Debate contribution: Day Centre Transport Services: East Belfast
Debate contribution by Mr Peter McReynolds on .
- MLA
- Mr Peter McReynolds
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 3 March 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Day Centre Transport Services: East Belfast
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5435137
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will speak as an MLA for East Belfast. I thank my constituency colleague for securing the debate and welcome her back to the Assembly after a bout of illness last week. Since becoming an MLA, I have enjoyed Adjournment debates because they bring us together as MLAs for our constituencies. While we may disagree politically on various issues, we can collectively use our voice as East Belfast MLAs to effect change for the people whom we are elected to represent. I thank David and Andy for joining us. I also thank the Minister for being present to hear about what I consider to be a live issue. As the Member who secured the debate articulated, day centres such as Edgcumbe are vital to our community. Edgcumbe is the only day centre for adults with learning disabilities in East Belfast. It works with those aged 19 and older, with the oldest users being in their 80s. Such centres are essential to ensuring that there are opportunities and support for those in our community with additional needs. They do that by providing opportunities to take part in activities and spaces in which to socialise, thereby building a community and promoting independence while providing necessary respite for families and carers. Transportation is crucial to facilitating access to that, as we have just heard. You can imagine my surprise, Mr Deputy Speaker, when I raised the matter with the Chair of the Education Committee yesterday, only to be advised that he had heard rumblings of discontent — that drivers were leaving for better terms and conditions and pay in the education sector. That development manifests itself in limits on access for service users, interruption to routines, impacts on care arrangements and pressure on families to find alternative transport. The issue around transport for day-care facilities is not unique to East Belfast, but it is important. For those with complex needs, consistent and reliable transport is vital, because finding alternative transport that meets their needs is not simple. The crux of the issue is that the hiring and retention of drivers for day-centre buses has become an urgent issue, with many drivers leaving their roles in transport services for day centres to work elsewhere for better pay. You cannot fault them for seeking other opportunities in the context of a cost-of-living crisis. Ms Bunting articulately set out the issues. I thank her for raising the issue today. I welcome the opportunity to raise it with the Minister, and I look forward to hearing his response to ensure that those seeking to access transport to day centres are not impacted on by driver shortages.
439 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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