Debate contribution: Special Educational Needs: Crisis in Provision

Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on 8 September 2025.

MLA: Mr Jon Burrows
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 8 September 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Special Educational Needs: Crisis in Provision
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5068810

Text

This may be the first time in quite a while that I will have spoken for five minutes without saying something controversial, but I will try. Thank you for the warm words of welcome that all Members have given me. If I looked somewhat surprised when some Members walked over, shook my hand and said, "Welcome. You are a great addition to the Chamber", it is because they have blocked me on Twitter. There are at least four of them. I will go through my profile and see whether there are any more. I pay tribute to my predecessor, Colin Crawford, and not because that is the convention. I have been in North Antrim for the past four weeks, speaking directly to constituents. They told me that Colin had spent nights on the street when it was dark and dangerous. He had been in their homes at times when they had suffered real bereavement and crisis. In their darkest hours, they looked to Colin, and he was always there.
He is not a man who is interested in climbing the greasy pole or in advancement. He is not even a man who is interested in being in the public eye. He is interested in helping people and, in that sense, he is a rare person in politics. I am glad that he is now part of my constituency operation and will be helping me to deliver services across North Antrim. North Antrim is a wonderful constituency. I will say this, and some people will certainly agree: it is the most beautiful constituency in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
There is nothing controversial in that, and I have a strong evidence base for it that I will come to now. There is no other place in Northern Ireland that has not one but two UNESCO world heritage sites: the Giant's Causeway and the wonderful Moravian village of Gracehill. My constituency has the only UNESCO world heritage sites in Northern Ireland; the best coastline of the island of Ireland; the best whiskey in the world; the Dark Hedges; and all those other things, so I am absolutely honoured — I will try not to get emotional in saying this — to represent it. That is why, when I was under serious threat from dissident republicans — I have lived at 10 addresses in the past 25 years — I lived in Ballymoney for 10 years and nothing could budge me from there. I had bulletproof windows and blast-proof doors, and letter bombs were sent to me, but I was not for leaving. It is a wonderful constituency, but it has a lot of problems. The farmers, who are the heartbeat of the constituency, are in the armlock in society between trying to look after our climate for the future and allowing people to have a livelihood today. They are not listened to enough in this place — I hope that that is not a controversial statement — about the inheritance tax proposals that pose an existential threat to them in Northern Ireland. I will support our farmers. I will also support people who experience social housing issues. To be frank, I was shocked when, on my first day, I walked into Drumtara estate and had to pinch myself to be sure that I was in a first-world country, because it looked like a third-world country. Not only had people to wait years for social housing; they then had to wait years for basic repairs. There were homes with missing tiles, when people had been asking for them for months. I had to ask myself, "How did we put a man on the moon many years ago yet we cannot replace tiles?". There was grass that was uncut because the Housing Executive and the council could not agree on whose responsibility it was because a child's bike had been left in the middle of a grassy verge and whoever had the contract to cut the grass could not lift the bike away. It took an intervention from a councillor, backed up by an MLA, to get the grass cut. Those things simply are not acceptable. Of course, the constituency has a lot of problems with immigration. I will stand by the lawful immigrants of North Antrim. My granny was treated by Filipino nurses, and my family is eternally grateful for their care and diligence. I have supported the lawful migrants. I will always call out violence — unlike some people, I do not think that there is ever justification for violence — but I will have the honest conversations about asylum, illegal immigration and the fact that we ask the people in our society who have the least to take the biggest influx of newcomers, which puts pressure on access to social housing, health and education. I turn to education as I come to the conclusion of my remarks. I listened to constituents, and, when I did my research, I found that that was one of the top five things that people contacted the previous office about. They wait too long for statements of educational need and have to go too far for a school once they get one. I agree, therefore, with the substance of the motion. I also agree with Mr Gaston's amendment, which states that we need to value our teaching assistants. If this constitutes a conflict of interest, I declare that several members of my family are teaching assistants. We say that we value teaching assistants, but that is not shown in their pay packets or in their terms and conditions. They carry out a vital role for society, and I want to support them. I am happy to support the motion and Mr Gaston's amendment.
Thank you.

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

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