Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 14 February 2023.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

14 February 2023

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Assembly Business

Heading

Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4178862

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I associate myself with the comments to wish Alex Easton well and to pass on our sympathies and with the comments about the people who have died in Turkey and Syria. We offer our condolences. I also extend my solidarity to the Member for Lagan Valley Sorcha Eastwood for the intimidation that she is facing from bigots and bullies. They will not intimidate her, and we all send our sympathy and support to her.

Today, my foremost thoughts are with young Dáithí, the Mac Gabhann family and all those waiting for the gift of organ donation. The Mac Gabhann family have conducted themselves with the utmost dignity in dealing with the blocking of Dáithí's law, particularly in their interactions with the DUP. Earlier this week, I heard Dáithí's father, Maírtín, describe the DUP's refusal to nominate a Speaker as disappointing, and it is. It is a disappointment that most of us share. Knowing what is at stake here today, it is only fair to describe what we are about to witness as absolutely cruel. We are not just talking about disappointing a family, who have moved mountains to promote organ donation, we are not just talking about disappointing the people who have marched, protested and campaigned for this legislation. We are talking about a six-year-old boy who is waiting on a new heart and the many others who depend on transplants. People's lives are more important than the DUP's protocol protest, and anyone who listened to Maírtín on the BBC recently will have heard him talking about attending the funeral of a young boy who was waiting on a transplant — absolutely heartbreaking stuff. It makes it crystal clear that people on the donor list do not have time to lose. We have all heard discussions about whether this legislation should be progressed through Stormont or Westminster, but opportunities are there for those who seize them. Both the DUP and the Tories are refusing to seize the opportunity to implement Dáithí's law. The regulations are set out. They are ready to go, and politicians should be exhausting every avenue to implement them. There should be no room for prevaricating now. The legislation has to be progressed. Just like the DUP, the Tories have abdicated all responsibility for governing the North. The Tories have no problem with hurrying through legislation to change the election deadline, to break the trade unions and to deny victims justice. They should show some urgency in implementing Dáithí's law. That is my message to the Secretary of State today. Democracy has been put on hold by the DUP and their one-time Tory allies. If unionism's two biggest parties refuse to govern for the North within the Union, it shows that something is fundamentally wrong with this state. The absence of an Assembly cannot be an excuse for delaying life-saving organ donation legislation. The parties that take their seats in Westminster now have a job to do. That having been said, the failure to elect a Speaker today is just another stark reminder of how this institution is fundamentally broken. This Building, once a bastion of unionist dominance, is now a vestige to unionist obstructionism, political scandals, crises and a failure to deliver on the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people. The Mac Gabhann family and the organ donation community are just the latest in a long line of people who have been failed by this institution. People will remember that the Irish language legislation, reproductive rights and equal marriage were all delivered in spite of these institutions, which have been paralysed by sectarianism and blighted by a rotten economic agenda. It must be remembered that the primary legislation for Dáithí's law may have been brought through Stormont, but it was not delivered by Stormont. It was delivered by Dáithí, Maírtín, Seph and the countless people across our communities who took to the streets and campaigned for the cause. This secondary legislation will be delivered in the same manner. Next week, teachers, health workers, university workers and more will take to the picket lines to demand fair pay and a better deal for all. They are forging ahead without Stormont, which failed to invest in workers and the public services that we rely on. As with public-sector workers taking to the picket lines, the blocking of soft opt-out organ donation is an indictment of mainstream politics here. The Mac Gabhann family, the organ donation community and working-class people in general have every right to be proud: proud of the fact that politicians are being dragged, kicking and screaming, to discuss the issues that they would often rather ignore; proud of how far they have come in that fight; and proud in the knowledge that progress will win out eventually, with or without Stormont. Keep up the fight. Beir bua.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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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