Debate contribution: Cost-of-living Crisis

Debate contribution by Ms Emma Sheerin on 21 April 2026.

MLA

Ms Emma Sheerin

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

21 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Cost-of-living Crisis

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5497613

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It is important that we are having a conversation about an issue that is affecting all our constituents and every community across the North. As others have outlined, however, it is regrettable that the motion takes the approach that it does, mixing up the problem with the solution. Like others, I was confused by the statements that were made by the Member for South Belfast at the beginning of the debate. It is regrettable that the desire to be party political has eclipsed the objective to help the people whom we all represent. This conversation goes to the very heart of why I got involved in politics and why I am a political activist. This is a crisis not of our making, and whilst we may wish that things were different — it is my life's work to make things different for us all here — we do not have the powers in this place to effect the change that we would like to. War is a political choice, and helping people is a political choice. We talk often about the Big C, but colonialism and capitalism are the two cancers that discriminate. They discriminate against working people and the people who suffer deprivation most in society. We have America and Israel illegally invading Iran and killing innocent people across the world, and we have working people here in Ireland suffering directly as a result. It is a pity that our message to the British Government, who, at this time, are planning to increase their defence spending and increase the millions and billions of funds that they put into their war machine, instead of being a clear and united voice coming from every party in the Chamber and every representative of the people of the North of Ireland saying that they need to act decisively, now, to undo some of the damage that they have done through the wars in which they have been complicit, is a completely mixed message from a party that, not so long ago, was in the Executive. Whilst the Member correctly articulated that it is the UK Government, as he calls them, who have the power to change things here and are at fault for the funding situation that we find ourselves in, he used the same old line: "Sinn Féin wants to blame the Brits".

I absolutely think that it is legitimate, and I welcome your presence here. My problem is that you are completely mixing the message. You have absolutely every right to call us out on things that we do not do right. Nobody in any Executive party would suggest that everything that is done here in the North is perfect. It is a five-party coalition of people who are diametrically opposed in ideology. There will be issues that we do not agree on, and that is right and proper. That is a normality of political systems across the world. My frustration is that we agree on an awful lot. I made that point earlier to the deputy leader of the Alliance Party. We are aligned on a lot of these issues. We share a position. We disagree with the genocide in Gaza. We disagree with the murder and killing of innocents. We disagree with the fact that the Minister for Communities was over clinking glasses with the very people who have caused this crisis and was then throwing shots at one of our Ministers, who was trying to deliver a package at the same time. Instead of having tit-for-tat and a narrative of "Oh, they can't agree" — we do not agree on lots of things — we should all be trying to work together to serve the people whom we all represent. I wish that, instead of being party political, bickering and trying to point fingers and blame, we could all come out of here with one, united message, which is that the British Government have the funds to help the people whom we all represent. They have the power to temporarily cut fuel duty. They have the power to support people on the ground: the domiciliary care workers, the upland farmers, the people on our roads and the people who deliver our food, who are the people whom we are all here to serve. I would like to see us all doing that, united, instead of getting into the weeds and being unable to resist the opportunity to take a potshot where it is completely unnecessary. We would all come out of here an awful lot better if we spoke with one, united voice and called collectively on the British Government to act now. They have the power to do so, and we should demand that they do.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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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