Mark Durkan
Foyle · Social Democratic and Labour Party · Northern Ireland
“That review involved an extensive engagement exercise with charities, regulators and funders, aimed at creating a more modern and proportionate regulatory system.”
“When the review was commenced in 2021, many organisations were still in the midst of responding to the pandemic. Since then, they have faced a succession of new and evolving challenges. The ending of European funding programmes, on which so many in our communities relied for decades, has left a significant gap.”
“<BR /> <BR />The broad principles behind the Bill are sensible. The changes will modernise charity regulation, strengthen the Charity Commission's ability to intervene where misconduct or mismanagement occurs, improve information sharing and, importantly, reduce unnecessary red tape, particularly for smaller charities with limited adminis…”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak today. Before turning to the detail of the legislation — there will not even be that much detail in the debate today at Second Stage — I pay tribute to our charity sector. Across every constituency, charities provide support that changes and saves lives every single day.”
“<BR /> <BR />Whilst the SDLP supports legislation that removes unnecessary bureaucracy, we should not kid ourselves that administrative reform alone will secure the future of charities and organisations in the voluntary and community sector.”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. Like other Members, I welcome the fact that we have reached this point. There seems to be consensus among Committee members and, I am sure, all Members that the introduction of these measures will save lives, which begs the question of whether the 10-year delay in introducing the measures had an opposi…”
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“for everyone. He gave a voice to the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, especially during times of great difficulty. Amid that darkness, Tommy worked for peace with quiet determination, helping to lay the foundations for a more hopeful future. <BR /> <BR />Tommy was one of those rare public figures who never sought headlines, yet his contribution to public life was immense. His decency transcended party lines; his compassion knew no bounds; and his impact, especially on young people, will live long beyond his years. Ní bheidh a leithéidí arís ann.”
“a mentor and a friend to so many. In the classroom, on the GAA pitch and, later, in the Assembly, he led by example with dílseacht”
“I rise with a heavy heart to pay tribute to a man whose life was defined by service, sincerity and solidarity: Tommy Gallagher. <BR /> <BR />Tommy epitomised the values of the SDLP. He was not just a politician, as we have heard; he was a múinteoir”
“Was £8 million of the regional balance fund returned and reprofiled for future years? Is the Minister concerned that that delay, or any delay, in spending could limit the impact or ambition of projects that are intended to tackle regional imbalance in the short term, particularly in areas like the north-west?”
“I thank the Member for giving way. He has rightly identified the fact that the recovery of costs is often more easily said than done. <BR /> <BR />Does the Minister recognise a situation where so much of the public estate has fallen into disrepair and dilapidation, and does he envisage a situation where councils therefore pursue Departments or the Education Authority (EA), for example, for costs? Does the legislation lend itself to calling on those agencies — the EA in particular — to revise how they dispose of assets, rather than hanging on to them for so long that they become a liability for themselves and the local community?”
“I also thank her for the update on her meeting with Minister James Browne, the hardest working man in politics. Will the Minister give us an update on the Ulster canal restoration project? I am particularly interested in the phase of work that will be carried out in the North. Can we have an update on that, please?”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht a ráitis.”
“I welcome the allocation of £9 million for social housing new builds, but, by my rough calculation, that will still leave us £80 million short of meeting the Executive's targets, as set out in the Programme for Government and the social housing supply strategy. From the Minister's answer on the A5, I take it that he accepts that the later that reallocation of capital occurs, the more difficult it will be to take decisions and facilitate its spend in the most effective way.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ráiteas.”
“Minister, have you been or will you be making the argument in the Executive that any Barnett consequential arising from the UK Government's £13·2 billion warm homes plan to tackle fuel poverty should be ring-fenced to tackle fuel poverty here, where it is worse?”
“The First Minister says that the public want to hear that the Executive are doing and will do all that they can to ensure the delivery of the A5: with all due respect, the public have been hearing that for 20 years. Is the latest setback, resulting from the latest judgement, yet more evidence of the Executive's lack of capacity to deliver major capital projects? Will the First Minister update us on the Executive Office's consideration of and deliberations on the creation of an infrastructure commission to deliver major capital projects?”
“This is the latest Executive failure in a growing list: Northern Ireland Water, Casement, the maternity unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital and now the A5. While I do not question the competence or, indeed, the commitment of individual officials, surely it is time to question the systemic capacity of our Civil Service to deliver major infrastructure projects. They are not done on budget; they are not done on time; and, sometimes, they are not done at all. Where are the Executive in their deliberations on an infrastructure commission — a mechanism that would improve delivery but that has itself fallen foul of Executive dithering and delay?”
