Debate contribution: Programme for Government 2024-27
Debate contribution by Miss Jemma Dolan on .
- MLA
- Miss Jemma Dolan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 3 March 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Programme for Government 2024-27
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4826267
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The publication of the Executive's Programme for Government is a positive step. It sets out clear priorities and commitments that will improve the lives of workers, families and communities here. Many of the challenges that we face are cross-cutting and require a collaborative approach, which means locally elected representatives working together and putting the interests of our people first, following 15 years of austerity measures from the British Government that have starved our public services of the resources that they need. Investing in vital infrastructure that provides people with what matters most is a key part of the Programme for Government, with a focus on reducing childcare costs, enabling parents either to remain in or to rejoin the workforce, improving people's health and well-being by cutting waiting lists, providing affordable homes for people and taking measures to protect our environment. Another welcome commitment of the Programme for Government is to address a legacy of regional imbalance through a commitment to work with councils and other partners to deliver a subregional economic action plan. The delivery of city and growth deals such as the Mid South West growth deal in my constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone is evidence of the type of investment needed for economic development. I recognise, however, that the Executive's ability to deliver the public services that our citizens deserve continues to be constrained by decisions made in Britain, as shown by the upcoming rise in employers' National Insurance contributions, a decision of the British Treasury that has put added pressure not just on public services but on the community and voluntary sector and our local small and medium-sized businesses. Going forward, we need to see maximum devolution of fiscal powers to the North, providing us with more levers to develop the local economy. I support the work of the Finance Minister in his negotiations with the Treasury to ensure that we are funded at our level of need. Therefore, while the Programme for Government is welcome progress for the North, our ability to address the challenges that our public sector and local economy face remains restricted by the artificial barriers created by partition, which limit us from unlocking our full potential. Constitutional change would offer us the opportunity to build something new, provide us with full control of our affairs and enable us to address how we can deliver better public services and build an economy that meets the needs of every one of our citizens.
410 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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