Debate contribution: Holding Ministers to Account

Debate contribution by Ms Carál Ní Chuilín on 10 November 2025.

MLA

Ms Carál Ní Chuilín

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

10 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Holding Ministers to Account

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5225077

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The clue is in the title: Assembly and Executive Reform Committee. That is about reform across the board. Irrespective of that, I still do not understand why the amendment cannot be supported. I genuinely cannot, because it includes what people in the SDLP and the Alliance Party have said at the Committee. Yet, when they step in here, it is something completely different. I am sceptical about why they cannot support the amendment. There is absolutely no doubt that confidence among any members of the public watching or listening to this place, particularly after today, will be at an all-time low. In fact, I was speaking to a group of people from across the community at a good relations event last week about acts of remembrance, talking about the need to move on and talking about citizens' assemblies. They are good, because people use them as an opportunity to tell you what they think. They do not miss you and hit the wall, and they are honest and productive. However, the toxicity in this place is not down to Ministers; it is down to people who speak from these Benches, as well as some of the Ministers. What we saw two weeks ago was Members going on a genocide junket. That is the best way that I can describe it. One of them was a Minister, and that has caused people from across the board to ask, "Where is the bar? Is the bar now so low?". It has caused public damage. The Assembly and Executive Review Committee can be as good or as bad as we want it to be, but there needs to be an outcome. I have been here since 2007, and I have seen Ministers agree to do things in Programmes for Government and then walk away. One of the best things was the Líofa programme. It was accepted by the Executive, and then Paul Givan decided to pull the bursary for working-class kids who could not afford to go to the Gaeltacht. People across the board commented on that. We had legislation as a result of RHI. I am long enough here to say that we should have had it as a result of Red Sky, and we go on and we go on. I do not want to be associated with any allegations like that, and I think that most people here are the same. I look forward to the day when it does not matter who brings proposals forward: it is what we do with them and how we make a difference. Does this place need reform? Yes, it does. It is also about attitudinal reform and about people who, frankly, use debates such as this to be hurtful, offensive, misogynistic, sectarian, racist, homophobic and Islamophobic and to be lacking in equality and respect. The reasons why the institutions came down and were under threat were basically about a lack of respect, a denial of equality and allegations at the heart of government, so let us be honest about that. I still do not understand — I am willing to take an intervention — why anyone cannot accept the amendment.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you. I gave you an opportunity to do that, Michelle, on the basis that I heard what you had to say eloquently at the AERC. That is why I do not understand. I am not agreeing with Phillip Brett — I understand why Matthew tabled the motion — but I do not understand why the amendment will not be accepted. There is part of this that makes me think that this is just stroke politics for the sake of it. This was an opportunity to point out what we all need to do collectively and to put it up to us all, but, no, that has not happened. What has been put up to one another, frankly, is insult and offence. Does it need reformed? Do we need to be reformed? Absolutely. Does the way people speak to each other in this place need to be reformed? Absolutely. However, you cannot point the finger at anyone else, particularly in the Assembly and Executive Review Committee, when you have an opportunity in this place to bring forward something, non-binding as it is, and do not do it. So pardon me for being a bit cynical about the lack of consistency when it comes to reform across this place.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:43 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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