Member's statement: Adult ADHD Services
Member's statement by Mr Peter McReynolds on .
- MLA
- Mr Peter McReynolds
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 15 September 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Adult ADHD Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5099121
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As an East Belfast MLA and chair of the all-party group on ADHD, I ask where the report on commissioning adult ADHD services in Northern Ireland is. In March 2024, thousands of people signed my petition calling on the Health Minister to urgently commission those essential services here. My inbox has become flooded with the concerns and anxieties of those living with and potentially living with the condition, who, crucially, are unable to access a diagnosis or treatments, because we do not have commissioned services. Since then, I have persisted and fought to meet the Minister in his office alongside ADD-NI. I was told in the Chamber that the report would be completed by the end of the financial year. I was then told that it would be finished by the start of the summer. I was then told that it would be finished by the start of September. I fully appreciate the work involved in creating a meaningful and purposeful report, but people who live with ADHD have been overlooked for too long and have waited for too long, living in crisis and despair. It is likely that we have already missed two to three generations of struggling young people who are now struggling adults. My petition was launched in April 2024. We are now midway through September 2025 and have still heard nothing officially or unofficially. That is nearly a year and a half. I do not want to prejudge what the report will say, but I fear that I could write the conclusion: "I'd love to do it, but it's too expensive, and you all voted for the Budget". Meanwhile, adults living with or potentially living with ADHD will suffer by facing high costs for access to transformative medication, lengthy waiting list times, damaged relationships, missed opportunities to use ADHD for the better, self-medication through alcohol and substance abuse, chronic disorganisation and poor mental health. I was delighted to open the new ADD-NI office in south Belfast earlier this year, and I am proud to have my name on the wall there for having done so. However, I am about results, and I will continue to raise how ADHD and the lack of commissioned services here destroy families and lives across Northern Ireland. I call for the urgent publication of the report and for the commissioning of ADHD services in Northern Ireland.
395 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.96).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.96 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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