Debate contribution: Deaths, Still-Births and Baby Loss Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 4 November 2025.

MLA

Miss Deirdre Hargey

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

4 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Deaths, Still-Births and Baby Loss Bill: Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5216454

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Minister for this legislation, and I welcome the fact that the Bill is now at Consideration Stage. The Committee has taken a good approach so far. We all see the importance of progressing the legislation and, importantly, putting it on a firm footing. This compassionate legislation has been broadly welcomed by all those whom we have engaged with in Committee and outside of the Committee as individual MLAs. Importantly, it replaces the temporary provisions that were implemented at pace during COVID. We have listened to the lived experience of those who have suffered loss and the impact that it continues to have on them. We have also heard how recognition is an important step for many. The introduction of a baby loss certificate scheme has been welcomed across the board by all those whom we have met and taken evidence from. I agree with other Members that clause 8 and the schedule are an important part of the Bill. In essence, they address and rectify an inequality that exists in the legislation. They will allow for couples who are unmarried or who are not civil partners to have access to the same registration process, regardless of whether they are same-sex or opposite-sex couples. I agree with keeping it as flexible as possible and not being restrictive in how people in society choose to live. That is the right thing to do, and I will oppose any Question that attempts to remove it and thus allow the inequality to continue. Some have attempted, through the amendments, to create division and, indeed, to narrow the approach. At the Committee, I reflected on the treatment of women across the island as a result of ideology and ultraconservative views on all these issues. I warn that we have to learn the lessons of the mother-and-baby homes, forced adoptions and other issues that have impacted on women, as well as the attempts to demonise women and their wider family circle. From the outset, the legislation was intended to cater for all those who have lost. It was to be done with compassion and, most importantly, the certificate scheme should reflect the wishes of those who have experienced that loss. The Minister has delivered on that, so I do not agree with the amendments that attempt to divert from that thrust. On the issue of cost, the Minister has outlined from the outset — he did it at the Committee, and I know that he did it when he introduced the legislation — that the scheme would be done with compassion and that, at the initiation of the scheme, there would not be a charge when someone applies for a baby loss certificate. It was always important that the certificate scheme would sit alongside all the other certificate schemes that the Department has responsibility for.

That is why we are approaching it in the way that we are. It is good to see the Bill at Consideration Stage. I look forward to continuing engagement at Committee and with other Members in the Chamber.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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