Doug Beattie
Upper Bann · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I absolutely accept what the Minister said earlier, which is that she would not have been able to get such a Bill out of the Executive. That is the sentence that you would have heard from me, Minister, had you waited a minute. I absolutely accept that that is the case, and I think that we all do.”
“Just a minute. Minister, I guess that I disagree with you, because I too did my work. I accept that I do not have the resources that you and your Department have, but I sat with the Public Prosecution Service and talked through this very thing, and it said that it was workable.”
“The Director of Public Prosecutions would look at the seriousness of the offence — death by dangerous driving, risk of harm to the public, serial arson, assault, sexual behaviour that is a danger to the public — and he would also look at the best interests of the child, because we have not got away from diversionary measures here.”
“Had James Bulger been murdered by two nine-year-olds, we would probably be having a discussion about the minimum age of criminal responsibility being nine, such was the anger in 1993 when that horrendous crime took place. All the ages are arbitrary, and we need to deal with that.”
“That raises the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. It is not what some people, who want it to be 14, want; it is not what others, who want it to stay at 10, want; but I believe that 12 is right. Why do I presume that a child can commit a criminal offence at 12 years of age?”
“In essence, however, that amendment would raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, apart from in the case of the offences in that closed list. It has been said many times, and I will not repeat what has been said, but the closed list does not make sense to me either.”
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“<BR /> <BR />One of the standards we have is respect for others. If you had been in the Chamber yesterday afternoon listening to the EU debate, you would have thought that that was not in the code of conduct, given that some Members were getting on like petulant children. I was quite embarrassed by that, and I would say that it was close to bringing the Assembly into disrepute. I say this to Members: be mindful of your behaviour. How will people looking at us from the outside trust us if we get on like that? I would come down heavy on the standards expected of everybody in the Assembly. If I say, "Come down heavy on the standards", I also say, "Come down light on the privileges". We do not need privileges other than those set for us to be able to perform our role in the Assembly and represent the people.”
“I thank the Member for moving the motion. It is clear and self-explanatory to anyone who reads it. I have lived my whole adult working life by a set of values and standards, and I hold them dear. I now live my life, in private and in public, with a code of conduct and a set of standards and privileges. Those standards set out how I am supposed to behave, and that is really important. The privileges that are given to me are given so that I can go about the job that I do to represent the people of my constituency. It is important that we all understand where those standards — selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership — really lie. Yes, they are all self-regulating, but there must be something here that holds Members to account if they fall below those standards.”
“In many ways, she has answered my supplementary, but how will she adopt a more patient-centred approach to addressing waiting times than we saw with her predecessor?”
“I thank the Minister for her direct answer. I hope she can agree that statistics can often mask the hurt and pain that patients feel as they wait for an initial appointment, or, as I have found out recently, that of those who have had tests and get the results far too late.”
“It is really important that we take action against these people, and I fully support the motion.”
“Some of the animals were lying dead in sheds with other animals walking over the top of them. Some animals had not been fed, and some were not getting water. He got a five-month prison sentence suspended for three years and was banned from keeping animals for five years. That is just not enough for a repeat offender.”
“That would include registration of the dog from birth to death and a database outlining all its injuries. <BR /> <BR />You can see that all the legislation we need to create a good animal welfare policy is there, but it is all about the message. How do we message this, and how do we deal with sentencing? Although we have got to the stage where we have increased sentences for animal cruelty, we are not actually applying them. I do not want to see anybody languishing in jail, but sometimes you have to say, "If you are going to do this continually, you deserve to go to jail". In April this year, a farmer — I will not mention his name, but he was a repeat offender — was convicted of cruelty to his livestock. He had 153 taken off him, and 18 had to be put down.”
