Every imported question, contribution and motion, with its classification. Unflagged, uncertain and not-yet-analysed records are all included so the analysis can be checked independently.
Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Thanks for the opportunity to make a winding-up speech on what has been a lively enough debate. As others mentioned, we had a depressing, almost predictable narrative from the same old corners in some parts of the debate. That is for Members across the House to justify to…
Before I came back to the Chamber to finish the debate, I spoke with a group of young people — I think that they are in the Gallery now — from Rockwell College in Tipperary. They are very welcome, and it is great to have them here, but it strikes me as embarrassing that, in 2025, a group of young people from a…
I thank the Minister for giving way. Just on that point, I am sure that DUP Members rubbed their hands with glee when they saw the SDLP amendment. I cannot work out whether the SDLP is being deliberately obtuse or genuinely does not know that the DUP is exercising a veto over the additional funding. If parties refuse…
I thank the Minister for giving way. This is probably a moot point. The Minister will be aware that there is a lot of concern about the fact that many of the North/South bodies' accounts have not been reported in sufficient time, and, indeed, that some of them are, to put it mildly, less than qualified. Is the…
Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on additional funding for North/South bodies. As it is a cross-cutting issue and an alternative funding proposal requires Executive approval, I have pressed, and will continue to press, for it to make it on to the…
The debate up to this point has focused on whether we should accept additional funding from Dublin. I will focus some of my remarks on the money from our Budget that we already spend, and what we get in return. I will take Safefood as the first example. That is a body that we in Northern Ireland fund to the tune of £2…
We have all heard it: at a time when our public services are under immense strain, the public rightly expect the Executive to use every tool and every partnership available to them to protect what matters. That includes cooperation with the Irish Government on funding streams that would directly benefit communities in…
It is no secret that our public finances in the Executive are under severe strain. Every Department is looking for additional money, but it is not easy to come by. We need to look at doing things differently and see where we can establish new sources of funding. We cannot be precious about reviewing funding models and…
I appreciate the Member's giving way. He used the phrase "the primacy of strand one". Will he point me to where that phrase is used in the Northern Ireland Act, the Good Friday Agreement or any associated documents?
As my colleague Diane Forsythe MLA stated, cooperation under the auspices of the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) and its six implementation bodies is predicated on cross-community consent and the safeguards put in place by the Belfast Agreement to ensure that proper accountability exists to the strand-one…
The motion tabled by Sinn Féin is a simple one: it seeks to highlight the frustration that we should all share around the consistent blockage of additional funding for all-island bodies and calls for the changes that are needed to enable the Irish Government to increase their funding allocations at no extra expense to…
Our party notes with interest the remarks made earlier by the Member who proposed the motion and the Member who proposed the amendment that one of the parties on the Executive, to which they both referred, is blocking access to free money that it would be, on appearances, highly suspect for us to turn down. That money…
My colleagues and I have consistently raised the failings of the Belfast Trust in the Chamber and at the Health Committee. We have had the maternity hospital, the children's hospital, the energy centre, the acute mental health inpatient facility and now cardiac surgery, yet the Minister has chosen not to take…
I am astounded by what I have heard today. Minister, I do not want to cast any aspersions on the chair of the trust, but I hope that your meeting with the chair will not be used as an excuse not to release important information into the public domain. My question follows on from the question from the Member for Mid…
I accept the Member's proposition that people are continuously losing trust in the Belfast Trust because of incident after incident and problem after problem being reported. My language underplays the situation: what has been going on is incredible, with, as the Member said, four consultants working from home. I find…
Another story about the Belfast Trust, and another shambles has been detailed to us. Given that the Department and the public purse pick up the cost of the investigations, can procedures not be put in place to escalate such a situation — four consultants at one of the only centres offering such treatment working from…
I am afraid that the Member misunderstood me when I said that I was blissfully unaware. I meant that I was blissfully unaware when I was a patient presenting for a pacemaker and a defibrillator. As the Minister, I am not blissfully unaware. As for the other part of the question, that is something that I will take up…
Minister, you have said in the Chamber today that you are glad that you were "blissfully unaware" of what was happening. That concerns me, because I would like to think that, as Minister, you would be taking the lead, and it is a Minister's job to know exactly what is going on while working with the trusts. I turn to…
The Minister will be aware that while some people are waiting for their surgery, some people have had their surgery but unfortunately are no longer with us. I hope that this provides us with an opportunity to reassure people that their loved one is not deceased because of what was happening in the cardiac surgery…
I empathise with the Member and wish her son-in-law well. Anybody who is waiting for a procedure should be assured that what we are saying about this expert independent report is that, while there are issues of concern, the procedures that are being carried out are still safe. Obviously, however, this colours how…
I completely agree with the Minister's expression. My son-in-law is waiting for open-heart surgery. I am absolutely flabbergasted by the contents of the report that we have heard about today. They will literally have my daughter's heart in their hands when they operate. Is the Minister able to give us any information…
This report has shone an important spotlight on what was clearly a totally unacceptable environment for some Belfast Trust staff. Is the Minister confident that the scale of the problems in this particular service are rare and that, in fact, clinical staff teams in all services across our hospitals normally work…