Debate contribution: Inaugural East-West Council Meeting

Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on 7 May 2024.

MLA

Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

7 May 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

Inaugural East-West Council Meeting

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4487903

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for his question. The forum was an initiative that came out of the 'Safeguarding the Union' Command Paper, which is an agreement that came from negotiation between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom Government. The initiative came out of those discussions, and that is why the inaugural meeting focused particularly on engagement between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom Government. It was made clear, though, at the meeting and, indeed, in the press afterwards that other jurisdictions would be invited to participate. Indeed, we have had correspondence from the Scottish Government in relation to the matter. It is a forum for all of the United Kingdom in strengthening relationships across and within the United Kingdom, so I think that there will be interest from others to take part. It is important to point out that there is also benefit in cooperation with other regions. For example, there are matters where farmers in Northern Ireland will have more in common with farmers in Yorkshire than farmers in Yorkshire may have with those in London. There is good reasoning for cooperation across the regions, not just the devolved areas in the UK.

I thank the Member for her question. The meeting focused on the strategic objectives for the way forward and the potential for the new body, so it was at a higher level. However, I believe that everybody around the table was excited about the opportunities that the body could bring. It focuses primarily on internal relationships, improving cooperation and relationships across not just the political but civic, educational and business groups and their potential. That was the primary focus of the meeting. Of course, growing our economy and trade will feature, particularly as the UK Government proceed with the development of InterTrade UK. The issue of delays in Levelling Up Fund payments was raised to ensure that Northern Ireland has a more meaningful say at all stages of policy development, including the delivery and roll-out of that. I am a great believer that, to help that, those relationships and the strengthening of those relationships, including through this forum, will be of benefit.

I thank the Member for his question. Touching on some of what has already been discussed here, this is not a body that currently has a statutory basis. Therefore, it is not rigid with parameters that perhaps limit opportunity, and there is a good opportunity for us all now to look at where this body can be of most benefit. We would not want it to be confined and rigid. It is important that it is flexible and agile and can respond to needs and issues as they arise. There is absolutely no doubt that there are many shared challenges across this United Kingdom, but there are also opportunities to look at solutions that have been found elsewhere that can be of help to us here. The sharing of that knowledge is critical, but that is not at just a political level. We know that many of the solutions are based in the civic and community sector, as is the delivery of those solutions. Therefore, building relationships between the civic and community sector across the United Kingdom is a huge opportunity for us; an opportunity that, I believe, will be of significant benefit to everybody in Northern Ireland.

My understanding is that the origin of the body lies very much in the fact that, while there are a number of key bodies for supporting North/South, British-Irish and all-island communication among the structured institutions of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, there was nothing that focused particularly and specifically on the UK internally. You referenced the interministerial governmental structures, so you will be aware that there is a transition. That transition happened because of decisions that the UK Government took that arose from the review of the bodies that existed prior to that, which were the joint ministerial councils and the sectoral bodies. Those bodies tend to be structured, specific in their sectoral responsibilities and, it is fair to say, frustrating for some at times. The body is designed to have engagement at a political level that is agile and flexible and that can respond to building those relationships. We have seen much good work in building North/South relationships through civic, business and political engagement, yet, for decades, we have not had that across the UK. We have not had that cooperation within the United Kingdom. Rather than looking at the specifically governmental issues that those other bodies deal with, through the new body, we have a real opportunity to talk about strategic issues across a whole range of sectors for the benefit of the people of Northern Ireland and across the UK.

Given my response to the previous question, I believe that the Council will be important to building relationships between Ministers from all jurisdictions when looking at, as I indicated, exciting initiatives and opportunities with the civic, business, educational and university sectors. That will be to the benefit of funding applications and trying to problem-solve at an earlier stage. There is no doubt that we have structures, but there is also no doubt that, at times, there have been frustrations about an inability to get some of the issues resolved. The body gives us the opportunity, first of all, to look strategically at what is not working right and to have a forum that, as I said, is agile enough to respond to emerging issues. It gives us the opportunity to have some exciting initiatives and to build on the best practice of those other bodies not by replicating them but by complementing and supplementing them by taking some of the really good projects that we have seen elsewhere that work well through collaboration and by bringing those forward to the benefit of our university, civic, business and political institutions across this United Kingdom.

I thank the Member for her question. She is absolutely right. That is the great benefit of the Council. We can shape it. As a concept, it is fundamentally based on building better relationships and having a key forum that will meet at least three times a year, so we know that there will be opportunities then to raise grievances, problems and challenges and to ask for shared support in finding solutions to some of those. You are absolutely right. In the announcements that are coming out of the inaugural East-West Council meeting about looking at investment through the Shared Prosperity Fund, initiatives on educational underachievement and adult numeracy, and additional funding for investment in businesses, green technology, R&D and other areas, you can see that there is potential for not only discussing those important strategic objectives but urging announcements and securing commitments to real actions against those objectives. I am very excited about the opportunities for the East-West Council. It is for us to shape and build it and make of it what we can. We should all be focused on ensuring that we maximise the potential of this exciting new body.

