Jim Allister
North Antrim · Traditional Unionist Voice · Northern Ireland
“<BR /> <BR />Last week, a 'News Letter' editorial rightly drew attention to the fact that there is a chorus of demand that it is up to the British Government to pay for that, but no pressure whatsoever on the GAA — the primary beneficiary — which still persists that its contribution will be a miserly £15 million.”
“Public money, we are constantly told, is in short supply and scarce. I am sure that it is, and will continue to be so. Yet, while many in the House pay lip service to the need to prioritise health, there seems to be a majority here who would prioritise public spending on a sporting facility, namely Casement Park.”
“That editorial stated that the DUP "should make clear" its view on the Casement Park costs. Yet, yesterday, we had the launch of the DUP manifesto and not a mention of Casement Park. We have a Minister — Minister Lyons — who has ruled out clawback for non-GAA use of that stadium.”
“Therefore, the Minister comes to the House with a proposal that, effectively, has been written in Brussels, because it tells us how much we can give to our fishing industry in Northern Ireland.”
“The Minister told us that this is a scheme under the Fisheries Act, which it is, whereby all the devolved regions and England and Wales can make their own provision.”
“Rather than removing the green lane, the introduction of the new customs border arrangements will further advance the development of the green lane, thereby helping to make the Irish Sea border and our alienation from the rest of the UK more firmly established.”
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“I look forward to perusing the detail, but can I raise with the Minister some of the heartless decisions taken by his Department in relation to very obvious need for temporary variations?”
“I appreciate that. Yes, but to further bleed the public funds of £10 million a month means that there is £10 million less per month to spread over the essential needs of Northern Ireland. Whatever way you cut it, that is the reality. <BR /> <BR />The matters that we are discussing are evidence of the failure of this system of government, which is now on life support. This system of government is not serving the interests of anyone — patient or anyone else — and the sooner we put this system of government —”
“I am making a point that circumstances that put a man beyond the help of any health service are a contributor to the situation. I must also say to the SDLP, which laments the sparsity of spending for health, that it is a contributor to the fact that the Executive are losing £10 million a month out of public funding because of the penalties that have to be paid on welfare because of its intransigence, with Sinn Féin, on that. There are some points —”
“<BR /> <BR />Of course, matters are now compounded by the political situation in which we find ourselves. I must say this to Sinn Féin: you need to get off your high moral horse as if none of this had anything to do with you, because it was IRA bullets into a man in recent weeks that were the catalyst for the terminal failure of these institutions that we are witnessing.”
“I think of a man who has been in with me who has been told that he needs a heart bypass but is going to have to wait maybe six months. I think of a man with severe back pain who has been waiting 71 weeks for an appointment at Musgrave Park Hospital. I can think of another gentleman with acute gastro problems who has been waiting 12 months for a routine appointment. Those are the sort of stories that you would expect to hear in some sort of Third World country, not in this part of the United Kingdom, and they are a badge of the failure of devolution to make anything better in those terms in Northern Ireland. It is a rebuke to the Ministers who have held those portfolios that things have deteriorated rather than improved. We should not have to deal with these situations.”
“Indeed. In dealing with issues of waiting times, we all have our own experiences. I think back to last Friday and my surgery in Ballmoney. A man came in whom I had seen at the start of the summer. In May, he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's. I could see, and I am not a medical person, a vast deterioration in him over the summer months, yet that man came to talk to me about the fact that he was waiting for a neurological scan at the Causeway Hospital and could not get a date for it. <BR /> <BR />It is pretty clear to me that, if a neurological scan cannot be provided for somebody diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and he cannot even be given a date and is deteriorating before one's eyes, there is something radically wrong with the system. <BR /> <BR />I can think of other examples.”
“I commend Mrs Dobson for bringing the motion to the House. I will also comment on her restraint, in the context of the relentless vilification of the Ulster Unionist Health Minister, Mr Michael McGimpsey, by the DUP for four years when he was in office. We then discover that three successive DUP Ministers have presided over a system that has got a lot worse and that waiting times are at an all-time high. Given that context, Mrs Dobson was very restrained in how she presented the matter.”
