Debate contribution: Racist Incidents

Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Racist Incidents

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658388

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I appreciate the opportunity to speak once again about the criminal damage and racist violence that took place in our community over the summer months. I assure you that addressing the needs of all in our community is a particularly important matter to us, and that must include everyone, no matter what the colour of your skin, your race, your religion, your faith or lack thereof or your identity. It is appropriate at this juncture to take real exception to the comments just made. Absolutely disgraceful comments have just been made. At every opportunity, the members of the Executive have stood shoulder to shoulder and made it absolutely clear that there is never any justification for racism, hate, violence, disorder or prejudice on that basis. I am on the record —.

I will not take an intervention. I am on the record as stating many times my absolute rejection of any racism, prejudice, hate, violence or disorder on that basis. The Member's comments are utterly disgraceful. I say clearly to this place that no one will put words in my mouth, despite the attempts by many people over the last number of months. What I said is that, in this role as deputy First Minister and as a representative, my message to people is clear: I am on your side. I am here to listen to you, to the challenges that you face and the hardships that you experience. I have said in the House that I recognise that, for many people throughout Northern Ireland — indeed, too many people — their lives are too tough. If you had actually listened to the people on the ground, you would have seen that tensions are bubbling and frustrations are high. There is that deep frustration because of a lack of affordable housing and the inability of people to live in the communities in which they grew up and that they love because of a lack of affordable housing and access to public services. I have also said very clearly that that is a challenge for all of us in the Chamber to address. That is a problem and those are issues for democracy to address. However, if democracy does not deliver, we will see people becoming increasingly frustrated. That is on us. That is why we must step up. I have said that time and again. The Executive have no tolerance for the racial discrimination and violence witnessed in July and August of this year. It is in stark contrast to the values of equality and respect that we strive to uphold. We have all seen the devastating impact of those crimes on victims and their families and communities, and our thoughts are still with all of those affected. I welcome the debate and all the thoughtful contributions. Indeed, we will take those away in the work that we are doing. I take the opportunity this afternoon to outline some of the work that we have been carrying forward, particularly from the summer but, of course, the work that has been taking place in the Department. We believe that that important work will address many of the elements. Of course, this place cannot fix these problems, but we can certainly do what we can to address them, working with communities and addressing those prejudicial social attitudes that lead to the type of racism that, very sadly and disappointingly, we saw on the streets. It is also important to put it on record that this was a small minority of people. The message that we must send to those from ethnic minority communities throughout Northern Ireland should be a united one. It should be a positive one today, which is that we are absolutely all united against racism and prejudice and that we are all united in wanting every person in Northern Ireland to be able to play their part and to do so in a context without hate, prejudice or discrimination. That is the message that the Executive are sending, the message that the First Minister and I have repeated throughout the summer and the autumn and the message that I firmly stand by today. Of course, much of what happened in the summer we have looked at, discussed and taken forward. A number of reviews are ongoing, but, of course, we will take away today's motion and endeavour to look at what we are doing to see whether we can do things differently, whether we need to bring that together in a different way or whether we need to increase the pace of what we are doing. I want to highlight a number of the key issues that the Department is working on. In that context, much of the learning from the summer's events has been built into the ongoing work that the Department is leading on in conjunction with other Departments and agencies, specifically the race hate cross-departmental working group, which met recently, on 6 November, to consider strategically how to apply learning and avoid a reoccurrence. One of our key priorities is to build a society in which racial equality and diversity is supported, valued and respected. I have heard reference to this before — I do not know why — but I have clarified in the House a number of times that we have a racial equality strategy. That racial equality strategy is for 2015 to 2025, and it is still in place. I have heard calls for a racial equality strategy: we are looking at that strategy and preparing for the next strategy beyond 2025. Much of that strategy has been fully implemented, and the aspects that have not been implemented are for a continuous application of the particular actions in it. Of course, we are looking at how that strategy was effective, what worked in it and what did not work as well. We will bring that all forward into the new strategy. We hope to launch a call for views before the end of 2024 to support the development of the new strategic approach to racial equality, and, as referenced yesterday in a different debate, in all of these policies and in reviewing and revising all of our strategies, it is critical that we listen to those who will be most impacted by them. Therefore, I emphasise today our keenness to hear from people throughout Northern Ireland about their views of the previous strategy and what they want to see in the new one. I have no doubt that the Committee will want to participate in that important work as well. We want to hear from the key stakeholders in the minority ethnic sector and wider society, particularly on, as has been referenced in the debate, what they believe to be the root causes of racism and rate hate. I also emphasise that, in some of that work, we will also look internationally at where there have been issues and what has worked in tackling those, not just from a government and departmental agenda and that of our agencies and local government but from within the community with schools, families and community organisations. I recognise absolutely that we can deliver that type of change only by working in partnership with all of those organisations. We will use those views to help to develop our future strategic approach to racial equality and to inform how we prevent such events from taking place again. As the current racial equality strategy acknowledges, we are under no illusion about the size of the challenge involved. It will take time, effort and resources, but it recognises that every one of us has a role to play in combating racism and racial inequalities. We cannot do it alone, and full implementation will require the support and active participation of all sections of our community. I also acknowledge the incredible work of organisations, including those representing ethnic minority communities. I know that many of you in the Chamber will have worked with them. Particularly when I represented South Belfast, it was my privilege to work with many of those organisations and to see the incredible work that they do on the ground. Of course, many other community organisations are also working. I was really pleased to see in the assessment of our Together: Building a United Community good relations schemes, such as T:BUC camps and other projects and initiatives, a really good level of participation from those from ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland.

