Debate contribution: Children’s Hospice: Funding
Debate contribution by Miss Órlaithí Flynn on .
- MLA
- Miss Órlaithí Flynn
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 14 October 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Children’s Hospice: Funding
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4590243
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
I support the motion with a deep sense of responsibility and, of course, urgency. The urgency is why we are discussing it today. The Children's Hospice provides vital life-affirming palliative care for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. As we know, it supports not just the young patients but their families, offering comfort and compassion during the most difficult times. Families often describe the Children's Hospice as their lifeline. It offers them a chance to catch their breath, knowing that their children are in the best possible hands. The service goes far beyond medical care, wrapping a blanket of support around families and helping them to navigate the most difficult of journeys. The hospice has also been a place of innovation and resilience, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite such immense challenges, the organisation continues to adapt and provide essential services. It conducted 725 home visits and over 1,600 phone or video consultations, ensuring that no family felt isolated at a time when all the in-person support was severely limited. That determination to meet families' needs, even in the face of a global crisis, underscores the critical role that the hospice plays in our communities. However, as has been said, the hospice is, as we know, facing significant financial pressures. The 2021-22 impact report highlighted that it took over £18 million to run the NI Children's Hospice that year. More than £6 million of that was generously donated by the public, including a local GAA club in west Belfast, O'Donnell's GAC, which raised over £90,000 through a sleep-out event. Although that public fundraising is fantastic and raises massive amounts of money, that level of funding, even with such public generosity, is not sustainable for the hospice in the long term, given the rising costs of care, inflation and the increased demand on its services. The hospice should not be left to rely primarily on the public's generosity to keep its doors open. The point has been made that, while we know that the hospice is the responsibility of the Department of Health and the Executive overall, everyone has a stake in it. No one wants to see the service fail or any of those families or children being let down. That is the reason for today's debate. We are highlighting the issue to, hopefully, show the public that we genuinely care. We know that, my God, the budgets are completely constrained and that the Health Minister is finding it very difficult to prioritise where he should put his money. We all get that. However, it is important that everyone in the Chamber, as elected representatives from right across the North, has the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns. Hopefully, we will get a resolution and see some action following today's debate. The motion proposes that the Minister for Health try to cover 50% of the hospice costs, but this is not just about the shortfall in the budget; it is about affirming the right of every child in the North who needs specialist end-of-life care to receive it. Appropriate funding would not only sustain the hospice but enable it to continue alleviating the strain on our healthcare system by providing specialist end-of-life care at home and in the community.
Without that support, many families would face traumatic experiences of seeing loved ones suffer in pain without adequate help.
I call on the Assembly to support the motion and the amendment and advocate sustainable funding for the Children's Hospice. It is our duty to ensure that that lifeline for so many families not only survives but thrives, every child in need can access world-class palliative care and every family can find the comfort and support that they deserve during the hardest times.
629 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: 0.03 (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 (0.96).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies.
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.96 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.30 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.29 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.23 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.15 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.03 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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