Debate contribution: Programme for Government

Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on 13 May 2024.

MLA

Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

13 May 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Programme for Government

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4488714

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. On taking office, the First Minister and I pledged to work with all parties across the Executive and the Assembly to confront the challenges that we face and capitalise on the many opportunities on offer to deliver a better future for everyone living in Northern Ireland. When we did so, we were fully aware of the challenges that we faced, particularly in relation to the difficult financial situation that all the Departments and the Executive would have to deal with. I am pleased that, over the past 100 days, we have been delivering on that promise. I welcome the fact that my words were referenced. I am in this post to support people and hard-working families throughout Northern Ireland. I support the transformation that we need to fix health and education, and I want to make sure that our public services work for the people of Northern Ireland. What have we been doing over the past 100 days? We started work immediately, having discussions about key priorities. I am very pleased that, at the very first Executive meeting, we set out our five key priorities. Reference was made to what I said in my acceptance speech in the House. It was about recognising the hardship that is faced by families in relation to access to affordable childcare. What did we do? We tasked the Education Minister to immediately establish a task and finish group of officials. That was done. We await key initial actions to support hard-pressed families in relation to childcare. Those will be published very shortly. We recognised that, throughout Northern Ireland, our hard-working public-sector workers were not getting the pay that they needed, so what did we do? We did not dither; we took action immediately. Our number-one priority was to set a financial package of some £688 million. That fiscal envelope was set quickly to enable Ministers to negotiate and settle those pay disputes.

That is what has happened with the vast majority of those pay disputes. I welcome that, because do you know what that is? That is £688 million going into the pockets of hard-working public-sector workers throughout Northern Ireland. I am glad to say that some of them will have seen that additional pay in their pay packet this month. That pay will be used to support other industries, businesses and families throughout Northern Ireland. That is a really important first step. It could not have happened without the additional money being secured through those negotiations, and it could not have happened as quickly without quick and decisive action by the Executive to ensure that —

— that envelope was put in place and those settlements could be reached. Ministers have been quick to ensure that those pay settlements could be reached, but we recognise that a small number are still outstanding, and we give a commitment to continuing to address them. Before I take any interventions, I will run through a number of things. It is not an exhaustive list, but I will highlight some of the things that we have done. There was the pay settlement of £688 million for public-sector workers throughout Northern Ireland. In a difficult situation for our Executive, we have agreed a Budget for 2024. We have been to the USA, where we promoted Northern Ireland and business in Northern Ireland. It was a very successful visit. We established, and attended for the first time in London, the East-West Council. The North/South Ministerial Council has already met. We have agreed a meeting of the British-Irish Council, which will take place in June. There was the announcement of some £9·4 million of payments to environmental farming scheme participants, which have already commenced. There was immediate action in relation to the Victoria Square apartments. We successfully pushed for Northern Ireland to be included in the Post Office scheme relating to the Horizon scandal. We have allocated an additional £1 million for libraries and £3 million of additional funding in the Supporting People programme. A £20 million energy support payment has been made to businesses. There has been action in relation to flooding payments. A £5 million programme has been launched for entrepreneurs and high-growth start-ups. There is £1 million of additional financial support for students in hardship. Our Education Minister has ensured that those who need special educational needs school places will have them for the start of September. He has also announced special educational needs capital builds, which will make a real difference in the delivery of education where it is needed. We have opened the Limavady shared education campus. Indeed, the Executive have agreed and secured funding for the Strule shared education campus. Measures to address MOT waiting times have been announced and taken. More may well need to be done, but that action has commenced. An additional £8 million for potholes was secured. We know how difficult that situation is throughout Northern Ireland, but that additional £8 million is already starting to roll out. I can go on and on and on, because we have secured many things. While we have been doing that, we have been working on our Programme for Government. Of course, it is an important and essential step in what we need to do, but we also must be fully aware of the challenges that we face. When it comes to our Budget, our priority is clear. Of course, it must be to ensure that our public services are working — our core public services of health and education and what we do currently. We have all discussed here how difficult the Budget has been and will be for those core services. Yes, there is much, much more that we all want to do. While the leader of the Opposition references motions, of course, it was ever thus. Of course, we support the thrust of those motions, but we are also realistic. When we talk about prioritisation, within our Budget, keeping our core public services going will be the priority, and we know how difficult that is when we look at the Department of Education budget and, indeed, all budgets across the Executive. Yes, we have taken action. This has been an Executive of delivery. Perhaps we need to explain that more and say it more loudly. I have touched on just a number of the issues, and they represent significant delivery in just 100 days. I want to respond to some of the points raised during the debate. I will start with the leader of the Opposition. Of course, a Programme for Government is essential, and that is what we are working on. The Programme for Government will represent where there is consensus across the Executive. I also gently say to the leader of the Opposition that when we look at the history of this place, we will see that a Programme for Government has never been produced within the first 100 days. Indeed, when his party took the deputy First Minister post for the restoration in 1999, there was some instability. When I say instability, after it came back in 1999, there were three months of suspension, but it was restored again in June 2000 with an SDLP/ Ulster Unionist-led Executive. However, the draft Programme for Government was produced in March 2001, and the final Programme for Government was agreed on 24 September 2001, so considerable time was taken, and that was because we need to get these things right. Yes, I want to see a Programme for Government quickly. Of course, I do, but it has to be right. The leader of the Opposition mentioned that, until there is a Programme for Government, we are improvising. We are not improvising. We recognise that we must dedicate that time and energy to improving our core public services. We know what they are. It is not improvising. We know that they are in Education and Health. It is about roads, schools and special educational needs. Above and beyond those, an additional area of prioritisation is affordable childcare, because that is putting such pressures on families. We need to get to the point where we have at least the same standard of support as the rest of the UK. Of course, we want to go further than that, but, again, we are all realistic about what we can do. My colleague mentioned a range of issues for prioritisation, and I welcome the fact that he recognised that five priorities were set, including special educational needs, health waiting lists, settling the public-sector pay claims and the action on Lough Neagh, which I did not mention, but the Executive agreed to put aside an additional just under £2 million for immediate actions on Lough Neagh this year. The first Minister and I visited Lough Neagh to hear directly from those most impacted.

