Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Mr Daniel McCrossan on 13 May 2022.

MLA: Mr Daniel McCrossan
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 13 May 2022
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Speaker's Business
Heading: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4140082

Text

Mr Speaker, I take the opportunity to thank you and wish you well for the future. It looks, however, from what we are hearing in the Chamber today, as though you will not be going anywhere. It is fair to say that the people at home who are watching today, and who have been watching since we returned to the Assembly at the beginning of the week with some hope, will be very disappointed. In fact, they are sick, sore and tired of the regurgitated narrative and same rubbish that is spilled in the House to distract from the real-life problems that are affecting people's lives. Regardless of how anyone may feel about the protocol and the difference of opinion on the protocol, no one in the House was given a mandate to sit at home tomorrow: nobody. What about the sick in our hospitals? What about cancer patients who cannot be seen? Those are your families and mine. They are the people whom you represent and I represent. What about the families who opened their door to each and every one of us during the election period whom we all promised to help? There are those who cannot heat their home, those who cannot feed their family and those who are struggling even to travel to work to make ends meet. I knocked the door of everyone, regardless of political or religious background, because I believe in the common good and in standing up and representing each and every single citizen in my community. Not one person in West Tyrone mentioned the protocol, which begs the question: does my colleague in the constituency Mr Buchanan have a mandate to sit at home after today? No, he does not. We really need to get past the age-old argument of them and us.
People are absolutely sick of it. You can laugh, Mrs Dodds, but the reality is that people at home are not laughing. They are crying. They are upset. Many people whom I have engaged with have asked how we get past —
I will not just yet. Your laugh was insult enough, thank you. I will not be giving way, Mrs Dodds. How do we move forward from here? The reality is that deadlock, destruction, division, drama and distraction do not solve any of the problems. We in the House have been given a collective mandate to put people first and to make the problems that people are facing our number-one priority. Mr Poots mentioned barriers to food. What about the barriers to people's livelihoods because they cannot afford to eat? What about the barriers in front of people that mean that they will not get access to necessary, essential and life-saving healthcare? I can tell Members that, when you are sitting holding the hand of a loved one who has not got the treatment or care that they need at that critical moment, you will think long and hard about any distraction and drama over a protocol, because that is real life. You can play a game of chess around the Chamber all that you like, but, as the next move is being contemplated, people are suffering and dying. So much for an era of hope, a new start and a fresh beginning. I am a young person in the Chamber. I am hopeful about the future of this place, but it is very hard to remain hopeful when people can return in a fresh mandate with such ridiculous excuses for not forming a Government and refuse to put the interests of each and every citizen in this place first.

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

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