Debate contribution: Health and Social Care Pay Awards 2025-26

Debate contribution by Mrs Diane Dodds on 23 September 2025.

MLA

Mrs Diane Dodds

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

23 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Health and Social Care Pay Awards 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5129790

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As others have said, we owe an enormous amount of gratitude to our healthcare staff — our nurses, our doctors and our hospital workers, who look after and care for us at our most vulnerable times, who save lives every day and who shore up a health service that is at breaking point. I make it my business to regularly contact and visit the largest hospital in my area, Craigavon. I was there this month discussing the potential for further winter pressures and crises. On that day, the longest waiting times were 62 hours for someone who already had a bed, and 42 hours for someone who was waiting to be admitted and, for all that time, was sitting on a chair. There is no doubt that our healthcare staff work in the most difficult of circumstances, but it is not enough for us to clap for the NHS and say how much we appreciate them. Healthcare staff need to be properly paid, and that means parity with the rest of the United Kingdom. That is the only way to acknowledge their hard work. I am annoyed, like many nurses and other people are, that healthcare staff feel that they have to go to the extreme of either threatening or taking strike action to bring the matter to a head. That is not acceptable for a service that is such an important part of our community and lives. I respect, acknowledge and uphold everyone's right to strike, but I hope that we can find a solution to the issue and resolve it.

If you let me continue for a minute, I will give way. It is hugely important. I listened with interest to the Sinn Féin contribution, which was quite defensive. It is important that we find a resolution. I hope that the Finance Minister and the Health Minister can work together to resolve this most difficult subject. We should not drag our heels on the core services that we all depend on. I will give way.

Thank you. Funnily enough, I was just coming to that very point. The Minister needs to price in pay increases at the start of every year, and that should be monitored throughout the year. It is not that we do not know that it is going to happen — we do — so we need to price in those pay increases every year. We know broadly how much they will cost, and it is important to price them in. However — the Minister would be disappointed if I did not say this — we also have to think about how the Department of Health spends money. I cannot imagine where the Executive would be if every Minister sought a ministerial direction for a bill that they want the Executive to pick up. We have to think about how we spend money; that is hugely important. I had a look at the health service's administrative costs for last year: they totalled almost £600 million.

There are now more staff in the Department of Health than when we had the Department of Health and the Health and Social Care Board. The money that is spent on administration actually exceeds the amount that we spent when we had those two separate organisations. How on earth can the strategic planning and performance group (SPPG) take up 500 roles in the Department of Health? It is important that we actually consider how we spend health money. Of course, Minister, it is also really important that there is accountability for the money that is spent. We have a new state-of-the-art maternity hospital. You wrote to the Health Committee last week saying that you were content with the options presented by the trust. That means that a hospital at £100 million will have to have millions more spent on it and probably wait another two and a half years before it is open and before any mother or baby can occupy that hospital. The acute mental health hospital is in exactly the same position. You cannot ask for more money without accountability for the money that has been spent. I look forward to hearing the discussion around that. I hope that we have a resolution to this most vexatious of issues. I am sad and I am angry that nurses —

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.

I am sad and angry that nurses are in this position.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:11 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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