Debate contribution: Racist Incidents

Debate contribution by Mr John Stewart on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Mr John Stewart

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Racist Incidents

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658374

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Committee for the Executive Office and its Chair for their work on the review and for tabling the motion. As they will know, my party does not have a representative on the Committee, but I am grateful for the work that they have done. I have been watching intently along the way. I echo many of the comments that were made by Ms Nicholl and other Members in sending our solidarity to the many people who were affected in such a tragic way during the summer. We saw the most vulnerable in society being targeted in a horrific way, with online rhetoric leading to intimidation and, ultimately, to attacks on businesses, homes and places of worship. As we know, those people are the most vulnerable in society. They have come here for a better life, having fled some of the worst places in the world. Most of them are making a very valuable contribution to our society. Nothing was more saddening or caused more despair than seeing members of our NHS and care workers, having returned from a hard day's work, crying upon finding that their home had been attacked or burnt out. That was utterly despicable. It is etched in all our memories. At the same time as we saw that, however, we saw the true nature of the people of Northern Ireland. Across the country, hundreds of people came together, be that in my constituency or in any other, in support of the people who had been targeted. That is the true nature of the people of Northern Ireland. It is important to remember that that is their true spirit. That is the real Northern Ireland. I fully support the need for a review. As Members have said, it needs to be quick, sharp and focused. I am keen to focus on the impact on the victims. There will potentially be an impact on the workforce, because we heard that, tragically, so many people who work in our NHS or as care workers are thinking of leaving. It is important that the Executive Office engage with them and with the community groups that represent them. During that horrific time, I dealt with, as, I am sure, did many others, local charities and community groups that represent and work with those individuals daily. It is important to understand their shared and lived experiences. It is therefore really important that the Executive Office engage with them to see what difficulties they face and to establish how best to overcome them. Some of the charities that work with people who have moved here from overseas were threatened and intimidated. Their premises were targeted merely because they were supporting those people. That is despicable. We need to learn from those experiences. The final element that I will focus on is young people. Sadly and tragically, we saw far too many young people being dragged into what happened because of faceless individuals' online rhetoric. Community groups and schools need to have much more engagement with young people to ensure that they do not get caught up in such activity and that they realise the impact of their actions, including the long-term impacts that those actions could have on their life. They need to realise that that sort of activity is totally unacceptable. We support the work of the Committee and will continue to contribute in any way in which we can.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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