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Minister, is it important to defend the principle of the right to peaceful protest, including that of people on the Garvaghy Road, given what may happen in the coming days and weeks? Is that an important principle to defend?
Thank you, Minister. I heard you — if you did not say it, I will take it back — compare a legal protest about racism to the Garvaghy Road. If you did not make that comparison —.
First and foremost, I made no comparison between race riots and what happened on the Garvaghy Road. The Member needs to take that back. What I said was that there were comparable costs from mutual aid. That is what I said. I did not compare the two scenarios, and I do not appreciate the Member's trying to misrepresent…
If my first answer was unacceptable, that will come as a surprise to no one, because nothing ever seems to be acceptable to Mr Burrows. It also appears that, despite what he says, Mr Burrows has no concept of working in a prison environment. Prisons are often volatile and challenging places in which a whole mix of…
That answer is really not acceptable. For nearly a decade, prison officers in this country have had to breathe in the second-hand smoke of prisoners because we do not have the backbone to ban smoking in cells and put prison officers' lungs ahead of the prisoners. That is wrong. What is the excuse for that, Minister?
There are a number of reasons. We have been looking at and working on that for some time. It is certainly my desire that we would be in a position to be able to end smoking in prisons. We are working at the moment with the health service and the Public Health Agency (PHA) on a proof of concept around allowing people…
First and foremost, it has not been difficult for me to put it on the record. I put it on the record before what happened at Drumcree. I put it on the record in the immediate aftermath, twice in front of cameras yesterday and again in the Chamber today, so if the Member has not heard it, it is not because I have not…
It is good to get the Minister to put that on the record — I thank her for doing that — because sometimes it is difficult to get that done. Does she have plans for discussions with the Chief Constable with regard to that serious breach of the law?
There is a tendency to try to misrepresent what I say. I wondered how long it would be before all of this was the Alliance Party's fault. It has not taken long. First and foremost, it is not my role in the House to adjudicate on whether Ministers are in breach of the ministerial code. There are authorities that are…
Five million pounds is what it is. People are aware of the implications that that will have on a justice system that is looking down the barrel of an overspend of over £100 million this year, just to stand still. Without wishing to advertise a particular supermarket, "Every little helps". That £5 million could be…
Thank you for that, Minister. Will you elaborate on what additional resources and policing that £5 million could have gone towards in your Department, where there are already cutbacks, rather than being diverted to deal with the implications of the Orange Order's attempted parade down the Garvaghy Road?
To be clear, I did not attribute blame to anyone for the fact that we needed additional feet on the ground on the Garvaghy Road. The truth is that police were there and needed mutual aid and assistance simply because there was a potential threat to order and life. They had no choice but to call on that additional…
Reducing avoidable delay in the justice system remains a priority for my Department and Justice partners, particularly where cases involve children and young people. Timely progression supports rehabilitation for young people who offend and helps to minimise uncertainty and further trauma for child victims and…
That is an interesting question, and I thank the former Health Minister for asking it, because I know that vicarious trauma has also affected his former Department. I do not think that a baseline assessment of staff has been conducted, but it is something that we are aware of and that we may well come to in time. At…
Without doubt, it is important that we invest earlier. We know from the research conducted by the tackling paramilitarism and organised crime programme that numbers of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are higher in Northern Ireland than in other regions and that they have significant consequences for the life…
Does the Minister agree that implementing trauma-informed practices is important in reducing reoffending and has to be embedded at an early point and not applied inconsistently? Does that mean that there should be investment in earlier trauma-informed approaches?
A Justice-wide group has been running since June 2021 to support a more strategic approach to trauma-informed practice across the justice system. Included on that group is representation from the Probation Board, the Youth Justice Agency, the police, the Prison Service, the core Department, the Safeguarding Board and…
As lead Minister for the Executive programme on paramilitarism and organised crime, which has invested over £1·5 million to support the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland in embedding trauma-informed practice across sectors, I fully support the adoption of trauma-informed approaches in my Department and across…
Absolutely. I mentioned that one because it was the first community asset transfer that the Executive managed to do. Oddly, it was from Justice, which is not always recognised as contributing something so iconic to the community. The adequacy of our estate is a challenge, but that does not mean that those buildings…
Minister, I have seen in my constituency the huge success of the Court House in Bangor, following a community asset transfer from your Department. Could other areas, such as Limavady, have the same opportunities for arts and culture hubs or other community assets in their towns as Bangor has had?