“It would be naive to think that it will be a directionless conversation, and I suspect that the Minister has a very clear idea of where he wants the conversation to lead. Is it, in fact, a softening-up process of the public and politicians to advance an increase in tuition fees?”
“I assure the Minister that I was not talking just about boxing, although boxing illustrates my point. All these young athletes are told that, under the Belfast Agreement, of which the Member is now a proponent, they have the right to express their Britishness or their Irishness, but, by virtue of this affiliation requirement to, say, the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, the only way a young local boxer can box internationally is to wrap himself in an Irish tricolour. Why does the Minister sustain that discrimination?”
“I beg to introduce the Civil Service (Special Advisers) (Amendment) Bill [NIA 61/11-16], which is a Bill to amend sections 7 and 8 of the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2013 and article 3 of the Civil Service Commissioners (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 in relation to special advisers in the Northern Ireland Civil Service.”
“Given the Commission's rejection of the lifeline of intervention, which would have put a bottom in the market and given essential confidence to allow the market to recover, and instead its paltry and meaningless package, does the Minister agree that the EU has let our farmers down and will drive some of our dairy farmers to the wall?”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. At the beginning of business, you identified to us that various Ministers had resigned. You made no mention of the office of First Minister. Media reports suggest that we now have something called an "acting First Minister". Is that the case, and is there recognition in the House of the office of acting First Minister? Who is the First Minister?”
“It is time that we had an election. Of course, the DUP does not even —”
“Let us build a system of government as you would build it anywhere else in the democratic world: if no party is big enough to form a Government on its own, you build it on the basis of voluntary coalition with a weighted majority, if need be, to ensure cross-community involvement. It should also be built on the principle of an opposition. The urge of so many, because of the vested interest that comes with it, is simply to get the sticky plaster out and patch up failure. Sadly, the vision of some is to get back to the charter of failure: the Belfast Agreement example of devolution. It is time that we swept away the debris of failure. It is time that we had an election. The DUP is running away from an election, which is why the First Minister did not resign and tip Sinn Féin out of government as it deserved.”
“The only place where we deny those basic democratic rights is here in Northern Ireland, and then people are surprised that the system of government crumbles and fails. When it defies the dynamics of the essence of democracy, of course it will fail. That is despite its being propped up for years by all the false promises and all the false hopes and the peddling of those false hopes that the IRA had gone away. Now those who peddled those hopes and lies and who went into government on the basis of that con have suddenly discovered that the IRA still exists and is still killing. That has been the catalyst that has brought us to this point. <BR /> <BR />It is now time to sweep away the debris of failure that these institutions represent.”
“What we are witnessing all about us is not just the catastrophic failure of government in Northern Ireland but the catastrophic failure of the system of government, and it is that reality that all these other parties wish to dodge. The reality is that mandatory coalition has failed. That should be no surprise to anyone because it defies the basic tenets of democracy. <BR /> <BR />Look across the world. Apart from totalitarian states, any Government that is durable and any system that works is built out of respect for the fundamental tenets of democracy and the idea that the electorate has the right to change the Government, vote a party out of government and have an opposition.”
“<BR /> <BR />If I have one reservation about the thrust of the conclusions of the Stutt report, it is in the realm of the lack of a clear focus on the future of the MS facility. It seems to me that it was a bit light in that department, yet that is a vital facility for that area and the wider area. However, holistically, I think it tracks a potential future approach that has much to recommend it and is certainly far preferable to the cul-de-sac that the trust and the Department previously wanted to lead us into. I trust that the spirit and vision that motivated the Save the Dal campaign will continue to the final delivery of that which fits the needs of that region.”
“It cannot be a top-down dictatorship again, simply handing down the solution as seen by some. <BR /> <BR />If a future is to be moulded that meets the needs of all interests, it has to be done in partnership. As the report reflects, it has to be one that is itself reflective of the particular composition of that locality, with its higher than average number of senior citizens. Therefore, there has to be what the report refers to as a "strong fit" between the needs of the area and the outcomes for the area. That is key to all of this. It has to be a wholesale systems approach so that there is that tight fit between what the community needs and what the outcomes will be.”
