Debate contribution: Cost-of-living Crisis

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 21 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

21 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Cost-of-living Crisis

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5497515

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

I have to say that it is shameful that, when we are having the first detailed, substantive and dedicated debate on the cost-of-living crisis created by the issues in the Middle East, there is such paltry participation from Executive parties. Some Executive parties have only one or two Members in the Chamber. In a month in which the public are losing trust in this institution and can see Members getting a large pay rise, there will be outrage at the pathetic attendance by Members of Executive parties at today's debate. Nevertheless, the Opposition are here to put forward the case that the people want to be made. In exactly one week, the conflict in Iran will be two months old. We do not yet know what the conclusion of that war will be, but most serious people agree that the decision of Trump's America and Netanyahu's Israel to begin an aerial bombing campaign without a clear plan is one of the most idiotic and catastrophic military fiascos of the century. It is not just idiotic but immoral and illegal. It includes the killing of hundreds of schoolgirls in Minab and the obscene, genocidal threats of the madman Trump to wipe out an entire civilisation. Meanwhile, the Israeli Government have added to the list of their atrocities committed in Gaza more war crimes in south Lebanon.

Ordinary people in the North and everywhere have been left feeling helpless and powerless to respond to the insanity and immorality unfolding in the Middle East. Given the huge increase in tourism in the Gulf States and migration there for work, many families have been directly touched, because their relatives have found themselves sheltering from missiles. As we know — it is why we are having the debate — that insanity has had an impact on the costs that face everyday people, including ordinary workers getting to their jobs and families filling their oil tanks. The spike in international oil prices from between $60 and $70 a barrel to well over $100 has been seen on every forecourt in the country; indeed, on the first Monday after the strikes started, I saw the price rise between my drives to and from Stormont. One might reasonably ask why the price rises were felt from the Strait of Hormuz to Belfast forecourts, but that is a debate for another day. The price of home heating oil doubled and has remained high. It has now been £1,000 for 900 litres for more than a month. That spike happened faster and has already reached a higher peak than that created by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. It is not just households. Small businesses and farmers are, as we know, particularly exposed to increases in the cost of diesel and fertiliser. Community groups, churches and sports groups all will face extraordinary pressures from the price rises. Listing those pressures is not going to do people any good. What they want to know from those whom they elect is what is being done to support them. They know that no one can predict Trump's actions or control energy markets, but, given how remote we are from the concerns of decision-makers in London — we all know that; it is repeated many times by Members in the Chamber — they had a right to expect leadership and responsibility from the Executive. However, the answer from the Northern Ireland Executive for weeks on end has been next to nothing. It has been non-existent. Computer says no. Talk to the hand, or perhaps talk to London. It has been, quite simply, a complete abdication of responsibility. To be clear, the Executive do not have limitless financial firepower to deal with the consequences. We in the Opposition have never said otherwise. The responsibility for, for example, fuel duty obviously rests with the British Government, not the Executive, but that cannot be an excuse for the complete abdication of responsibility, which is what we have seen from the Executive.

Not yet, but I will at some point. Let me offer this as an example. Trump and Netanyahu began bombing Iran on 28 February. Prices spiked immediately, and, as I said, they fed through to forecourts and kerosene suppliers immediately. When was the first official statement from the Executive Office? It was Friday week ago, on 10 April. The First Minister and deputy First Minister's statement, which called on the UK Government to take action, said that:

“Given the scale and immediacy of this crisis, we have asked the Prime Minister to act decisively and without delay.”

