Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on .
- MLA
- Ms Paula Bradshaw
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 7 December 2022
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Assembly Business
- Heading
- Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4178726
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Before I begin, I place on record my deepest sympathies to the family of Stella-Lily McCorkindale. I am sure that they are devastated by her loss this week through strep A infection. I also thank the Public Health Agency, GPs, community pharmacists and school leaders for their swift response to this health emergency. I urge all Members in the Chamber to elect a Speaker. I will be blunt: I do not care which Speaker is elected, but we need a Speaker and an Assembly. Only one party is blocking the election of a Speaker, yet, even by its own logic, it shows that we need to elect one. Recently, the DUP sought an amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Bill at Second Reading in Parliament to give MLAs scrutiny rights over what permanent secretaries do. DUP MLAs can, in fact, deliver that scrutiny right here, right now, by electing a Speaker. They always could. The fact is that the DUP's desperate quest for leverage by refusing to elect a Speaker is not just causing material harm to households, which are not receiving payments during an energy crisis, but is imperilling one of the very institutions cited as a reason for unionism to exist, namely the National Health Service. The failure to take the time to pass relevant legislation to allow the transformation of our health service to proceed and to communicate to the public why such reforms are necessary have seen a calamity unfold in our health and social care system, not least in recent weeks. We now have a service that is often inaccessible, accompanied by diagnostics or treatment that can take many years or are effectively unavailable in many branches of medicine, while money is spent on public inquiries and severe adverse incident reviews, the recommendations of which go pretty much unimplemented. As a result, patient safety is compromised, and improvement is rarely truly sought, leading to an endless cycle of more inquiries and reviews, more scandals and more quests for justifiable redress but no significant transformation of the service. The fact is that many of the failings go back to previous devolved Administrations. The DUP often held the Health and Finance Ministries at the same time, while failing to embrace reform and the need to fund and resource it adequately. As Bengoa, Donaldson, Compton and all the others warned us, healthcare provision is changing around the world. Services are much more specialised; conditions are much more complex; and medicines are much more specific than was the case even a decade ago. What was required was a consistent transformation programme with clearly measurable outcomes and clarity about why any of those outcomes had been missed. Instead, what we have had since 2017 following Bengoa are protracted periods of political stalemate. As a result, we now see some reconfigurations of services being carried out as a panicked response rather than as a planned programme. The supposed jewel in the crown of the Union — the NHS — is on its knees in Northern Ireland. Our Health and Social Care workers struggle to keep it upright as best they can. I note as well that they are long overdue pay rises that an Executive need to sign off. Perhaps people do not believe that Stormont will sort it out, but it will not be sorted out without Stormont: without ministerial direction, local accountability, democratic scrutiny and legislative intervention. Those who vote to elect a Speaker are voting to begin the process of turning our Health and Social Care service around and giving the public the care, support and treatment that they need, not least in this time of economic uncertainty. Those who do not vote to elect a Speaker are voting to crash and burn public healthcare provision in Northern Ireland. That is the choice for all of us here today. Let us be in no doubt about that.
651 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.12 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.81).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.90).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.10 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.07 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.14 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.05 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.81 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.12 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.90 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.10 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.70 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.24 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.03 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.02 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
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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