Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on 19 February 2024.

MLA: Mr Brian Kingston
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 19 February 2024
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Budget Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4223589

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I welcome you to your role, and I wish you well in it. I also wish the Finance Minister well in her role. As this is my maiden speech, officially, I wish to say that I consider it a great honour and a great responsibility to have been elected to the Assembly by the people of North Belfast. I sincerely thank those who have given me that mandate and duty, and I am here to serve the well-being of all my constituents. I wish to begin by paying tribute to my DUP predecessors who represented North Belfast in the Assembly. That is Nigel, Lord Dodds, William Humphrey, Nelson McCausland and Paula Bradley, all of whom I worked for. I also pay tribute to Diane Dodds, who represented West Belfast in the Assembly at an earlier stage.
I am honoured to follow in their footsteps. I have lived and worked all my adult life in North Belfast and West Belfast, where we raised our children. For 20 years, I worked in community work in the Suffolk estate, on the Falls Road, in Rathcool, in the greater Shankill area, in upper Ardoyne and in Ballysillan. In 2008, the opportunity arose for me to work for Nigel Dodds MP from his Shore Road office, which I was very pleased to do. I went on to serve for 12 years on Belfast City Council as a councillor for the greater Shankill area. Those years included three years as the DUP group leader on the council and also my serving as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2016-17, which was the greatest honour of my life. I note that there are five other former Lord Mayors of Belfast currently serving in the Assembly. There is just one currently present in the Chamber. I think that the others have all left. My motivation as an elected representative is essentially the same now as it was when I was in community work. That is to be a difference maker, to help make positive things happen — things that improve people's lives, their opportunities and their local community — and to tackle issues that are having a negative impact on people's quality of life. I want the greater Shankill area in North Belfast to be the best that it can be, a place where people are supported and enabled to achieve their potential. It is a pleasure to work alongside many people in various sectors who share that goal and to encourage cross-sectoral working among voluntary sector groups, statutory agencies and the private sector. As an elected unionist, I am passionate about promoting and defending Northern Ireland's place within the Union, playing our full role within the United Kingdom and also maintaining positive relations with the rest of this island, Europe, the Commonwealth and the wider world. North Belfast has many positive assets, from Premiership football teams, the superb new Ulster University campus at York Street and the many excellent schools that are involved in shared education through the North Belfast Area Learning Community (NBALC). We have half of the Belfast harbour estate, which is a key driver of our economy, including its impressive City Quays development and the new film studio at Giant’s Park. North Belfast has an acute hospital at the Mater, a range of business parks, industrial areas, shopping centres and retail hubs, significant community sports facilities, parks and the beautiful Belfast hills from Black Mountain to Squires Hill, Cave Hill and on to Carnmoney Hill.
I see that the clock is not running, so I have time to mention briefly some of our North Belfast luminaries: Sir Kenneth Branagh, Sir James Galway, Ciarán Hinds, Eamonn Holmes, Anna Burns, Norman Whiteside, Carl Frampton and, of course, the late, great Frank Carson. It was the way he told them. North Belfast is often seen as being like a patchwork quilt of different communities. There is a growing and strong willingness and determination among the various parts of North Belfast to work together for the mutual benefit of all our people and to tackle negative issues that arise. I will always support those collaborative efforts. My constituency office is constantly busy, assisting constituents with issues of concern. I thank my office staff of Naomi, William, Mary and Jordan for their public service, as well as our team of councillors and my colleague Phillip Brett MLA. In my role as a local parliamentarian and legislator, I will continue to push for quality statutory services and for the right interventions and investments that will address the needs raised by my constituents across a wide range of issues, such as housing, the local environment, education, health, training and employment, economic development, infrastructure and inward investment, all without crippling their personal and household finances through excessive taxation, which is relevant to today's debate. It is my responsibility, along with others, to provide the best standard of representation for North Belfast people, to speak up for them and to ensure that their concerns and voices are heard and heeded.

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

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