Debate contribution: British-Irish Council: Forty-fourth Summit

Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on 13 January 2026.

MLA

Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

13 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

British-Irish Council: Forty-fourth Summit

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5315912

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for his question and, indeed, for highlighting the origin of that funding. When I look back at the 2017-19 Parliament, I recall many challenges and memories, both good and bad, but I am deeply proud that the DUP negotiated hard through the confidence-and-supply deal to secure the city and growth deals for Northern Ireland for the first time. It had been talked about for some time for Northern Ireland. We had not been able to get it over the line with the UK Government, but, through hard negotiation, we secured agreement not just of the Belfast city and growth deal but of multiple deals.

I always find that, when I reference that, there is a sense of discomfort from some other parties, but the reality is that we live in a political world where many people try to claim the success of everything despite playing no part in it. On this one, we were absolutely responsible — 100%, on the record — for securing the city and growth deals, and I am proud of that because we are seeing the results of that in the legacy projects. Studio Ulster is one of those projects. I am pleased that, in my constituency of Lagan Valley, we were able just yesterday to secure planning permission for a £50 million-plus investment in Royal Hillsborough, and that is a direct result of the DUP's confidence-and-supply agreement. Studio Ulster is a world-class facility, and it is something we should be deeply proud of. There is a real opportunity. If we are developing something that is on the cutting edge of technology, we also need to be acutely aware that it moves on rapidly. We have a window where the facility is world-leading, and we need to take the opportunity in the next number of weeks, months and years to make sure that we seize the opportunity presented by a world-leading facility to secure the contracts now, before other places catch up in two, three or four years' time. It is an amazing facility, and I encourage everybody thinking about investing to come and look at it, and we are more than happy to facilitate visits from investment groups to Northern Ireland to see what we have to offer in that space.

I thank the Member for his question. Of course, the ideal is that everyone collaborates. I note that, shortly after the British-Irish Council, the Irish Government announced a tax incentive to try to draw screen productions to the Republic of Ireland, and we do not have that tool in Northern Ireland. Indeed, I urged the Prime Minister to look at some of those tax-reduction incentives to encourage film and high-end TV production not just in the UK as a whole but regionally. London and the south-east of England attract a lot of high-end TV production in comparison with the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland’s achievement of attracting Game of Thrones was a good example of how, if other regions attract such productions, there is a huge benefit for them. That point was backed up by the Welsh, Scottish and other Governments. The UK Government should look at a differential tax incentive package to encourage investment outside London, particularly for high-end TV work, and they should look at the Republic of Ireland's experience and success in using tax incentive packages to attract such international investments to their jurisdiction.

While I have mentioned Studio Ulster quite a bit, I also want to recognise the other excellent studios, including those that the Member mentioned — Titanic Studios and Loop Studios in his constituency — which do incredible work and are also expanding, and that is good to see.

Again, the Member is absolutely right. As highlighted, while the focus was on the creative industries, there were opportunities to have bilateral discussions directly with the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and other key members of the UK Government and to work with our colleagues — the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland, and others — in support of what we are trying to do. The issue that the Member referenced in relation to veterinary medicines is particular to Northern Ireland. It is something that I have consistently raised at every single meeting with the Prime Minister; Nick Thomas-Symonds, who is the lead in relation to the EU-UK negotiations; the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; and others. Unfortunately, I feel that there was a slowness in taking those issues into account, but I am on record as raising it at every single opportunity. We had the opportunity of direct engagement with Nick Thomas-Symonds a couple of months ago, and I raised with him the many emails that I had received from pet owners, particularly in relation to the company-to-consumer supply chain. At that meeting, he asked me to forward some of that information, so I put out a call on social media for people who had received those emails to forward them to me to evidence the concerns on the issues, and many people did that. I forwarded those emails to Nick Thomas-Symonds, and he responded to me. The UK Government have taken a series of actions on the back of that, but they are not sufficient. They are better than they were, but they are not sufficient. I have urged the UK Government to address that issue fundamentally, and I took the opportunity at the British-Irish Council to raise directly with the Prime Minister the significant concerns and problems that the continued lack of EU-UK agreement on veterinary medicines for Northern Ireland is creating. The UK Government need to address this urgently. The current arrangement should only be a transitional arrangement pending a full and substantive agreement with the European Union to sort out the issue and to ensure that consumers and vets here in Northern Ireland are able to fully access all GB veterinary medicines.

I thank the Member for his important and timely question. That is the task for the Executive. That is the challenge that we all have: to try to secure that agreement and get a multi-year Budget. There is a great opportunity here. As I have indicated, that opportunity is to build the foundations for growth, build strong foundations for good public services for everyone and make sure that we set down the foundations that we need to address those long-standing issues, should those be in relation to the lack of capital investment for special educational need facilities, giving the Communities Minister sufficient money to be able to build social houses to meet the target as set out in the Programme for Government, giving the Education Minister enough money to ensure teacher pay parity and make sure that our young people get the education that they deserve, or addressing the capital issues in water and sewerage infrastructure. We need a credible plan that addresses and resolves those issues within a credible time frame. Those are all key. There is an opportunity do that, and I urge the Finance Minister to work with colleagues to seize that opportunity, and not just with the additional money that is there. We know that the additional money is not going to be sufficient. That efficiency needs to be driven right across government to make sure that we reprioritise that money to where it needs to be in order to build a stronger, better Northern Ireland and provide better public services for everybody.

1,245 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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