Debate contribution: Loneliness Strategy

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 29 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

29 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Loneliness Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4486485

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate, and I thank the Member for tabling the motion. I echo some of his opening remarks. I feel a bit lonely, because we do not have a Minister here to pick up on any of the discussion that we are having or the points that we raise or the fact that we are highlighting that nearly one in five of our population is impacted by loneliness. What will happen about it in this Executive? Zero, because there is no one here to listen to what we say. The need for a loneliness strategy is an important matter. If I look around the Chamber, I see that we are all different. Often, our disagreements in here can be heated — just like my remarks a few moments ago — and rightly so for what we are debating. However, when we leave the Chamber, we are able to pass each other in the corridors, stop and have a chat and go and have a coffee and discuss how our working week is going. We might even have a laugh together and ask how each other's families are keeping or share a moment or two together in a working week. We do that because, while we may debate with each other politically, we recognise that we are human and have that need for human interaction. However, many people across the North may not be in such a position and cannot experience such social interactions. As I said, one in five of the population suffers from loneliness and one in 20 suffers from chronic loneliness. Those people may go days or even weeks at a time without interacting with another person. The reasons for loneliness are as diverse as the people who are impacted by them. Without a fully funded cross-departmental strategy in place, we are only hampering our ability to alleviate that loneliness. That can have a devastating impact on health, well-being and quality of life. There are visible and invisible realities of loneliness. I echo the remarks made earlier about my former colleague Sinéad Bradley, who worked so diligently in the last mandate to help establish and chair the all-party group on loneliness. She represented a rural constituency and understood how living in a rural area can impact on loneliness. The Executive have a moral duty to alleviate that loneliness and must act to do so. That is why I feel so passionate about a Minister being here to hear that. When I look at my constituency of South Down, I see great work being undertaken by many local organisations, such as our local libraries; the Good Morning Down project, which makes phone calls and looks out for people by checking in with them; the local Men's Sheds that have sprung up across the place and give men the opportunity to get together and check in; and, on a slightly wider scale, the University of the Third Age (U3A), which I love to talk about because I have a family member who participates in it. The U3A plays that essential role in giving older people opportunities to avail themselves of new interests or develop existing ones and to do so in social groups where they can make new friends or strengthen the interactions and relationships that they have. The U3A has 25 branches across Northern Ireland and a membership of over 1,200 people. Since 1990, it has been clear that the U3A does great work. While some councils fund some work to coordinate and organise activities for older people, I would love to see that extended across Northern Ireland so that we have programmes of activities available for older people in all areas instead of a postcode lottery. The importance of that is the fact that none of us are getting any younger and the numbers of us who reach older age is increasing year on year. It is more important that we have those activities and structured opportunities because then we might be able to combat the negative health impacts that come from —.

Yes, of course.

Absolutely. If we can work in a coordinated way to challenge that, it can only be good for our health service and, most importantly, for the people who feel that loneliness. We are also told that one third of adults feel ashamed about being lonely; one third feel anxious as a result of loneliness; and almost half would never admit to feeling lonely. I think that we can all, in some ways, subscribe to that. Nobody wants to put their hand up and say, "Hey, I feel lonely, and I need some help to talk to people". As I said, the loneliness that people experience comes from the same place as the need that we have to connect with people. I hope that we can try to address that. Reaching out to others is a basic form of our humanity. The motion directly asks Executive Office Ministers to do something, but they are not here to hear it. I hope that a cross-departmental loneliness strategy will be implemented as soon as possible.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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