Member's statement: Northern Ireland Children's Hospice: Funding
Member's statement by Mr Phillip Brett on .
- MLA
- Mr Phillip Brett
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 22 April 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Northern Ireland Children's Hospice: Funding
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4484027
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise to raise my concern at the lack of progress in securing funding for the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice. As you are aware, Mr Speaker, in the House, the issue has been the subject of a question for urgent oral answer and of a public petition with over 1,500 signatures from across Northern Ireland and has been raised by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Health Committee. In a response in the House, the Minister of Health made it clear that he would use his best endeavours to ensure that the cuts would be reversed and that bed capacity would be increased at the Children's Hospice. Indeed, in a written reply to my question to the Minister of Finance on 23 February, the Minister made it clear that she had written to the Health Minister requesting that he make a bid for additional funding for the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice. Like me, all reasonable people across Northern Ireland would have expected the Minister of Health to have made such a request. To my surprise, in a written answer from the Finance Minister on the 19th of this month, she confirmed that she had not received a request for additional funding for the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice from the Minister of Health. That is a completely intolerable situation. The Minister has made it clear that he has priorities in other places, but, for me, as an MLA for North Belfast, the proud home of the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice, the Minister's focus on other issues should be secondary to this. We need to see the Health Minister urgently make the bid that the Finance Minister has asked for, so that the vulnerable people who receive care and support at the Children's Hospice can do so once again. They are some of the most vulnerable people in our society, and the failure of the Health Minister to make any real progress on the issue should be a matter of shame. I look forward to him rectifying that without further delay.
340 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: 0.04 (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 (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- 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 | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.51 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.43 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.05 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:00 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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