Debate contribution: Waste and Inefficiency in Government

Debate contribution by Mr Eóin Tennyson on 23 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Eóin Tennyson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

23 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Waste and Inefficiency in Government

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5465939

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to respond to the motion about the need to tackle waste and inefficiency in government. Whilst the proposer's remarks at times strayed into the Donald Trump playbook, with a bit of an imitation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) policies from across the water, the motion is useful in exposing a breathtaking lack of self-awareness from the DUP. In the motion, the DUP tells us that the Audit Office has criticised the delivery of major capital projects, but the DUP makes no mention of the Education Minister's handling of the Strule Shared Education Campus, which, on his watch, is set to overrun by £220 million. It "expresses alarm" at the number of arm's-length bodies but makes no mention of the same Minister's proposal for a new arm's-length management body for controlled schools rather than consolidating the existing bodies. It criticises spend on legal costs, but there is no mention of the £50,000 of legal costs associated with the unlawful decision to halt Windsor framework checks or the £130,000 in costs incurred in appealing a decision on the need for inclusive RE in schools. That is before we even look at the costs associated with the Communities Minister's action against his Executive colleagues in relation to the Irish language. The DUP tells us that it is concerned about the costs associated with hospitality, but there is no mention of the deputy First Minister's junket to Wimbledon to the tune of £1,000 on the taxpayers' dime; the Communities Minister's £40,000 trip to the United States, which included first-class flights; or the £13,000 St Patrick's Day breakfast. Ministers have found £250,000 for magnetic phone pouches; £135,000 for Christmas lights; and £5,500 for a genealogy study of JD Vance simply to conclude that he has no Ulster-Scots heritage.

I will, briefly.

No, we are not against it; we are against profligate spending associated with those trips. Alliance Party representatives have engaged in international travel to represent Northern Ireland's interests where we feel that that is appropriate. None of them flew business class. Other Members should take note and reflect on that when they spend public money. That is all before we look at the £90 million in forgone tax revenues for the UK annually as a direct result of Brexit; the tens of millions of pounds of lost EU funding; the lost economic opportunities as a result of repeated collapses of these institutions; and the money that went up in smoke as a direct consequence of the "cash for ash" renewable heat incentive scheme that a DUP Minister launched without cost controls. Yet, DUP Members have come to the Chamber and told us that the reason that the Executive has no money is trans people: catch yourselves on. That speaks to an idea that people in Northern Ireland are so foolish that they will not see through a blatant attempt to fight a culture war and distract from the profligate and wasteful spending of successive DUP Ministers. I agree with the thrust of the motion when it says that we need to tackle waste and inefficiency and prioritise spending where it matters most, but Members do not need a non-binding motion in the Assembly for that. Those who tabled the motion simply need a mirror. All parties need to get serious about efficiency; transforming our public services; delivering on the ambition of the Bengoa review and the independent review of education; and tackling the scandalous cost of duplication and division in our society. We need — some of these issues have been mentioned in the debate — a properly baselined funding formula to deliver more and better public services; an enhanced transformation fund to build on the progress that has been made under the public-sector transformation board; and, as Alliance has consistently called for, real effort and energy towards commissioning an independent review of the cost of division in our society so that we can finally bring those costs down and fund public services rather than segregation. All of the conversation about reform and transformation in public services comes back to reform and transformation of these institutions. In 2019, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) estimated that the collapse of the Assembly at that time had cost Northern Ireland almost £1 billion. The DUP's response was to collapse it again a few years later. We need stability to underpin our society, our economy and the long-term reform of our public services that is so desperately needed. I will not support the DUP motion, which is a crass attempt at a culture war, but I will support the Sinn Féin amendment, which is a much more genuine attempt to start to deal with some of the issues.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:08 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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