“I am grateful for the opportunity to speak again in support of the Dal. I commend the tenacity of the Save the Dal campaign, which did not shrink from taking on the trust and the Department and, for its tenacity and the common sense that was on its side, saw a significant victory for people power over the trust and the Department. That was very welcome. It is also good to note that, not prepared to leave it there, they then embarked on a self-help initiative, producing the Colin Stutt report. It certainly makes for a very interesting read, with some positive proposals in it. For me, one of the most important things that it says about moving forward is that, drawing on the lesson of the attempt by the trust and Department to ram something down the community's throat, there has to be a partnership approach to moving forward.”
“I would like to have heard from the Minister what is the sense of direction about the future of the direct labour force and whether they will be properly integrated with the resulting benefits, which they deserve, or kept as some sort of adjunct in the Housing Executive. <BR /> <BR />There are many issues in flux in the Housing Executive that it is right to identify and discuss, but the focus of the motion does not seem to be on those issues. It seems, rather, to be driven by some sort of ideology that I question the relevance of. I regret that it has not focused on what would have been more pertinent issues.”
“I would also like to comment on the fact that, well in advance of any other voluntary exit scheme, we have had a voluntary exit scheme in the Housing Executive targeting some 500 staff, of whom, I think, 149 have already gone at a cost of £5 million, it seems. Given that, as I understand it, the age profile of most of those who have gone was 60-plus, one asks whether there was a value-for-money approach to the voluntary exit scheme in the Housing Executive. There are certainly issues there to be explored. <BR /> <BR />At the same time, a developing part of the Housing Executive, in consequence of the collapse of Red Sky and other companies, has been a huge increase in the direct labour force.”
“I would have liked to have probed and to have heard just what the import of Mags Lightbody was to that transformation, where it has left, where it is now headed and whether there is any really purposeful direction to what is happening in that regard.”
“<BR /> <BR />The sense that I have from the current Minister is that he is tamer in those matters and not as exercised as his predecessor, but one would have liked to have got a sense of direction from him about the future, particularly in circumstances where we pass through a process called transformation in the Housing Executive. We had all sorts of staff recruited, and a director of transformation was brought in who was going to — I do not know what she was going to do, but she was going to transform things pretty mightily. Then she was chief executive, and then she was gone as quickly as she arrived. Yet, last year, the transformation staff in the Housing Executive cost us three quarters of a million pounds.”
“I share some of the puzzlement as to the timing and purpose of the motion, because this process began many years ago with the PwC report. Indeed, some time ago, when I quizzed some officials in the Committee, they said that the process of "reform" in the Housing Executive might continue for another 10 or 12 years, so the purpose and timing of this particular call is not immediately clear to me. <BR /> <BR />I regret that we do not have the Minister here to reply to the debate, because I think that it would have been important to hear from him about the current sense of direction within his vision. Undoubtedly, his predecessor, when he came to the House in, I think, January 2013 almost in crusading spirit, seemed to have a very distinct agenda about overhaul if not dissolution of the Housing Executive.”
“On a point of order, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker. Will you clarify this in case there is some misunderstanding: is there an Ulster Unionist member of the Executive?”
“The Department says that it is aware of these disturbing allegations. What assurance is there that there will be no witch-hunt against people who probably qualify as whistle-blowers in respect of this establishment? There have certainly been some suggestions that they may not be receiving the protection that they should.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Can you advise the House whether there is to be a ministerial response to this debate?”
“The Department should show its bona fides by capital funding the acquisition and equipping of the helicopter. That would show an example to charitable organisations, which are more than willing to help in the continual running of the service. So, I trust that the Department will rise to the challenge and that this petition will encourage them to do that in a timely and expeditious manner.”
“You could not meet Dr John without yourself being enthused with his passion and his tremendous knowledge on this subject. I know that, when I took him to see the Minister back in June, the Minister was well impressed with the infectious enthusiasm that he had for the subject. Of course, he was a man who, through his skill and expertise as a trauma specialist of great, considerable note, has saved the lives of many people. <BR /> <BR />It is, I know, the lasting ambition of his family and loved ones that the cause that was so dear to his heart and which he espoused so strongly might reach fruition with the full provision of an air ambulance service. I have to say to the Minister that he has made the right start, but there needs to be fuller commitment than a mere £200,000 a year.”