“I thank the Minister for her statement. It says that the Northern Ireland Water board did not base its financial decisions on the budget that it had but on the budget that it wanted. The Minister says that she will work with the board to prevent any recurrence of such an issue. We know that Northern Ireland Water cannot do the work that it has to do because it does not get the budget that it needs. We see pollution in our watercourses, and development is grinding to a halt, but the statement is silent on how the Minister will work with Northern Ireland Water to ensure that it gets the budget that it needs. Will the Minister tell us how she plans to do that?”
“I thank the Minister for that clarification. <BR /> <BR />The public's perception is that those responsible walk away almost untouched. Where is the deterrent? Where is the urgency? This is not just about calling for tougher sentences across the board but about ensuring that the punishment fits the crime and that justice truly means justice: the chance to break the cycle of reoffending and rebuild lives. <BR /> <BR />Behind every statistic is a story, one that does not make the front pages but matters just as much. Someone needed help but got punishment instead. Justice must protect the public, yes, but it must also protect the vulnerable, and that must not be forgotten as we pursue much-needed sentencing reform.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. I am aware from a response by the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to a question from me that he will bring a paper to his Executive colleagues seeking support for such an inquiry. It is essential that we have one, because generations here will live with the consequences.”
“Suspended sentences spare them jail time and anonymity shields them further, doing nothing for transparency, deterrence or the lives ruined and communities left exposed. <BR /> <BR />This is not just about women. It is about whom we punish and whom we do not. Look at what happens when people harm our communities in other ways. The Mobuoy dump is not just one of the North's, the UK's or Europe's worst environmental crimes; it will cost hundreds of millions of pounds to clean up. Yet, after a decade-long wait, justice means just a few months in jail, with no compensation sought or awarded for lasting damage.”
“A glance at local court cases in my constituency highlights the glaring imbalance in our justice system. A 31-year-old woman who expressed shame about her crime is imprisoned for eight months for shoplifting in a local Boots because she had no money. A young single mother is given jail time for stealing a £10 pair of jeans. Meanwhile, a domestic abuser who terrorised his ex-partner and whose actions were described by a judge as "utterly appalling" is handed a suspended sentence. Drug dealers are peddling poison through our estates in an area ravaged by addiction, where people young and old are dying. Anonymity orders, as I mentioned, are too often granted in such cases, and I feel deeply uneasy about that.”
“Poor women are being sent to prison for non-violent offences at an alarming rate. Some 86% of women in custody are serving sentences for non-violent offences, most commonly for low-level economic crimes of survival: shoplifting and petty crime. Two thirds are mothers, and many are the sole carers of young children. Imprisoning them does not just harm the individual but devastates entire families, making it harder to rebuild lives. Children end up in care. Mums struggle to find employment with their criminal record and can and often do fall into a downward spiral of offending and exploitation. <BR /> <BR />Many of those women are victims of abuse, addiction, mental ill-health or homelessness, and then they become victims again of a system that criminalises their desperation.”
“I welcome the motion and the urgency that it places on sentencing reform. The focus today has, understandably, been on lenient sentencing and serious crimes such as sexual offences, and, of course, I agree with what Members have said about that. However, I will use my time to highlight another part of our justice system that receives far too little scrutiny. There is something fundamentally broken about a system that jails vulnerable women for stealing sanitary products and clothing while those who poison our communities with drugs, harm others or destroy our environment walk free with a slap on the wrist. Worse yet, some are granted anonymity. <BR /> <BR />The current system is not dispensing justice but deepening injustice. It punishes poverty, while power gets a pass.”
“Will the Minister, along with her Executive colleagues, prepare emergency amending legislation to clarify the relevant section or sections of the Climate Change Act 2022, which, in its entirety, was voted through by all in the House, that preserves its core purpose while clarifying that it cannot be used to block action that is necessary to save lives, or does she have a plan B?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Does he concede that, in many ways, the current model serves nobody particularly well, including those who are suffering mental health crises; the other vulnerable patients, particularly those who are elderly, who have to endure the volatility of some of those who have mental health issues; and, not least, the overstretched staff, who often put themselves at risk in trying to manage the situation and administer care to all those in need. Does the Minister envisage the regional mental health crisis service being adequately resourced and equally accessible to all across the North?”
“I have no doubt that the Minister will stand up in response to the debate, as seems to be the pattern, and ask, "Well, what answers do you have?". We have set out answers. We do not have them all, but we can play our part in providing them. We have set out a clear road map in our 'Building Firm Foundations' plan: properly fund social housing, curb the ballooning cost of rent and temporary accommodation, repurpose public land and do it fast, address the growing number of empty homes across our communities and reuse them for people who are crying and dying for a roof over their heads, and tackle the waste water infrastructure crisis. <BR /> <BR />The people outside these walls are not asking for the impossible; they are asking for a home, an opportunity and a life not lived in limbo. They deserve better than this. I propose the motion.”
