Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Mrs Diane Dodds on 27 October 2022.

MLA

Mrs Diane Dodds

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

27 October 2022

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Assembly Business

Heading

Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4178299

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It is abundantly clear that today's debate will do nothing to fix the political situation that we find ourselves in. There is scant acknowledgement of the concerns of unionism about the protocol and little regard for the facts on the increasing costs of living and the Assembly's ability to deal with them. At the outset of my remarks, let me be clear that I want to see devolution restored. I believe that a stable, prosperous Northern Ireland with a properly functioning Executive and Assembly is good for all of us. Everyone feels the cost-of-living pressures. I dare say that everyone in the Chamber cares deeply about our health service, our schools and our economy, but we must be real about the Assembly's ability to deal with those issues. Just recently, the Finance Minister told us that the potential overspend in the Northern Ireland Budget was £660 million. In response to a question, I received an answer from the Education Minister this morning in which she indicates that there is a resource pressure in Education of £530 million. That includes funding for children with special educational needs, school holiday food payments, increased energy costs and the Engage programme. It is time to be honest and straight-talking about what this place can or cannot do about some of the issues.

It is always amazing that, when Members do not want to acknowledge or hear the truth, they make bogus points of order. It is absolutely shameful. It is clear that the finances required to deal with the cost-of-living crisis will come from our national Government in Westminster. It is there where we are working and taking our seats to make sure that there is funding for energy payments for families in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, the protocol costs consumers and businesses every day. In the first six months of this year, the Trader Support Service, designed to support businesses with the bureaucracy and paperwork of the protocol, has cost the taxpayer £63 million; that is £2·6 million every week. The protocol means that Northern Ireland citizens cannot benefit from UK-wide tax changes, since we are tied to EU VAT rules. We have to face the fact that it is difficult to fix our health service when, as the Health Minister says, the protocol puts our supply of medicine at risk and adds cost to those medicines. It is difficult to build new schools and hospitals when the protocol adds 25% to the cost of steel coming from our own UK internal market. It is difficult to help with the cost of living when the protocol adds 30% to the transport costs for household goods. Most profoundly of all, the protocol has caused a crisis for our political institutions. The Northern Ireland protocol has subjugated article 6 of the Act of Union and trashed democratic norms in this part of the United Kingdom.

The principle of consent, as conceived by the Belfast Agreement, has been ignored. For some in the Chamber, it is like pick-and-mix: take it when you want it, but ignore it when you do not. Unionism does not consent to the protocol. We will not be bullied, and our mandate will not be ignored. In any election, we will take our case to the people and renew our mandate of opposition to the protocol. In finishing, I have a very clear message for the Secretary of State, the Minister of State and, indeed, the European Union, which is this: get on with it.

The Government published their Command Paper on the protocol in July 2021 and have had almost 18 months to resolve the issue. The Secretary of State needs to apply some urgency to the matter.

I thank my colleague for her intervention. We all know that the rigorous implementers went off down to Dublin in the middle of a COVID crisis to ensure that the protocol would be implemented. Returning to my point, the Government published their Command Paper on the protocol in July 2021.

I will finish them shortly. They have had 18 months to resolve the issue. It is time to deal with the protocol, which disrupts the United Kingdom's internal market, leaves this part of the United Kingdom subject to the laws of a foreign political entity and subjugates the Act of Union.

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

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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