Debate contribution: Programme for Government 2024-27

Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 3 March 2025.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

3 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Programme for Government 2024-27

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4826311

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am very grateful to those who spoke for less than their seven allocated minutes so that I am able to get in today. I am very grateful to Mr Aiken for saying that he supports the Programme for Government, because, for a wee while, I thought that he had joined the Opposition Benches. This is a foundation document. As my colleagues have said, it is not everything that Alliance wants; it is a baseline for us to work from. I saw a consultation response that said that some sectors and groups could not see themselves in the Programme for Government and wanted more clarity on how it would support them. They included older people; mental health; poverty; arts; disability; culture; social care; LGBTQIA+; rural areas; community, voluntary and social sector enterprises; the business sector; and minority ethnic and Irish language groups. That just shows how much work we have to do to bring people along with us and ensure that their voices are heard. I look forward to, at some point within the 25 months that are left of the mandate, seeing an active ageing strategy, an anti-poverty strategy, a disability strategy, a gender equality strategy and a sexual orientation strategy finally coming from the Department for Communities. I ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister in their feedback to state whether, when we deliver the Programme for Government, we can ensure that we respect all the individuals with whom we work as partners when it comes to co-production and co-design. At the weekend, I spoke to some people involved in the disability co-production group for the disability strategy who are very harmed and hurt by the fact that it sounds as though we are starting all over again with the disability strategy, instead of carrying it forward. They invested a lot of time and energy into the working groups that were involved in developing what could become the disability strategy, and they feel that they have been set aside. Part of the way forward for the Programme for Government is to make a positive change for people. One of the ways in which we can do that is by respecting our partners who help us, and by making sure that they feel respected and seen in our documentation. It is time — again, I ask that this be included in the feedback at the end of the debate — for us to remember the RHI inquiry recommendation:

"The Northern Ireland Assembly should consider what steps are needed to strengthen its scrutiny role, particularly ... Assembly Committees".

My party is in the Executive, so of course we are going to support the Programme for Government, but I am also an MLA; I am here to support and scrutinise Ministers. It is becoming extraordinarily difficult to do so when some Ministers are withholding information from Committees. I am making a call-out to say that that is no longer appropriate. They should not go to the media first and then come to Committee as an afterthought. All Committees are here to support the Executive, and we look forward to doing so. I am on the Committee for Communities, and the work that needs to be done on housing will prevent people from entering the health system because, instead of having 47,000 people without a proper home, we will give people a roof over their head and a safe place in which to sleep and improve their health and well-being and their education and employment outcomes. However, while working through the priorities, we must continue to learn from the RHI inquiry to ensure that effective scrutiny is being carried out. Although housing is in Communities, I need to see from Infrastructure that work is being done on the waste water treatment system and that planning is being updated so that we can achieve our climate change targets. Removing fossil fuels from the heating systems in our houses is key. We need to have cross-departmental examination. How will the Executive ensure that we no longer hear Ministers say, "That's not my Department", and that, instead, we hear them say, "Here are our solutions, and here's how we brought everybody together to create the solutions"? We need to make progress on key social strategies. We have priorities that have been set down, but it has to be done with consideration of the ministerial code of conduct in the back of your mind.

I absolutely would be. Perhaps the Member will write to me, as the Chair of the Committee on Procedures, and ask whether we need to update Standing Orders. Bearing in mind the ministerial code of conduct and the Members' code of conduct, we are supposed to work in this place to make things better for others. If the LGBTQIA+ community cannot see itself in the Programme for Government and after what we heard earlier about what a woman is — I am a woman — and the disregard for trans women in the feedback, how can I have absolute assurance that objectivity and equality will be taken forward as the Programme for Government is being delivered? I do not want to sit in the House and know that some Ministers are not treating everyone equally. It is an exciting time. I came to the House in 2016, and, at last, we have a Programme for Government. We have something to work towards and deliver. I am up for the challenge, and I hope that everyone in the House is.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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