Debate contribution: Programme for Government 2024-27

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 3 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

3 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Programme for Government 2024-27

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4826347

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The Programme for Government is a clear indication that the Executive are out of touch with the people whom they claim to represent. As has been said, this is the first Programme for Government agreed by an Executive since 2011. The mere existence of the Programme for Government has been hailed as a cause for celebration, but is the bar really that low? Do ordinary people not deserve better? It beggars belief that the draft Programme for Government was devoid of any real, measurable or time-bound targets. The fact that the Executive were forced to go back to the drawing board to add a few concrete goals shows what they would happy to get away with if given the chance. The final version is a minor improvement on the vague, aimless original, but it still lacks the detail and urgency needed to turn things around for the ordinary people languishing on health waiting lists, the people spending a fortune on childcare, the people who are homeless, the children with special educational needs, the women and girls experiencing violence and many, many more. The Executive plan to invest up to £135 million a year to reduce health waiting lists. Where exactly will that money be spent? Will it help to address the workforce crisis and ensure safe staffing levels, or will it go, once again, to the burgeoning private health sector? Will it mean that our overworked and burnt out Health and Social Care staff are finally paid what they deserve? The Royal College of Surgeons reports that it will take a decade of sustained investment to turn the catastrophe around. We need consistent, high levels of investment to finally put an end to people dying needlessly on waiting lists. When it comes to early years provision and childcare, Ministers talk about the importance of early intervention and the crucial first 1,000 days of a child's life, yet they cut statutory services for early years, depend on the community and voluntary sector to fill the gaps and then deny core grant funding to charities and organisations working in early intervention, putting organisations doing vital work to support communities at risk of going under. The warm words in the document are completely at odds with the actions of Executive parties. I will continue to judge the Executive by their actions, not their words. Some £25 million has been allocated to support parents struggling with the cost of childcare. Previously, however, the Education Minister said that at least £400 million would be needed to implement a childcare strategy. A pittance has been allocated so far, and the Programme for Government completely neglects the issue of school-age childcare, another glaring omission from the document. Children with special educational needs from working-class communities are being badly let down by the Executive. The Executive signed off on the recommendations in the 'A Fair Start' report to address educational underachievement and disadvantage. Then, the Department of Education allocated just 6% of the funding needed to implement those recommendations. The Education Minister devised the rightly maligned RAISE programme to tackle educational disadvantage, departing from well-established and effective measures of income deprivation. At a time when all school pupils should have access to counselling and mental health support when they need it, the budget for Healthy Happy Minds was axed in 2023 and still has not been reinstated. The Executive will now produce a SEN reform agenda and delivery plan by 2027. Given the Minister's previous dismissive comments about the value of one-to-one support from classroom assistants, education support workers will be and are worried about the content and implications of the final SEN reform agenda. The goal of providing more social, affordable and sustainable housing is to be welcomed, but the Programme for Government misses many obvious opportunities to prevent homelessness, which would involve cracking down on profiteering private landlords, implementing a no-fault eviction ban and introducing rent controls. Unfortunately, once again, the Minister for Communities ruled that out today. Executive parties refuse to acknowledge the reality that preventing homelessness will mean questioning and challenging the power of landlords; instead, they adopt a firefighting approach, throwing good money after bad and spending over £34 million a year on temporary accommodation, most of which goes into the pockets of multimillion-pound companies and private landlords. Tackling poverty is still not defined as a key priority for the Executive; instead, we get a few vague, aspirational paragraphs with a fleeting reference to the Executive bringing forward an anti-poverty strategy. Will that come with funding attached? The same question applies to all the other social inclusion strategies and the language strategies. Will the anti-poverty strategy be based on objective need? Will it increase household incomes and reduce child poverty? We will wait and see. One in four children in my constituency of West Belfast lives in poverty. Poverty impacts on every aspect of their young lives: their health, their education and their social and emotional development. Even if the Executive somehow manage to meet the aspirations in the Programme for Government, that will not make a bit of difference, if people still live in poverty without their basic needs being met. On climate, the programme commits to increasing renewable electricity capacity by 40% by 2027. The Climate Change Act 2022 mandates a target of 80% renewable by 2030: does the Programme for Government put us on track to reach that target? I highly doubt it. There is also a goal of consulting this year on a draft climate action plan that was supposed to have been published over a year ago. By 2027, the Executive plan to deliver the actions in the Lough Neagh report and action plan. That is a testament to the continued pressure from environmental campaigning groups and climate activists such as the Save Lough Neagh campaign.

I agree, but I remind the Member that his party was in the Executive for many years and failed in attempts to reduce poverty. However, I agree with his earlier point. Like I said, the fact that the Lough Neagh report and action plan is in the document is a testament to the continued pressure from environmental groups and activists such as the Save Lough Neagh campaign and many other people. It was their and others' endless campaigning that brought us to this point. Without the necessary resources and funding, however, I am worried that the action plan is doomed to fail. If climate breakdown does not warrant quick and urgent action from the Executive, it seems as if nothing will. Time is of the essence, and the time for action is now.

1,101 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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