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Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Members, Chairs and Deputy Chairs who contributed to the Second Stage debate on the Budget Bill. It is very useful for me, as Finance Minister, to hear the views of the respective Committees and of Members on the important financial and economic issues…
I begin by focusing the attention of the House on the figure of £31,041,393,000 in clause 1(2). Yes, it is not quite the £57 trillion that we were promised yesterday in the Estimates but, even so, it is a generous amount of money. I remind the House that none of that money is raised by the Assembly. The finances that…
First, I welcome the Minister to his new role. I am sure that he is delighted that I will not be haranguing him about landslides any more. I wish him well in his new role. As I am a member of the Communities Committee, I will focus my remarks on the Department for Communities, and that will be the crux of my…
I record my sincere thanks to the Department of Finance Budget officials who regularly and comprehensively brief our Finance Committee on departmental finance and the wider Budget process. They do an excellent job, and we on the Finance Committee want to support their good work and ensure that other Committees are…
At the outset, I welcome John O'Dowd to his new ministerial position, and I thank Caoimhe Archibald for her service to the Department of Finance. We all know that we are not short on challenges in Northern Ireland. Years of stop-start government and mismanagement from Westminster mean that we face a difficult…
The independent Fiscal Council made clear that for us to deliver health and social care services on a par with England would require our budget to go up to £104 to £107 for every £100 spent by NHS England. In fact, the Appleby report said that, if we were to include social care, we would need £109 for every £100 that…
I thank the Minister for his answer and the steps that have been taken. When does he think that Northern Ireland can align with NHS England standards, where children newly added to the waiting list are operated on within four to six months?
I thank the Member. There have been a number of initiatives. Consultants have been validating the waiting list. More procedures have been carried out by the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, which is the regional centre for PEG procedures. Training has been provided by the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick…
I thank the Member for his follow-up question. I do not have a specific answer for him on that transition, but, across a number of healthcare services, transitioning to adulthood is far from good enough in my opinion. It is an issue that has exercised me since taking up post. I think, for example, of ADHD and autism.…
Thank you for your response, Minister. The transition from paediatric to adult care for young adults suffering diabetes can result in a reduction in funding and choice of treatment. How will you address those inconsistencies and ensure safe transition for young diabetics leaving paediatric care?
I thank the Member for his interest in this important issue. I assure him that the strategic planning and performance group (SPPG) is looking at this. One of the big issues is hybrid closed-loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes. The SPPG will bring me its recommendations for a future…
I am more than happy to provide the up-to-date figures for the Member and my assessment of whether we are moving in the right direction and of what more, if anything, can be done to protect our staff.
I appreciate the Minister's answer. In a four-to-five-year period to 2023, there were 50,000 reported incidents of violence against healthcare staff. It would be interesting to know what the figures have been since. You will be aware, Minister, that, in 2023, your Department launched a new regional framework to…
I thank the Member, and I share his concern. Those things are societal issues, I am afraid, but it is a matter of utter regret that they are making their way on to health and social care campuses and that they are happening to health and social care staff beyond the curtilage of hospitals and other health and social…
The cost of a cross-border scheme would depend on the procedures that we commissioned and the number of people we commissioned them for, so there is no set figure.
It would be if I had the funding, but I gently remind the Member of what I said earlier. We made a bid of £135 million to tackle our waiting lists. That included a significant sum to treat — the figure of 4,000 patients springs to mind. I would love to be able to do it. It was popular. It was successful. It made sense…
I will answer that question with a generalisation. Although we have five geographic health trusts, it is my ambition that the trusts will deliver standardised, regional services that are consistent no matter the condition or issue that they address. One of the challenges that I have put to the chairs and chief execs…
I am grateful to the Minister for that. I appreciate that it was only yesterday, and I have no intention of bouncing him. For people who have already been diagnosed with the condition, what steps will the Minister take to ensure consistency across the trusts in the timing of appropriate treatment and appointments?
I thank the Member for her question, and I found it most interesting to attend that event yesterday in the Long Gallery. I will attempt to answer her question by referring to the rare diseases action plan, because the disease that she is talking about is just one of many rare diseases. The point that I was trying to…
I assure the Member that I am on that case. It is a matter of coincidence, I believe, that one of the very first events that I went to in this Building after being elected for the first time in 2011 was organised by my predecessor as Minister of Health, Robin Swann. It was a constituency event about Duchenne, so it…
I reiterate the point about moving "at pace", because timing is critical. If the people involved do not get access to the drug before the start of muscle wastage, the drug is of no use to them. The word that Alfie used today about not getting access to the drug was "cruel". That is the word of a 12-year-old to Members…
It is my ambition that there be a UK-wide facility that would bring on any drug. NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency give us advice, and that is the advice that we follow. In this instance, it is my understanding that the Belfast Trust makes the decision on whether this young man is…
I will take a broader run at answering the Member's question. He will be aware that the area of health inequalities is where I want to put a focus in my remaining time as Minister. The term "health inequalities" is almost shorthand for three things: inequalities, as in outcomes; health inequities, as in access to…
The Minister recently attended the excellent "Nip it in the Bud" event in the Long Gallery, which was held by the Farming Community Network and Macmillan Cancer Support. He will be aware that people in rural areas with an advanced cancer diagnosis are 5% less likely to survive than people in urban areas with an…