Debate contribution: Ireland and Northern Ireland — A Joint Census Publication 2021-2022

Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on 24 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Doug Beattie MC

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

24 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Ireland and Northern Ireland — A Joint Census Publication 2021-2022

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5254538

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I will start by apologising for missing the very start of the debate and the moving of the motion and the contribution from Sinn Féin. It was just tardiness on my part. If I can be honest about it, having read the initial motion on the census, I genuinely struggled to see the point of it. Indeed, the SDLP amendment added some flesh to the bones of the motion, as did the contribution from Mr O'Toole, including an understanding of the east-west dimension, which I will mention. There is a bit of casual Brit-bashing in the middle of the motion, as if the whole issue of population decline were due to the famine. It was a time of great hardship, when all communities suffered, and those who represented these islands did not do their best to safeguard the people in Ireland. It is a period to be remembered and for the suffering to be understood, not minimised. I think that the motion minimises it, in truth. However, you can see from our amendment that the population of Ireland shrank even lower than the post-famine levels 100 years later: who or what was to blame for that? Research will tell you that it was due to mass migration in the 1950s. The population dropped to its lowest level ever in 1961. It was nothing to do with the famine. The migration was due to economic stagnation, lack of jobs in Ireland, the economic boom in post-war Great Britain and increased opportunities in the US and Canada. The population in Northern Ireland dropped as well, as the linen business and the shipyards contracted and people left the island to find work. The reality is that population ebbs and flows for many reasons, in the same way as it grew due to the Celtic tiger, for example, but it will drop for other reasons. I am not sure that looking back 150 years is helpful. It is lazy just to say that it was due to the famine.

The movement of citizens on both sides of the border, and across the border, is positive for me and for everybody who lives and works on this island; nobody should see it as otherwise. Two jurisdictions, one island. It does not hamper the free movement of individuals each way, and nor does it hamper movement across all these islands.

Yes.

That will hamper our tourism, and we have talked about that. However, the Member has made a fair point, and it is a point that gets kicked up. It is bad decision-making, as far as I am concerned. There is a real positive from the common travel area, and it is something that we should all look at and support. The real positive in these British Isles is the trade with the United Kingdom, the largest single export market for Ireland, and Ireland is one of the UK's top six export destinations. I know that some will not like me calling it the British Isles, and I get that, but I have not moved to the Trumpian way of renaming places. It is still the Gulf of Mexico to me, not the Gulf of America, and we still live in the British Isles. The interchangeable agri-food industry, pharmaceuticals and tech are embedded in each other's supply chains, but, of course, Brexit has hampered that. We stood up against Brexit. We did not support it — it was a bad idea — but that is democracy for you, and we have to work through it. However, half a million Irish-born individuals now live in Great Britain. Over 100,000 British people live in the Irish Republic. It makes me wonder why they ever left the Union in the first place. Can we learn from that? Absolutely. Should we learn from it? Yes, of course. These islands are in an incredible position, given their geographical and, in large parts, common economic and cultural alignment. Ireland also benefits from the UK on defence and security, and it is not given begrudgingly; we work together right across these islands. It helps the United Kingdom to look after the western approaches and add a bit of support to Ireland's defence and security. It is not done selfishly; it benefits the UK, and we all need to understand that. On the SDLP amendment, sure: population growth, poor reported health outcomes and a significantly higher burden of unpaid care are all factual, but they are a snapshot in time. It was not like that 15 years ago; it may not be like that in 15 years. We need to keep working across these islands, east and west, north and south. Is it all the Executive's fault? If you want to go down the line of saying that everything that is wrong with this place is the Executive's fault, that did not just happen yesterday. That has been happening over many years, and the SDLP was part of the Executive for many years, so it cannot wash its hands and say it is all our fault and not take any responsibility. The issues that affect us on this island — north and south, east and west — whether you call yourself British or Irish, are caused by many things, including the geopolitical situation. World events, such as COVID and the collapse of our Government, have a real impact on this place. There are many reasons why Northern Ireland is in this situation, and there are many reasons why the Republic of Ireland is having a boom, but it never stays like that, because these things ebb and flow. The census is one great snapshot in time, but it does not give us all the answers; we need to keep working at it. I am happy to learn from the census data and work together to come up with something that is good for Northern Ireland to make it a better place for all its people, to allow the free movement, north and south, east and west. We must remember that, on a daily and weekly basis, about 6,000 people go from the island of Ireland to Great Britain, and that is the beauty of the common travel area that we have on these islands where we all live. All that we have to do now is harness that information and find out what is best for our people. For us, of course, when we look at it constitutionally, we want to stay in the United Kingdom. I wish that the Twenty-six would join us, but I understand that they do not want to, and that is fine. We can, however, look forward, in order to get through the harder times, to better times on the horizon.

1,128 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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