“We talk a lot of fluffy animals and see a lot of them on the television — cats and dogs — and people talk about cruelty to them, but the cruelty to some of our animals that go to slaughter is just as bad. We believe that every animal should be stunned before slaughter. We are open to everybody's religious views and practices, but that is the most humane way to do it, and we think we should ensure that all animals are stunned. Although we have confidence in our slaughterhouses and the regulations for them, to give the public confidence it would be important to have CCTV in the slaughterhouses where animals are kept and slaughtered. When we look at greyhound racing and the regulations governing it, we can see that they need to be tightened up to prevent cruelty.”
“<BR /> <BR />Like the Members who have spoken, the Ulster Unionist Party is absolutely in favour of creating a central register of those convicted of animal cruelty. The Data Protection Act is only an obstacle and not an insurmountable obstacle that we can get past to implement this. It is something we know about and can work through, and I ask the Justice Minister to really put some effort into this so that we are not standing here having the same debate in another two years. <BR /> <BR />We in the Ulster Unionist Party also believe that there are other things we can do to help the legislation, such as to regulate the online advertisement of pets for sale, instead of having it self-regulated, along with breeder registration so that they work in conjunction and to improve welfare at slaughterhouses.”
“That is not a criticism; it just tells you that, from 2014 to now, we have not progressed far enough. Of course, in 2014, we did progress. We got a review of the implementation of the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011. That helped to increase the sentence after conviction on indictment to a maximum of five years with an unspecified fine and on summary conviction to a maximum of 12 months with, I think, a £20,000 fine. There are a lot of things we can do to prevent cruelty to animals and deal with welfare. They include confiscation, disqualification, improvement notices and PSNI enforcement powers on dogfighting, for example. The legislation is there, and we have done well to get it in place. What it is all about now is implementing it.”
“I thank the Member for tabling the motion. It is an important motion, and I welcome the debate. I agree that it is a bit like treading water. In 2014, we had a similar debate that started off with:”
“I believe that, in its current form, some of those pressures are not sustainable. <BR /> <BR />I am also concerned that we, as a group of people, particularly the Government, are far too busy blaming the Tory Government for all our ills. Yes, of course, they are partly to blame, and yes, austerity is coming from them. I am not defending them in any shape or form, but we cannot keep looking back at the past and blaming it for what we want to do in the future. We need to come up with a sustainable system, we need to come up with something that deals with all the issues and we need to use that money productively to help the people whom we all represent.”
“Why can PCSPs and the Department for Communities not work together in cross-departmental groupings to resource that particular strand of justice? Likewise, the Probation Board, working with the Department of Education and the Department of Health, should share resources and cost. We should advocate different Departments sharing costs and resources to have the same outcome. <BR /> <BR />I am not being overly critical of the Budget. I am trying to be constructive in what I say, but I am concerned. I am concerned about all the pressures on all the Departments.”
“There needs to be more, and there needs to be more of a commitment. There we have the effect: if we have more of a commitment to that, somebody else is going to have to lose out. That is why we need to combine the effects. Every effort must be made by everyone in the House to try to unlock the £150 million that is available for the setting up of bodies to deal with the past. That is in everybody's interests, and we need to work together on it. <BR /> <BR />We need innovative ways of using our Budget better. Everybody is saying that you have to stand and offer different and innovative ways of doing things, and it is very difficult to do that when you stand here. Just by talking, maybe I imply that there are innovative ways. The PCSPs are resourced and paid for by the PSNI, yet communities have a big input in them.”
“We all know about the ongoing issues with the Stakeknife investigation. That could cost £30 million, which will have an effect on the PSNI's budget. <BR /> <BR />Mostly, I am concerned that the Department of Justice's budget will fall seriously short if all the recommendations from the three-person panel are put in place. Thirteen of those recommendations fall directly to the Department of Justice, with a further 10 implying a justice input. Those include moving back to community policing, restorative justice initiatives, working with the Probation Service to prepare paramilitaries for their return to society and integration. Those are all good things — I have no issue with them — but they are all going to cost money. The £10 million that has been set aside to cover that is nowhere near enough.”