I absolutely agree with him that childcare is a big challenge, but why is it so difficult to prioritise our Budget? We all know — we have debated it in the Chamber — that our health costs are higher per head of population than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. We have higher levels of special educational need than any other place across these islands, and funding for that has to come from our Budget. It is understandable that we have to make difficult decisions, but, of course, we have to prioritise those core needs as well.

The Chair of the TEO Committee made her contribution while wearing two hats, one of which was that of Committee Chair. On the work in the Department that she touched on, when we look at any analysis of public policymaking in our Departments, there may be criticism in terms of not getting things out the door very quickly, but I gently say to the Chairperson that the scrutiny role is absolutely essential. I will not be ashamed to stand here and say that appropriate time must be taken to ask the right questions, get the right responses and ensure that the policies and the procedures for what we do are the right ones. The thing is not how quickly we can shove something out the door so that we do not get criticism from anybody; the key thing is that what we do makes a difference and is actually right. I will absolutely defend taking the time to ask the right questions on policy development, because this is the stage at which to do so, and I know that the Committee will help us to do that.

I absolutely agree that you must be given that information in a timely way. We will address that and ensure that you get that. As the Chairperson is aware, however, the Executive Office has responsibility for a wide range of issues. Those issues, some of which are very tricky, will have to be scrutinised. The Chairperson mentioned that she expected an announcement on memorials for historical institutional abuse victims, but she has also, in correspondence with us, indicated that she recognises the challenges in achieving consensus on that issue. We want to make sure that we move forward in a victim-centred way, ensuring that the victims and survivors — those who are most impacted — are content with the way forward. That takes time. Doug Beattie mentioned his party's full support of the motion but said that he did not simply want a one-year PFG: I absolutely agree with him. It is important that we have immediate actions. While we can announce our key strategic priorities and, perhaps, our early actions in a draft document, we are fully aware that we need longer-term transformation. Our health service, our education system and the way in which we do public-sector policy and roll out our public services here require significant transformation. That will require us to get the right interventions and ensure that those interventions and the programme of transformation and transition are rolled out in such a way as to get the outcome that we want. I welcome Nick Mathison's recognition that this should be a priority for the First Minister and the deputy First Minister. I assure him absolutely that it is. We are working on it week in and week out, and our intention is to get a draft out as soon as possible and certainly before the summer. We have said so to the House on many occasions; that is the intention. I welcome the comments from my Lagan Valley colleague Robbie Butler on a wide range of issues, particularly on ensuring that the Programme for Government works for everyone: those who suffer discrimination; those with particular challenges; and those with additional needs. It is important that that is fully integrated into all the actions. We must ensure that our public services work for everyone throughout Northern Ireland and that growing the economy here works for everyone. I am going to run out of time, so I will conclude by simply saying that I want this Executive to be known for delivery. It is not about photographs or photo opportunities. It is about supporting people and getting out there, ensuring that people know that the Executive are determined to work in a positive way for everyone. The Executive will be about delivery, and I will ensure that.

2,217 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:27 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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