“The Executive cannot just tell people that they will do "what matters most": they need to actually do it. For 10 years, the Executive, when we have had one, have failed to treat housing as a priority. That is why anger is spilling on to the streets. Let us be clear though: violence solves nothing, but neither does silence and, certainly, nor does neglect. <BR /> <BR />Housing is not a headline, but it is a lifeline. How can the public, and how can we in the Chamber, have confidence in an Executive who consistently fail to meet their own targets and dress up failures as success and who struggle to be held to account or to face accountability? We need to rebuild confidence in leadership, because, right now, that is in even shorter supply than homes. <BR /> <BR />We in the Opposition are not here just to criticise.”
“However, this year, we will struggle to build barely 1,000 — half the target that the Executive set. Ministers laud that and the housing supply strategy as some sort of victory when, in Derry alone, over 6,000 people are waiting for a home. That is not ambition; it is abdication. Instead of addressing those failures, last week, the DUP proposed a motion not to deliver homes but to scapegoat immigrants and shift blame on to those with the least while letting those in power and with power off the hook. <BR /> <BR />Leadership is not about pitting people against each other but about stepping up when the public are hurting. Right now, people are sore and angry, and they have every right to be, though anger is not the problem. The problem is what we do with it. We should all be angry. Anger is a powerful tool and force for change.”
“Those people include the single mother who has to traverse three flights of stairs twice a day, toddler in tow, with a pram in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other; a new mother in emergency accommodation who is not allowed visitors, not even her mum to help her with night feeds; the man bearing the scars of conflict, who has been given hostel accommodation that is two hours away from his support network, battling the haunting pull of relapse; or the pensioner who cannot climb the stairs to reach the toilet or their bed, waiting years for a new home. That is what social housing looks like in 2025, and, every day, it is getting worse. <BR /> <BR />We were told that the Programme for Government would be ambitious. We were actually told that it is ambitious, promising nearly 6,000 social homes by 2027.”
“The SDLP understands the fundamental power of a home to shape people's lives. Housing is a basic necessity — a tangible, life-shaping foundation on which families and communities are built. Let us not forget that the very foundations of our political system were born out of the housing rights movement, and it is why many of us stand here today. <BR /> <BR />The failure to confront this growing crisis has had devastating consequences. That failure is a lived reality here for tens of thousands of people today.”
“I am tempted to ask, "Is this it?". After almost two decades that have seen poverty levels spiral, after a so-called co-design process that has seen the expertise, empathy and input of the sector left on the cutting-room floor and after a court case that found the Executive to be in breach of their duty to publish an anti-poverty strategy, does the Minister agree that this underwhelming document calls into question not just the Executive's ability to tackle poverty but their appetite and ambition to do so?”
“I thank the Minister for that statement. I commend all the families and groups that have campaigned long and loud to bring us this far, with systemic failings being recognised and legislation promised. However, when I think of some of those families — we have some in the Public Gallery today— and the particularly acute and complex needs of their precious sons and daughters, I worry that, while the statement might give the impression that they have been listened to, it appears that they may not have been heard. Will the Minister give any assurance to or about the young people who do not or will not have any qualifications or entry-level requirements that they will have support with mental capacity to access the pathways outlined in the statement?”
“I commend the Minister for her work on the ground in Ballymena last week. Can the Minister tell us when the refugee integration strategy will be published? The consultation on that closed in, I think, February 2022.”
“— raising concerns about immigration and calling on the Infrastructure Minister to answer questions about the role of HMOs in this crisis. Have the Communities Minister's colleagues been raising these concerns with him as Minister responsible for housing, and what has he done about those concerns?”
“It is easy to understand how people have come to the conclusion that they have come to about the Minister's comments, given the narrative from the DUP over the past few weeks. It is rich of the DUP to accuse anyone of trying to use this issue to score political points, when, only a couple of weeks ago, it secured a motion —”
“Last week's violence showed us just how quickly our Police Service can be strained to breaking point. We know that the Chief Constable was pretty critical of the budget, and I welcome the fact that you are meeting the Minister of Justice tomorrow on the issue, but will you also commit to meeting the Chief Constable to hear from him or suggest to him what he could do better to make the Police Service's money go further?”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. The scrapping of that disastrous policy by the UK Government will, of course, be warmly received by pensioners, but it is cold comfort to the many thousands of working-age householders who live in cold homes. The Department's own modelling showed that, in 2022, over a quarter of households here were living in fuel poverty. Will the Minister give us an update on the fuel poverty strategy? When can we expect to see it?”
