Debate contribution: North/South Ministerial Council: Health and Food Safety

Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on 20 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Mike Nesbitt

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

20 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

North/South Ministerial Council: Health and Food Safety

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4963810

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member. There was no detailed discussion on hospice care during the sectoral meeting. Previously, as I said, I met Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the Minister for Health in the Government of Ireland, down in Dublin. After that, I visited a hospice in Dublin. I got a briefing on the different funding arrangements, which are obviously much more advantageous to hospices in Dublin. I understand that former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was instrumental in establishing that funding stream. I am a bit remiss, because Leo Varadkar has encouraged me to reach out to him to discuss the issues, and I have not done that yet. It is on my to-do list, and, if I am really honest, I have been a bit slow on it.

The detail was more on the food safety side of the fence. It is a matter of public note that we had hoped to make a successful pitch to the Shared Island Fund for the mother-and-baby unit. However, it was unsuccessful. That was when Stephen Donnelly was the Minister. With hindsight, perhaps we waited too long and gave them too much detail, because the answer that I got was a definitive no. Therefore, if we are pitching to the Shared Island Fund, we should not send in a 20-page, fully detailed proposal. It should be a one-pager to see whether it is interested, because, if it is just going to say no, there is no point in wasting that resource. If they say yes, you then go away and get down into the fine detail. The mother-and-baby unit will be based at Belfast City Hospital. We are at a pretty advanced stage with the business plan. I hope that, certainly during this calendar year, we will green-light it.

Yes, I acknowledge the east-west link. That was also discussed on the fringes, at least, of the conference at Croke Park in Dublin that I mentioned. I previously promised, because it was my expectation, that the cancer research strategy would be published by the end of the previous financial year. I was given the proposed strategy in time for it to be published before the end of the previous financial year, but I thought that more could be done to improve it. I wanted slightly more engagement with stakeholders so that I could be assured that they are satisfied with the strategy. Therefore, additional work is being carried out. We missed a deadline — hands up to that — but it will be worth it, because, when we get the strategy over the line and when I am satisfied with it and stakeholders are happier with it, it will be a more effective document.

I take a little exception to that last use of language, where the Member said that Northlands was "stripped of its core funding". We redesigned the core funding scheme, because it had not been reviewed in 20 years, which meant that any charity that had been established in that two-decade period could not even apply for core funding. The point was also made that core funding was an annual thing and that, just because you got it one year, you should not expect to get it the following year. It was redesigned at my request, and that was facilitated by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA). Stakeholders were the co-designers of the scheme, and Northlands was unsuccessful. We used six criteria, I think, and they were not the Department's criteria but the stakeholders'. I very much regret the fact that Northlands is not in receipt of core grant funding, but it is wrong to say that we "stripped" it of that funding. I am more than happy to work with the North/South Ministerial Council and with Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and consider whether that is an area in which a pitch to the Shared Island Fund would be appropriate. The fact that Northlands is up by the border makes it attractive.

In the broad area of alcohol, I wanted to discuss the benefits, as I see them, of minimum unit pricing for alcohol. Scotland and Wales have minimum unit pricing. The research that I have seen suggests that it works. The very esteemed health inequalities expert Professor Sir Michael Marmot agrees that minimum unit pricing works. I want to introduce legislation in this mandate to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Northern Ireland. To do that, I need Executive agreement, and I am afraid that I do not have that. I encourage the Member to reflect on why that may be.

I think that the Member has answered his own question. I did not raise the issue at the North/South Ministerial Council meeting in sectoral format for health and food safety because it is an issue for the Executive Office.

I am glad that the Member is sitting down, because the answer is no.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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