Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on 7 December 2022.

MLA: Ms Michelle O'Neill
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 7 December 2022
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Assembly Business
Heading: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4178439

Text

Today we meet for the fifth time since May to try to elect a Speaker, to reinstate the Assembly and to allow MLAs, mandated by the electorate to represent them and to work here on their behalf, to get on with the job. As we meet in the comfort of this well-heated and well-lit Building, I am acutely aware that tens of thousands of families are living in cold homes, unable to afford to turn on their heating, and are worrying about the next bill coming through the door, as we face into the most difficult winter in a generation. Outside those family homes, our health service is in crisis. Healthcare workers are being forced to take strike action for safe working conditions and decent pay in order to defend themselves and the wider health service. It is an absolute disgrace that they are being forced into that position. Yesterday, we were in London and met the leadership of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to hear the plight of our nurses. I want to send solidarity and support from the Assembly to the nurses and the other health and public-sector workers. They have our full support. I think that I speak for most Members in the Assembly in calling on the British Government and the people who hold the purse strings to immediately get around the negotiating table and get on with finding a resolution. The Secretary of State has brought the Executive Formation Act through Westminster to extend the deadline to form a Government or to hold an election. He has given decision-making to civil servants and has cut MLA pay. He has set out a Budget statement and will bring forward an unadulterated Tory Budget Bill. Whilst they are spending all this time trying to find workarounds, the real question is this: how are they using the space that they have created to get a negotiated settlement with the EU in order to restore the Executive and put to the test the DUP's boycott? I was in the Dáil last Thursday when European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, addressed parliamentarians the length and breadth of this island. She said:
"Brexit will not become an obstacle ... [to] reconciliation in Ireland."
She said that the single market must continue to function and:
"If both sides are sensitive to this careful balance"
a deal can be done and that there will be:
"no hard border on the island of Ireland."
She also said that her:
"contacts with Prime Minister Sunak are encouraging".
I once more welcome that contact, but I go further than that and appeal for negotiations to be intensified. We do not have months to ponder; rather, we have weeks to take action that creates stability and certainty for society, businesses and politics. We cannot be left to the mercy of the Tories in London — people who are dictating the priorities here, when they have no votes and no mandate here. Already we are starting to see the consequences of having no Executive. Education services are being cut, with new services being targeted, and job losses and reduced provision are now being imposed against the wishes of elected MLAs. It is clear for us all to see that the DUP's political tactic is to abandon our people to a Tory Government intent on inflicting cuts and austerity on the most vulnerable in our society. That strategy, if it can even be called a strategy, makes no sense and has no purpose. Incredibly, it is apparently a strategy dictated by a handful of loyalist bloggers. Jeffrey Donaldson, of course, is not here. He is not here with us despite the fact that he was elected to sit here. I appeal again to him and to the DUP MLAs who have come to this sitting: rethink your approach; reconsider your position; and, most of all, recognise the dire and deteriorating circumstances that people — your voters; all our voters — are facing on a day-to-day basis, with the crisis in our emergency departments, the cuts to youth services and the very real prospect of the cold that is faced by many of our people, particularly the old, the very young and those with disabilities. People need our help. They need us to do our jobs, and they are, rightly, angry.
Each one of those challenges that we face demands new thinking from us, as elected representatives, and a responsible and mature political response to help people who right now are desperate to see the end of the DUP boycott of politics. Everyone knows that, by any objective measure, the protocol is working and is protecting our economy from some of the worst effects of Brexit. We need to focus on the opportunities that it presents through dual-market access and how that can create benefits and more jobs in building our economy. Of course, the Members opposite disagree with that, and that is OK. You are entitled to disagree, but, whatever about our different opinions on the protocol, we all know that any of the issues that have been identified with the protocol will not be resolved in the Chamber. As I said, last week, I welcomed the comments by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. She restated the Commission's willingness to resolve the issues with how the protocol is applied. We all want those issues to be resolved, but, in the meantime, we have been elected to be here in the Chamber, to have people's backs and to get the £600 into their pockets. They are crying out for help. They need us to do our job. They elected us to do our job. I will say this to you again: you should be ashamed of yourselves in the Chamber today. The public need our support. Do your job. Turn up.

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

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