments and they have budgets with which to do the business. That is not true. The fact is that budgets are becoming increasingly untenable. Departments face increasing financial pressure in delivering public services as a result of the significant rise in energy costs, coupled with the need to respond to the cost-of-living crisis that faces households and businesses. The DUP is the only party — the only party — that is blocking and preventing the Executive being formed and meeting, which would allow us to distribute money to help workers and families, so let me say this to you, even at this late hour: workers need help, families need help and businesses need help, and you continue to punish the public whom we are elected to serve by your continued refusal to govern with the rest of us. All your actions will not wash away the protocol. The British Government legislating to renounce the protocol will not wash away the international rule of law. The reckless approach of the DUP and of the Tories in London is all about themselves and themselves only — their own selfish interests and to hell with the ordinary people, to hell with the people who are struggling to put a roof over their head, keep a roof over their head, heat their homes and deal with the pressures that they face in their everyday life. You do not appear to care. I encourage you to care and to join the rest of us and form a Government, because your actions and the actions of the Tory Government are damaging to ordinary people, damaging to politics and damaging to our economy.
It is unforgivable — I think that most people think that it is unforgivable — that, as they suffer as a result of all the rises in the cost of living, people are worried about the months ahead and particularly, as we move through the autumn, about the winter months. They are worried because they do not know how they will get through that period. I am sure that there are plenty of people on your Benches who are not worried about being able to put food on their table over the autumn and winter, but these are your constituents; they are all our constituents. We need to work together to do what we need to do to support them at this time. People want us to fix our health service. People want us to work together to fix our health service. We said that we would invest an extra £1 billion over the next three years to reduce waiting lists and to start to fix our health service. We want to be in the Executive now, and we want to deliver for people now. We stand ready to form an Executive now. We want to work together with all of you — everybody in the Chamber. We want to work together to put money in people's pockets now, because that is what they need from us. It should be noted that, under the new legislation that extends the period for appointing a First Minister and deputy First Minister to 24 weeks, unless those positions are filled in 14 short weeks, the British Secretary of State will be required to call a second election. A winter election during a cost-of-living crisis, when people cannot heat their homes, is not what people want; it is really not what people want. They want you to do your jobs like they are doing theirs. They want parties to work together to form an Executive. They want us to be accountable to them. They need our help. Families need our help. I say this again to the DUP, who continue to block an Executive being formed: join the rest of us; work with the rest of us; help to deliver for people; let us get people through the cost-of-living crisis in the best way that we can; stop denying people the change that they voted for; and discharge your political responsibilities. I genuinely believe that, by working together, we can make a real difference for people. I stand ready to jointly work with others and to lead an Executive to help make politics work for everyone, to demonstrate that real change is possible and to help people to get through what will be an excruciating time in the winter months ahead.

1,000 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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