“It was Dr John's vision and passion for the need to deliver a proper air ambulance service to Northern Ireland that started this campaign, invigorated it and which inspires those who have taken the trouble of gathering the petition to ensure that his legacy is secured in the provision of that for which he long campaigned.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Seldom does the mere announcement of the presentation of a petition provoke a welcome ministerial response before the petition is even presented, but that is the happy situation today. So, the focus now of the petition is very much to secure the timely and full implementation of the commitments made to fill the deficit that exists in relation to emergency medical service in Northern Ireland, we being the only part of the United Kingdom without a fully equipped air ambulance service. <BR /> <BR />Of course, presenting this petition in support of that call — a petition that has the backing in written form of 16,000 signatures and 65,000 online indications of support, a total of 81,000 — is tinged with sadness because the great champion of this cause, Dr John Hinds, sadly is no longer with us.”
“It is a much bigger issue than that, and you need to be big enough to face it, rather than simply sending four Members onto a battlefield to lurk on the Back Benches with nothing to say about the matter.”
“He believes that this can happen again because there will be huff and puff, and that will be it. Today we were to see a huge revelation of earth-shattering proportions from the DUP reaction to this IRA murder. What did we get? The Executive, which do not deliver anything for anyone anyhow, are not going to meet for a month. So what? They once did not meet for six or nine months, and nobody noticed. <BR /> <BR />I say this to the DUP: you have a solemn choice to make. You know the truth of what Arlene Foster said about the inextricable link. If you believe what the Chief Constable said, it is indeed time that you come out from among those who are inextricably linked to that killing. It is bigger than not wanting to be humiliated by being outmanoeuvred by the Ulster Unionists.”
“<BR /> <BR />There is no point in throwing up your hands in dismay at another killing by the IRA and then deciding that the answer is to stay inextricably linked yourself, and be the only unionists to be inextricably linked, to the political wing of the republican movement, which the Chief Constable says carried out that murder. That is how stark it is. To do that is to continue to turn a blind eye to murder. In fact, it licenses the IRA to kill again because, if it gets away with it this time, as it did with Paul Quinn — action should have been taken then, but it was not — it is another green light to kill again. <BR /> <BR />Little wonder that Mr Kelly thinks that it is a pseudo crisis. He does not believe that the DUP will ever do anything about it. That is why it is pseudo as a crisis.”
“<BR /> <BR />This morning on 'The Stephen Nolan Show', Arlene Foster, the Finance Minister, made a strategically very important statement. She said that Sinn Féin and the IRA — that is the IRA that killed Mr McGuigan — are inextricably linked. If that is right, we have to face the fact that the political wing of a republican movement that has killed again is at the top and heart of government. The people who particularly have to face that fact are those who sustain and keep them there. I direct my remarks particularly to the DUP on this occasion.”
“These were undoubtedly gruesome murders. Like all terrorist murders, it is hard to describe them otherwise. I do not intend to waste much time on the weasel words of Sinn Féin, which come from consciences that have been seared by excusing Provo violence for years. I do not believe a word from them. I did not believe them — some did — when they told us that the IRA had gone away; I did not believe them — some did — when they said they had decommissioned; I did not believe them when they told us that the criminal empires in south Armagh were totally dissociated from the IRA, although some did; and I do not believe them today. It is quite clear from what the Chief Constable said that among the murderers of Mr McGuigan are members currently of the Provisional IRA.”
“On a point of order. Surely, in relation to criminal matters, sub judice arises only when someone is charged.”
“— rather than paying in that huge amount of money, which is a net loss. That is why there would not be the dire circumstances that the Member suggested.”
“With a very simple economic reality, which is this: we would liberate the money that we are pouring into the black hole that is called Brussels. The net contribution from the UK is more than £1 million an hour. That is money that would stay in our own coffers and that would enable us to help our own farmers and businesses —”
“That is something that it would be well worth being liberated from.”
