Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 3 August 2022.

MLA: Mr Colin McGrath
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 3 August 2022
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Assembly Business
Heading: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4178058

Text

I support the nomination of my colleague Patsy McGlone for the role of Speaker. He would take that role seriously, provide great expertise and be a great person to shepherd the House in the work that it does. We meet today on the second anniversary of the passing of John Hume and in the week that we have buried David Trimble, and I wonder what those architects of the Good Friday Agreement would think of the actions of the party opposite. Politics is supposed to be the art of the possible. It is supposed to be about a willingness to trust one another and to work together for the common good, yet we have a society that is falling apart at the seams. We have all been told about this for a long time, and we know what is coming down the tracks with the cost-of-living emergency. We know what we can do to mitigate it and to provide support and help for families in their moment of need.
We know that they are battling with rising food costs in an effort to put meals on the table and that they are trying to save money as we get towards the winter so that they will be able to heat their homes and survive. That is what the people whom we represent face. It is an issue of survival, and we can do very little to mitigate it or to help them. It affects everybody in our community: families who work hard to provide for their loved ones but whose wages simply do not stretch far enough.
We know that the protocol is an important matter. We know that Jeffrey Donaldson seems to think that we do not understand or appreciate that there is unionist frustration with it, but the protocol is here because of Brexit. The protocol is here because the DUP trusted a Tory Government, courted Boris Johnson and was supportive of his negotiated protocol as far back as October 2019. However, as with many times in history, the DUP's downfall is that it just cannot sell it. I am the health spokesperson for the SDLP. Our health service is in a dangerous state. I commend the work of my fellow MLA Robin Swann. He has done good work in difficult circumstances, but our health service needs reform. It needs major financial investment, but it also needs political investment so that we can reduce waiting times, ensure appropriate diagnoses for people and try to save lives and help people to lead healthier lives. Currently, a forum of party representatives meets occasionally to discuss major health issues, but who keeps the minutes? Who takes the decisions? Who follows up on those decisions? Who is able to ask about those decisions? The Minister might be able to do his work, but we cannot hold him to account in order to find out exactly what he is doing. It is the same for every Minister: they may be doing the work, but we cannot hold them to account. Lord knows what they are doing. I am sure that we will find out at some stage what some Ministers have been up to, but we are not able to ask questions in the Chamber and hold them to account. We know that the health service has been in a perilous state for some time, and it is the DUP that is preventing us from helping to sort it out today. The work is not being hindered by the professionals, the patients or the Minister; it is being hindered by the DUP. The DUP is preventing us from adequately reforming the health service. You should be ashamed to look your constituents in the eye: constituents who are in need; those who deserve to have a few quid left over at the end of the month; and those who will potentially die because they cannot get the right diagnosis or treatment. You should be ashamed to look those constituents in the eye, because you are causing the problems that they face, and you are doing nothing to help them. Whilst you might shake your heads, that is the reality of your decisions. Let the many thousands of our constituents on all sides have what they want. They want to see an Assembly, they want to see an Executive, they want to see us doing the job that we are being paid to do and they want to see a resolution to the problems that they face in their lives. That is why I want to see a Speaker elected today.

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

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