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.
A Bill's Second Stage is about its principles, and I could not agree more with that principle, not just on regional balance but on any issue. I go back to the point about separate legal entities. We know that we operate in silos and that there are issues. The issues to which we are trying to find policy solutions…
I really like what you are saying about the data. In such tight financial times, how we spend our money is really important, because we need to know what the impact of the spending will be and how it will improve people's lives. At this point, I am not entirely convinced that we spend money to get the best outcomes…
Like others, I thank Sinéad for introducing the Bill. She is such a wonderful champion of regional balance. Any time the term is mentioned at the Economy Committee, everyone instantly looks at her. I am delighted that the Bill has got to this stage. You deserve it. You are a wonderful champion of your constituency on…
I thank the Member for her intervention. I share her passion. I am impressed by what I have read so far, and I really want to get the point across that I feel strongly about this. We all need to be on the same page. Often, we can fall into playing politics when, in fact, we need to make people's lives better. I want…
Thank you for giving way, Julie, and for your support for the Bill. I reaffirm that the Bill is structured in such a way that every Department has a duty and a responsibility to feed information in. From the outset, the framework will have objectives, and the Executive must say what they want to achieve. There have to…
As a Member for Foyle, regional balance is of the utmost importance to me, my constituents and the businesses and entities in the area that I represent. I thank and congratulate you, Sinéad, for the genuine effort and really hard work that you have put into the Bill thus far, and I will be clear at the outset that I…
Thank you. For far too long, communities like mine — Crossmaglen, Bessbrook, Newtownhamilton and many more — have lived with the consequences of poor investment, limited infrastructure and fewer well-paid employment opportunities, yet south Armagh has enormous untapped potential. Its landscape and connection with the…
Do you know what? Not at the minute. I do not know whether the SDLP is aware of this, but the Bill, as drafted, could give the DUP access to veto and allow it to hold back yet another area of progressive policymaking. When Minister Archibald set out to promote regional balance through tourism expansion and…
Thank you for that. It also remains unclear how the Bill and its obligations sit alongside things such as the Rural Needs Act 2016. There is currently a legal duty to pay due regard to rural needs in respect of policy. Will the Bill just duplicate, or even contradict, that legislation by putting a duty on Departments…
Sorry: I do not know where you read that in the Bill. I have not said that at all. The Bill is not about duplicating Belfast and creating multiple Belfasts: we know that different regions have different barriers and require different interventions. It is not about creating a mirror copy of anything. Fivemiletown will…
I welcome the chance to speak on the Regional Balance Bill. Sinn Féin has a long-standing record of acknowledging and tackling the North's regional imbalance. It has always been one of our top priorities. Our Economy Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, has already begun to tackle regional imbalance through economic…
I am not saying that what is there is not good. Rather, what I am saying is that we need to look strategically at major infrastructure. When the Irish Government spend money through the Shared Island Fund, that should enforce direct communication in order to make sure that we get the best from the investment. It is a…
I agree with the points raised there. It would be a useful exercise to compare the cost of doing business in rural peripheral areas with that in more highly populated areas. I will address the Mr Honeyford's point about cross-border cooperation. Businesses, health and education currently have cooperative engagements…
I will add that, at the moment, rural communities face higher fuel costs, higher transport costs and challenges with accessing services. Those are added expenses when one lives in rural communities, and those drive up poverty. There are lots of stats on rural poverty, and it increases the further one gets from the…
I welcome the opportunity to support the Regional Balance Bill progressing to Committee Stage. I begin by acknowledging the work of the Bill sponsor, Sinéad McLaughlin MLA, in presenting the Bill today. Sinéad has been a consistent and persistent voice in pursuit of greater regional balance across Northern Ireland,…
Be careful what you wish for with Invest NI land. In parts of Downpatrick, we have the land, but we cannot get Invest NI to bring anyone in to put something there. The problem is that there is almost a subregional imbalance that goes down to the new council areas. Often, people see that a lot of the investment is on…
I thank the Member for giving way. This is a brilliant Bill. It is about enhancement; I share in your comments on that. One of the things that can be enhanced — hopefully, we can do this at Committee Stage — is data sharing to ensure that we do not do something independently that has a potentially negative impact on…
I am not trying in any way to criticise what is here; I am trying to say that these are the things that can explicitly make the Bill better. This is nothing to do with constitutional politics — I live to make the place better; that is my entire focus — but there is an explicit case for collaboration with the Irish…
I totally agree with you. In the development of the Bill, I consulted widely, including with economists across the border. I brought one of them to the Committee to give evidence — John Daly, from the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. We worked with the Nevin Economic Research Institute, the Economic and Social…