“<BR /> <BR />I have concerns that the underfunding of the Northern Ireland Prison Service of 2·9% will have a serious effect, as we continue with the separated prisoner regime, which invariably costs more money. I mentioned that before, and I mention it now because it was forced on us in 2003 by a direct rule Minister, and we have not yet had a chance to debate it. We are being held to account by a direct rule Minister from 2003, and we are paying for it. So I hope we have a chance to debate it and come up with a solution, whether that involves keeping the regime going and taking the additional cost or suspending it and moving forward, as we all hope to do. <BR /> <BR />I have concerns about the PSNI budget. Does it have resilience in the funding of policing in the present while looking after policing from the past.”
“So, what is possible? The non-ring-fenced resource DEL for the Department of Justice is reduced by 5·7%. The PSNI's part has only been reduced by 2%, but overall the figure is 5·7%. Is that an outcome-based approach, as described in the draft Programme for Government framework, or are we looking at a finance-driven effect? There is obviously a need for that because money is finite, but, before we have a Programme for Government and before we have decided what we want to achieve, we have divvied out the money. So the finance has come before the outcome in this case. With the Department of Justice, we are hoping, after we get this year's Budget through, that the next Budget will run for the following three years. That should realign and fix itself in the long term.”
“When I look at how the DUP and Sinn Féin have aligned the moneys for that Department's budget, I find it interesting that they have used the following three criteria when allocating to the different directorates:”
“Any Budget will have a financial action that creates a financial reaction and effect: giving money to one Department will have an effect on other Departments. The DUP and Sinn Féin manifestos stated that they would give an extra £1 billion to the Department of Health over the next five years, and that will have an effect on other Departments. The important thing is to make it have a positive effect on other Departments by making sure that they work together. You can easily see that giving money to the Department of Health can have an effect on the Department for Communities and the Department of Education. <BR /> <BR />As a member of the Justice Committee, I will look at the Department of Justice, and I look forward to debating that at Committee on Thursday so that I can get into the finer detail.”
“I wish the Minister well as he takes up his new undertaking to safeguard the finances of our country. I view him neither as a rogue nor a renegade, but I hope that he will listen. I hope that he will engage. I hope that he will be magnanimous to those who do not sit in government and accept, in the right spirit, any criticisms that we may have. I will aim not to be overtly critical, but criticism is not necessarily a bad thing. It can highlight issues and alternatives, and all you need do is look between the lines to see what those alternatives are. Criticism is not just about poking the finger — you have to drag out what you can get from it. <BR /> <BR />I will try to be quite frugal and direct while talking about the Budget.”
“But the bottom line is that the work of dealing with the drugs issue in Northern Ireland will lie with our communities, it will lie with our messaging, it will lie with our health service and our justice system and it will lie with the PSNI. It is up to us to ensure that we facilitate them in dealing with it.”
“I have stood in the cannabis fields of Asia and watched it being cultivated and sold. I saw the people who grow it getting pennies while the people who refined it, cut it and exported it to us in the West got the real money. There has to be an international response to drugs. One of the reasons why I genuinely believe that it is better that we stay in the EU is that we can try to tackle the drugs trade before it reaches our shores. When it does reach our shores, it is important that the National Crime Agency takes hold of the issue and tries to prevent the drugs from getting onto our streets.”
“I hope that the Justice Minister can take that away and think about that for the future. <BR /> <BR />There is a problem with illegal drugs in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, which is the social messaging that is going out. It does not matter who we are — the slightly older, slightly fatter people standing in this Assembly. Under 18s and young men believe that it is socially acceptable to take drugs. Some of the messages that are going out tell them that it is socially acceptable to take drugs. Some people are told that cannabis is not habit-forming and that it is not a gateway drug. Having worked, trained and lived with under-18-year-olds, I know how difficult it is to try to sell the very clear message that there should be zero tolerance for drugs. <BR /> <BR />I have seen first hand what drugs can do to a society.”