“The statistics tell the story only when it suits the narrative. Will the Minister commit to meeting Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company, which recently received the shattering news that it is to lose 100% of its funding, and other arts organisations in the north-west to hear their concerns and improve his understanding of their value?”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. We will support his efforts to ensure remediation of the Mobuoy site and the removal of the risk that it poses to the environment and to human health, as well as to the block that it has put on the completion of the A6. While focusing on the future, however, we cannot just forget about the past and how an environmental crime on an industrial scale was allowed to happen. It could cost the public and public services hundreds of millions of pounds to put right. Will the Minister seek support from his Executive colleagues for a public inquiry into the scandal?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.”
“It is outrageous that some people here and elsewhere have chosen that side and that they have done so not even through silence but through statements of support and attempted justification. <BR /> <BR />I urge the Executive and Governments around the world — all those who value justice and life — to condemn the actions unequivocally, to condemn the illegal interception of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, to demand the release of those who have been detained, to support an independent investigation into the atrocities in Gaza and to demand intervention and an immediate end to violence. History will remember not just what was done but those who stayed silent. Let us not be among them.”
“<BR /> <BR />The world is watching, and when the world watches and we do nothing, we are not neutral but complicit. Desmond Tutu famously said:”
“Among those on board was a face that we all recognise: that of Greta Thunberg — a young woman who has become a symbol of moral clarity. Let us not forget, however, the other heroes who were on board who are without fame or a platform: ordinary people who were showing extraordinary courage and compassion, offering a lifeline to those who are in unimaginable desperation and despair. <BR /> <BR />Gaza is dying, with hospitals that have been turned into rubble, ambulances that have been shelled and children who have been pulled, lifeless, from the ruins of homes that once echoed with laughter. They are a people who are being starved. This is not self-defence. This is not war. This is collective punishment. This is the slaughter of the innocent.”
“It carries the message that the people of Gaza are not alone. It carries hope.”
“I rise today not just as a public representative but as a father, a son and a human being who is horrified and terrified at what is unfolding in front of our eyes. I cannot and will not remain silent in the face of such injustice and inhumanity. <BR /> <BR />The overnight Israeli interception of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which is a convoy of medics, aid workers and peaceful advocates, is not only unlawful in anyone's book; it is a moral outrage. They are unarmed civilians, acting in accordance with international law, attempting to reach a besieged and starving population in Gaza, for which they have been detained, threatened and silenced. Let us be clear: the flotilla carries more than much-needed aid; it carries solidarity. It carries the moral weight of the millions of people who will not look away.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. I also offer my solidarity and support to him and his officials in the face of the abhorrent abuse that he has been on the receiving end of. <BR /> <BR />Is the Minister aware of what budget will be required to roll out the deposit return scheme? What lessons can be learned from the scheme in the South to minimise inconvenience and expense and maximise environmental benefit?”
“. Members are often reminded that our questions following a ministerial statement should be relevant to the statement. Is it therefore in order for Ministers' responses not to bear at least a wee bit of relevance to Members' questions?”
“On a point of order, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle”
“A key area of focus over the next three years will be modal shift, active travel and public transport. Other jurisdictions are increasing investment in public transport, recognising the environmental and economic value of doing so. Will the Minister and the Executive be doing the same?”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a ráiteas.”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. The Minister said that Ministers do not have the luxury of ducking questions and decisions. We contend that that does not always stop them from doing so. Does the Minister recognise that, as well as the cost of rates, businesses are liable to pay water rates, which have been increasing by about 5% each year. Does the Minister accept that that is a hidden but not insignificant burden on businesses?”
“I thank the Minister for her answer. Minister, your party colleague Dr Caoimhe Archibald, as Finance Minister, stated that fare hikes had been earmarked as a means of getting more income into Executive coffers this year. Does the Minister agree that, given the need to make public transport more attractive — more convenient and more affordable — that is the wrong direction of travel?”
“If we do not do this, more families will be left with grief that never ends. Do not just take my word for it. I quote Stella McMullan directly:”
“We need to review where buses stop and ensure that those spots are safe, but strategy is no substitute for law, which, in itself, will drive behavioural change. <BR /> <BR />We will accept the second amendment, which seeks to enhance road safety around schools, and we, of course, welcome the continued roll-out of the 20 mph speed limit, a campaign that was started by the SDLP, and the commitment to model legislation on best practice elsewhere. We welcome the commitment that we have now seen on social media from the Minister to introduce the legislation that the motion calls for. We would have preferred to hear that in response to the motion, but that is irrelevant. It is so important that we have it today and that the families have it. I pay tribute to all of them for the role that they have played in getting us to this point.”