We will want to mainstream that, and we can build on that. The review of Together: Building a United Community is under way, and that provides an exciting opportunity to take into account all the learning and make sure that those projects are absolutely inclusive. That is one of the good ways of tackling at a very early age some of the attitudes that set in and lead to problems later.

I will indeed.

I thank the Member for his intervention. Absolutely. It is important to put on record our thanks to the PSNI. Throughout that period when there was a huge amount of disorder, particularly in south Belfast, the First Minister and I were in regular contact with the Chief Constable and the PSNI to show our support, but also to ensure that the PSNI had the resources that it required. The PSNI makes absolutely clear that it does not have the resources that it needs. However, in the circumstance where it was fighting an unpredictable crowd on multiple fronts, it did everything that it could. Of course, it is right that the PSNI is scrutinised, but it is also absolutely right to put on record in the House our thanks to the brave men and women of the PSNI who faced a mob of people, which was going in multiple directions without any overall direction, and tried to help and support people in that context.

I thank the Member for her attempt to clarify, but her words will be clearly on the Hansard record. She repeated what was said in the Committee. Our role is to challenge some of that. There are reasons for policing operations. Of course, there are reasons for the way in which police have to operate in difficult circumstances. I want to recognise the incredible role that the PSNI played in difficult circumstances and, as Mr Brett said, what they do, day and daily, to keep the people of Northern Ireland safe. In 2023, the hate crime legislation and access to justice working group was established. It engages with representatives of the Department of Justice hate crime delivery group, the hate crime advocacy service, Victim Support and the PSNI. The working group is tasked with improving the reporting of hate crime, supporting victims of hate crime and reviewing and strengthening legislation as priority actions across statutory bodies. The need to provide the best possible legal protection against racism was highlighted as a key action of the racial equality strategy. Following the 12-week public consultation that was held in 2023, the review of the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 has been completed. The resulting report, which was published in early August, will inform any legislative change and will move us a step closer to a more equal society. I am very conscious that there is a lot more detail in that but, sadly, we have run out of time and I will not be able to go through all of it. I can assure you that the Executive Office and the Department of Finance have worked with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Northern Ireland Office to look at how best to utilise the £600,000 pot of funding that has been provided for here under the UK Government's Community Recovery Fund. Belfast City Council, in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has drawn up a wide-ranging plan, and I have already mentioned the Together: Building a United Community review. Unfortunately, the leader of the Opposition spoke and ran, so he is not here to hear any responses to the issues that he raised. Again, it is important to clarify this: my understanding is that the PSNI did not say that there was paramilitary involvement in the organisation of the violence. It is important for us to look at the challenges and the underlying reasons for the issues and to do that in an accurate, evidence-based way. In the House, we all want to tackle the scourge of racism. We may have different views — saying, "our crowd on the streets is bigger than your crowd", at a time when many of us were working to keep people off the streets, was foolish — but, today, we need to send a clear, united message that we are all against racism. Racism is wrong, the disorder in the summer was appalling and we will work hard to do everything that we can to tackle that and bring about the inclusive society that we all want to build.

2,172 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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