Debate contribution: Legislation Programme 2025-26
Debate contribution by Miss Nicola Brogan on .
- MLA
- Miss Nicola Brogan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 13 October 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Legislation Programme 2025-26
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5176095
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I am pleased to welcome the legislative programme from the Executive Committee. It is an ambitious body of work for the session and one that I am sure that we are all eager to get our teeth into. As a member of the Communities and Infrastructure Committees, I am glad to see several pieces of legislation come our way that will be warmly welcomed and will require detailed and careful scrutiny in each Committee. In addition to the Bills in the Executive Committee programme, we are already working on several other Bills, such as the Sign Language Bill, which the Communities Committee is scrutinising. That Bill will give long-overdue support and recognition to our deaf community. We also have the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill, which the Infrastructure Minister, Liz Kimmins, introduced. That forms part of Minister Kimmins's three-pronged to tackling water infrastructure issues across the North. It will integrate innovative and sustainable drainage solutions into housing developments and provide grants for measures to protect domestic buildings from flooding. I am particularly pleased to see the ports Bill in the legislative programme. That has been the subject of significant work by Ministers Liz Kimmins and Caoimhe Archibald. They recently met representatives of Belfast harbour on the subject, and the general feeling is that the proposed changes are urgently needed if our ports and harbours are to remain competitive. The work and operation of ports have changed over the years, and they now face additional costs, such as high supply-chain inflation and the requirement to decarbonise. The new and additional powers outlined in the ports Bill will allow Belfast harbour and other harbours to grow while maintaining appropriate safeguards so that the Department can ensure that ports are efficient and competitive while still operating in the public interest. There is a lot of work ahead of us. With this ambitious programme to work through, it is crucial that we do not become complacent. We must continue to listen to the concerns of our constituents and forge ahead with additional projects and legislation that will support workers, families and communities.
350 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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