I thank the Member for his question. It was quite a wide-ranging conversation. It was fortunate that the Under Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Jacob Young, was present, because he is involved in many of the levelling up-type projects, which reach across education and community investment. The community ownership scheme is a good example of that: communities in Northern Ireland have benefited from it more than those in any other place in the United Kingdom. It takes assets in a community, such as buildings or facilities that may be a blight or are not being used, into community ownership for the benefit of the community. That has been hugely positive, and there has been significant interest in Northern Ireland. It was a good conversation and covered many of those elements, but we also had a conversation about educational underachievement. We recognised that the challenges that we have with educational underachievement, particularly for those in receipt of free school meals, are common across many areas in Scotland, England and Wales. Some really good projects with proven outcomes have been rolled out in those areas, and it would be positive for us to examine whether they are suitable to be rolled out in Northern Ireland. An interesting stream of work can definitely be taken from that initial meeting.

I thank the Member for her question. As I indicated, the Council came out of the 'Safeguarding the Union' Command Paper, which was primarily about relationships and issues between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There is no doubt, however, that this is about building relationships across the United Kingdom, not just between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. It often strikes me that we do not collaborate enough across Departments, civic and business organisations and community and education bodies with our counterparts in Scotland, Wales and England, but there are huge commonalities in challenges and opportunities between the regions of the UK. Farmers in Northern Ireland have similar challenges and issues to those of farmers in Yorkshire, Devon, Cornwall and parts of Scotland and Wales. There is huge benefit in getting people together to look at solutions, including on green technology, innovation in business and how we support communities in that regard, not just in the other devolved regions that have shown an interest in this — and they have — but in the regions within those devolved Administrations.

I thank the Member for her question. She will be aware that when we have discussed the prosperity agenda and growing the economy in Northern Ireland, we have always been careful to highlight the fact that we want that to be across and throughout Northern Ireland and not just for one part of it. My understanding of the enhanced investment zone is that it is a particular vehicle designed for Northern Ireland. It builds on the investment zones that have been rolled out elsewhere in the UK.

It will have flexibility within that, including on some tax incentives, but also other incentives, potentially on National Insurance and around supporting companies.

My view is that it is a comparatively early stage, and, again, we can shape what the enhanced investment zone will look like. One of the issues that I raised is the need for a big infrastructure piece. We know that there are big challenges and issues in, for example, water, sewage and energy. Those things are absolutely necessary for economic growth and to support companies to both expand and set up here. There is potential, but I can advise the Member that it is at an early stage. It is being led by the UK Government, but of course the Executive, and particularly the Department for the Economy, will feed in to shape it and make sure it is fit for purpose and benefits all throughout Northern Ireland.

I thank the Member for his question. Indeed, for policy development, the design of interventions, the way that they are rolled out and even how we measure the effectiveness of interventions with outcomes-based accountability, indicators and evaluation — all those things have developed significantly over the past number of years. There are really good examples of that being rolled out elsewhere across the United Kingdom and the globe. Northern Ireland is a small place, and there is no need for us to constantly try to reinvent the wheel and solutions to the challenges we face, because very often they are common. We have the ability to look elsewhere and say, "What is an intervention that has worked in education underachievement? How has a particular region significantly improved its economic inactivity figures?" We can identify those types of solutions, check to see whether they are fit for purpose in Northern Ireland, and tailor them if needs be, but that accelerates the solutions to the big challenges that we face. Of course, shared learning is essential. We have so much in common across this United Kingdom; let us try to find shared solutions to some of the big challenges and maximise our shared opportunities.

I thank the Member for his question. It will be an important body to build those relationships, tackle those shared challenges and maximise those shared opportunities across our United Kingdom. It is the first time that we have had a truly United Kingdom-level body arising from all the other bodies that did not deal with the internal and exclusive issues of the United Kingdom from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. On trade flows, I will use the example of the many, many services issues across this United Kingdom where, if people are applying for something, seeking insurance or having other issues, they will proceed through that, only to be told that it does not apply to Northern Ireland. Services have not been impacted by the Windsor framework or Brexit, yet everyone in Northern Ireland will know that, for many years, services have not applied equally here. There has always been an issue about "* does not apply in Northern Ireland", and that needs to be addressed. There needs to be a better understanding. Of course, the UK Government must be held to account to fulfil the promise of unfettered and free-flowing internal trade in the United Kingdom with zero checks. It is clear that some businesses do not understand the procedures, and that needs to be tackled. We have put it to the UK Government that they must take action — InterTrade UK will have an important role in this — to ensure that businesses in Great Britain are fully aware of what they can do in internal UK trade and do not unnecessarily prevent goods from going to Northern Ireland by saying, "Northern Ireland cannot get those goods" or go through unnecessary procedures. That will work in a number of ways. InterTrade UK will both promote awareness among businesses in the private sector and enable us to hold the feet of the UK Government to the fire on fulfilling the commitments that they have given to the people of Northern Ireland to ensure free-flowing and unfettered internal UK trade.

Immigration is an excepted matter. It is therefore a matter for the UK Government. We, of course, liaise with them on the issue, because immigration has a significant impact on, for example, the public services that are rolled out through Northern Ireland Departments. It is therefore in our interests to ensure that we have a close working relationship with the UK Government on the matter. We have heard many times about the challenges of getting the right education, the right support and the right housing. There is no doubt that the pressures on available housing are giving rise to significant concern and consternation. I will repeat what I said about last week's events. Our information is that a significant number of those who come to Northern Ireland come through the Republic of Ireland route. We have heard a different narrative from the Republic of Ireland Government. It is clearly a complicated issue that requires conversation, discussion and solutions. When housing and public services throughout Northern Ireland and Ireland are under pressure, it does not help the current situation. What is now required is for people to take the heat out of the issue and to have sensible conversations about this complicated issue in order to get to the bottom of exactly what is happening and what needs to be done.

2,567 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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

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