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Thank you to the Member for securing an Adjournment debate on a very important issue. My colleague Deborah Erskine would have liked to have been here to discuss it. Like the previous contributor, I am a Member for Upper Bann, and the facility caters for many of our constituents, including some from as far away as my…
I begin by thanking Colm Gildernew for bringing this important Adjournment topic to the Assembly, and I also thank the Minister for being here to respond. It is an important issue that touches so many lives but often does not get the prominence that it deserves in public debate. Whilst I am not a Fermanagh/South…
Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for attending the Adjournment debate. It is a really important debate, Minister, and I will give a bit of the background to put it in some context. Woodlawn House is the respite centre for adult learning disability in the Southern Trust. When I first…
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I will endeavour to cover as many Members' comments as I can in five minutes. I had the privilege of visiting the community crisis intervention service in different locations over the past few years, and I had the chance to meet staff at different times. They were absolutely…
I appreciate your comments, Minister, but how will that work in practice? People who present at Altnagelvin Area Hospital's A&E already wait three times as long. I appreciate that you are talking about emergency departments and emergency response, but that simply is not practical in Altnagelvin Area Hospital. I would…
I thank the Minister for giving way. Minister, you said that the Department did not remove funds from the core grant scheme. The core grant scheme had funding of £3·6 million a year when it was set up, but that was then halved to £1·8 million a year. Many groups and services that deliver vital services across Northern…
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, and thanks to everybody who spoke in the debate. Let me be very clear that I very much regret what has happened to the community crisis intervention service. As has been pointed out, it has helped over 3,400 people through one-to-one interventions since 2021. Before turning…
There is no doubt that the closure of Extern's community crisis intervention service will leave a glaring hole in provision in the north-west. I share the frustration of other Members at its closure, but, without immediate action, it will sadly not be the last. It opened in 2019 as a pilot project under the umbrella…
As others in the Chamber have done, I rise to express my disappointment at the closure of another community service. While this is specific to Londonderry and the north-west, and, no doubt, will be gravely missed in those areas, it is a symptom of a greater problem across Northern Ireland, where community mental…
There is so much that I want to say on this, but the most important statistic is this: 3,500 people were helped in three and a half years. When Councillor Sandra Duffy and I met Extern representatives in July, they said something that I hear every week, every day and every month as chair of the all-party group on…
I am pleased to contribute to this important debate. I begin by recognising the deeply held commitment across the Chamber to improving mental health outcomes for our citizens. As the Minister said in the media only yesterday, there is now, thankfully, a much greater awareness and understanding of mental health in the…
The closure of Extern's community crisis intervention service in Foyle is another symptom of a system that is entrenched in reactive policymaking, lurching from crisis to crisis without ever addressing the deeper issues. The services that Mark mentioned, many of them out of hours, represent many people who have been…
Thanks to the Members for tabling this motion. We are all aware, some painfully so, that Northern Ireland continues to face a mental health crisis of unprecedented scale. Our region continues to suffer from disproportionately high rates of suicide, self-harm and depression, worsened by poverty, social isolation and…
"Person-centred", "cost-effectiveness" and "life-saving" are just some of the terms that local people and Extern staff have used to describe the community crisis intervention centre in Derry. I thank the signatories to the motion and emphasise my support, and that of my party, for urgent, equitable investment in…
I beg to move Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Those of us who have experienced the heartbreak of suicide know that it never leaves you, with sleepless nights spent wondering what more you could have done, the guilt that gnaws away, the lives shattered and the families who are changed forever. We…
I thank my colleague for giving way. Recent statistics from the Trussell Trust highlighted that, in 2024, 520,000 people across Northern Ireland, 130,000 of whom were children, lived in food-insecure households. That is 20,000 more children than in 2022. Does the Member agree that child poverty in Northern Ireland has…
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to wind up the debate on this important motion. With one in five of our children living in absolute poverty, we are failing not just a statistic but an entire generation of young people in Northern Ireland. The latest Northern Ireland poverty and income…
Minister, do you accept that the draft strategy that you presented to the Executive was greatly reduced from the draft that Deirdre Hargey had left on the desk in your Department when you took office?
I thank the Minister for giving way. Minister, we all know that this will take collective responsibility from the Executive. We are not foolish in that regard. Did the First Minister agree with you at the Executive prior to the draft strategy being published and then walk backwards after the public backlash happened?
The Minister has accused me of not knowing the cost. In the past couple of speeches, the Minister and his party colleague have given four different costs between them.