“First, I would like to say that I fully support the DUP motion. It is a good and timely motion, and the SDLP's amendment gives it added teeth, so I also support that. <BR /> <BR />As I listened to other contributors — I will be reasonably brief because I cannot but agree with them all so far — I recognised that it is important that we focus on prevention as opposed to waiting until we get the drug addict and have to deal with that raw product. I also agreed with Nichola Mallon when she said that this cannot be just for the criminal justice system and the Justice Minister; this has to involve the Communities Minister, the Education Minister, the Health Minister and the Finance Minister. What we really need is a cross-ministry action plan to deal with the drugs issue.”
“I genuinely did, and I genuinely want that. What I got was an expensive doorstop holding closed the door to prosperity, social progress, cultural acceptance and the normalised society that our people deserve.”
“I commend the Police Service of Northern Ireland for how it dealt with them during and after the parade, but the damage is already done because those paramilitary parades are influencing our children. Where is the indicator to deal with that? Before some of you people sitting here roll your eyes at me on this, let me remind you that paramilitarism affects far more of our outcomes, such as our international standing in outcome 10; an effective justice system in outcome 11; division and segregation in outcome 12; and effective and reliable public services in outcome 13. Those are all affected by paramilitarism, yet we have not, in this document, addressed it with any indicators whatsoever. <BR /> <BR />As a new MLA, I came in here expecting to see a Programme for Government that would handrail us to a brighter long-term future.”
“We allow that to happen. We sustain it. We give it credibility. We give it an identity. We are giving it structure. We are allowing them to direct terrorism, and, if anybody thinks that that is not true, you just have to look at the brutal murders of prison officer Ismay and prison officer Black. Where are the indicators to deal with that and to stop the segregation and treat those people as they are: criminals to be dealt with as criminals? <BR /> <BR />Look at it from a more basic level and at the illegal paramilitary parades on our streets. Indeed, in my area of Upper Bann, in Lurgan, there were men, women and children dressed in paramilitary uniforms.”
“Where are the indicators to address that? In fact, the Executive — I have to say that the Ulster Unionist Party was part of the Executive and is not without blame — are sustaining paramilitarism in this country. Looking to the future, I can see us sustaining it for another five years. We have semi-autonomous paramilitary wings at Her Majesty's Prison in Maghaberry.”
“At its heart is the Fresh Start Agreement, and, at the heart of the Fresh Start Agreement is tackling paramilitarism. Yet, there is absolutely no mention of paramilitarism until page 29, and, even then, it is fleeting with no measurable outcomes and no indicators. Let me just take a line from outcome 7, if I may:”
“It remains a difficult time for me and a difficult time for my family, but knowing that there are people like you who gave me those kind words has helped me and will help me in the long term, as it will help my family. <BR /> <BR />As I move on, I have to start by saying that I am disappointed by this whimsical document on crisp white paper with no real value, intellectual currency or, in fact, shifting responsibilities. It sets an agenda for the next five years but does not give a long-term vision for Northern Ireland in the next 20 or 30 years. In fact, there may even be some in government who do not want Northern Ireland to have that long-term future. <BR /> <BR />Let us drill down into the document a little. No, let us just scratch the surface for a moment.”
“I will represent them just as much as I will represent anybody else in my constituency, and I will use the core values and standards that have sustained me over my whole lifetime: integrity, respect for others, professionalism, selfless commitment, courage and, above all, loyalty. I am extremely proud to be opening a fully functioning MLA constituency office in Portadown once again. <BR /> <BR />If I may, I will take a moment out to thank all Members for their kind words of support on the passing of my beautiful grandson Cameron, who died at the age of 15 months, the day before the election. Your kind words have sustained me.”
“Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker. It is nice to stand up to get some blood flowing in my legs. I will start by paying tribute to my predecessor, Sam Gardiner MBE, a one-time Father of the House. His dedication to these institutions, to the people of Upper Bann and, indeed, to Lurgan is extremely well known. I wish him all the best for the future. He has handed that baton on to me, and I am very mindful that I am here to represent all the people of Upper Bann. I must take the opportunity to thank those people for putting their faith in me and voting me into the Assembly. <BR /> <BR />I believe that it is also important to show humility because, for all those who voted for me, there are many more who did not and did not give me a preference.”