They have a brass neck. It took the First Minister and the deputy First Minister more than five weeks to say a thing at the centre of devolved government. They are hardly well placed to talk about being decisive and acting without delay. To repeat, it is not wrong for the Executive to say that they want and need more help from the UK Government; in fact, it is a core part of devolved government. That is how the highly centralised UK state, which, by the way, I obviously aspire not to be a part of, is set up, whether we like it or not. However, that does not stop the Executive devoting maximum resource to planning their response. This is a point that I will come back to: if you believe that the UK Government are inept or incompetent or simply do not prioritise the people of the North — we in the SDLP agree with that — that does not exempt the Executive from doing their work; it makes it more important that they do their work. It makes it more important that they speak with one voice. It makes it more important that they take responsibility, not less. If the Labour Government and Starmer — a master of not taking responsibility, as we have found out in recent days — are not taking responsibility for the people of Northern Ireland, the people in the Assembly and the Executive had better damn well do so. Where were the urgent summits with consumer groups, trade unions, agriculture and business representative bodies? Where are the communications with petrol wholesalers and retailers to warn against profiteering? Perhaps they happened, but I did not see them. We were not told about them. There were not reams of statements in the House about it. Where was the urgency in designing and announcing a scheme to spend the £17 million, which, I agree, is not enough, to support families with home heating oil? The priority for the main Executive parties was not taking responsibility or leading; it was ensuring that someone else got the blame for not acting. Do not get me wrong: the UK Government needed to be pressurised, but the Executive needed to take responsibility rather than simply shifting blame. Rather than working together for the common good, as the Pledge of Office requires of them and all of us, and taking collective responsibility for helping people, the DUP was clear about where blame lay for the lack of help: it was the Shinners. Of course, Sinn Féin was equally clear that it was the Brits.

Is it any wonder that so many of our people hold our devolved politics in such contempt when, at a time of real crisis in their lives, their locally devolved elected Government waste weeks in pointless rows and blame shifting, rather than working together to help them? I will give way briefly.

It is an intervention, not a speech. We welcome the Communities Minister's making progress. I am about to come on to that. It took more than a month. That is not gaslighting; it is holding the Executive to account. Take some responsibility. You have executive power. You ask people to vote for you. Your two parties ask people to vote for them. Do not shirk responsibility. We are the Opposition; it is our job to hold you to account. Of course, the leaderless, rudderless UK Government made matters worse with their slow response and contradictory utterances. It was utterly unhelpful for the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State to put out information that was unhelpful and contradictory. To be absolutely clear, there are Ministers and parties here who are determined to shift responsibility —.

I will not get any more time, so I am afraid that I cannot take loads of interventions. I am normally generous. They are determined to shift responsibility for anything and everything on to a hapless and failing UK Government. Bad decisions or no decisions do not absolve London or the Executive from blame for doing nothing. As I said, they make it even more important that there is strong local leadership. As I said to Deborah Erskine — I should have welcomed her back to the Chamber in slightly less tense circumstances than this; I hope that she and her baby are well — it is welcome that the Executive made a commitment to match-fund the original allocation of the scheme that was announced last week. It begs the question of why it was not announced weeks ago. That is what this is all about. Why was it not announced weeks ago? If the Executive can find £19 million to match-fund the home heating oil scheme, why could they not find a smaller amount to help the charities failed by the local growth fund? Again, that is connected to the irresponsibility of the UK Government. More broadly, it illustrates a key point, one that we keep returning to about our politics: if Ministers act with shared purpose and take responsibility, they can get things done. I do not criticise the Executive for making that announcement; I do not say that they have limitless power or limitless finances. I say, "Take responsibility". People sent us here — they sent the two big parties in particular — to lead in government. Take responsibility, collectively. Do not simply profit from having Punch and Judy fights with each other and shifting blame, meaning that the public are gaslit — I use a word that was used before. The lack of responsibility-taking is absolutely shameful. It does not have to be like this. At a time when the public are struggling, it behoves all of us to take responsibility locally, even if the UK Government are not delivering — especially if the UK Government are not delivering. We need to show people not only that these institutions can work but that politics can work. There are dark actors on this island and in this society who are trying to turn people away from democratic politics. Those of us who believe in democracy, power-sharing and the institutions need to prove that they can work. I say this to the public: they can work; do not lose hope. It behoves all of us to take responsibility —

— rather than shift blame.

1,821 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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

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