“There is a huge trade deficit now, which debunks the foolish and childish contention that, if you leave the EU, the rest of the EU will not trade with you. The deficit is such that, believe you me, the Germans will still be very anxious to sell us their BMWs. They sell us far more than we sell them. So, the notion that we would handicap Northern Ireland on the world global trading stage by leaving the EU is a total fallacy, and it is one that I want to nail. It would, in fact, liberate trade. <BR /> <BR />The second key factor in the liberation that it would bring to the economy of Northern Ireland is that it would lift the dead hand of regulation. It has been well documented that the dead hand of regulation from Brussels imposes something of the order of £600 billion a year on the economy.”
“Did the Member ask the CBI how many hundreds of thousands of pounds a year it gets from the EU Commission? The CBI is a paid mouthpiece for the Commission. It benefits to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum from Brussels, so of course it is not going to bite the hand that feeds it in its vested interest. <BR /> <BR />I am talking about realities, and the reality is that we trade more outside the EU than within it. We also have the reality that our trade deficit with the rest of the EU has never been wider.”
“We trade more outside the EU than within it, so how a report could reach the conclusion that leaving the EU would be disastrous for Northern Ireland — that seems to be the tenor — is, frankly, beyond me, other than to recognise the propaganda that lies behind it.”
“By liberating ourselves from the EU, we would do the very thing that Northern Ireland needs: open up with far greater freedom the right to trade uninhibited by Brussels across the world. One of the binding chains of the EU is that no member state can make even a trade agreement with any other country. Only the EU can make trade agreements, hence the fact that for decades we did not even have a trade agreement with the UK's biggest trading partner: the US. When you analyse the figures, you discover that, since we entered the EU, because it is itself a withering economic institution and its own GDP is falling drastically, the majority of our trade as a nation is outside the EU.”
“The one aspect that I wish to comment on is the Europhile tone of the report, which surprises me in its clear lack of objectivity. It also surprises me that it seems to have been approved of by all the members of the Committee, some of whom from time to time like to present their Eurosceptic credentials. I also note that, not for the first time, I am left to make these remarks without the assistance of the UKIP Member in the House, who does not seem to have anything to say on these matters. <BR /> <BR />The report is a brazen attempt at promoting the EU propaganda that Northern Ireland would wither and die if the United Kingdom dared to reassert control over its own affairs and dared to leave the EU, whereas the very opposite is the truth.”
“The Minister repeated to us the assertion of the Chief Constable. Can I ask him to explain to the House how a member of a proscribed organisation can be involved in murder and that not be an act of terrorism? Will he explain that conundrum please?”
“The Minister purports to be the Minister of Justice. In that role, he doubtless receives briefings. Is he suggesting to the House that he had no knowledge that the IRA was still likely to be involved in killing, such as in the McGuigan case, or was he just turning a deaf ear to that? Can he tell us if there are any members of the Provisional IRA on the Executive in which he sits?”
“Therefore it is right that the Government should focus on the source of the refugees being in the camps in Syria. I think that the Government have also to be careful and very vigilant in ensuring that, in the bringing in of refugees, we do not threaten the security of the United Kingdom. By that I mean that the Government have to be vigilant in ensuring that, under the cover of the refugee crisis, there is not an influx of ISIS jihadists into the United Kingdom. <BR /> <BR />It is, of course, a huge humanitarian problem. It has to be tackled with sensitivity, but with common sense, and some of the common sense informs us of the fact that we should not be rewarding those who organise the transport, in deadly conditions, for profit, of refugees, and we should be carefully regarding our own borders for the future.”
“<BR /> <BR />I think that the scheme of taking refugees has to be informed by a determination not to reward the merchants of death who have been engaged in people transportation across the Mediterranean — the people smugglers. We cannot reward, encourage and grow their evil business in the response that we make.”
“Of course, one would be lacking in any spark of humanity if one was not touched by some of the images that we have seen. It is right that there must be an appropriate response. I am sure that each one of us, privately and individually — in showing the genuineness of our concern, perhaps the more privately the better — will wish to respond to the humanitarian appeals. Of course, there has to be a national response, but, this being a reserved matter, the responsibility for it lies exclusively with the United Kingdom Government. If and when they announce the number of genuine refugees that are to be received into the United Kingdom, our responsibility, in this part of the United Kingdom, moves to taking our proportionate share of those refugees. In that, I am sure, we will not be found wanting.”