Kellie Armstrong
Strangford · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill. It is timely and important. Miss McIlveen, a fellow MLA for the Strangford constituency, has just spoken.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Bill reflects the realities of the post-Brexit landscape by aligning protections here with those in other UK jurisdictions and the UK Fisheries Act. That consistency is important for standards, enforcement and international confidence in our products.”
“Last year, I met the Department and we discussed that. The opportunities for seaweed farming in Strangford lough are wonderful, and the opportunities from seaweed that Queen's University has identified are incredible. We are lucky to have those opportunities on our doorstep, as long as there is licensing and it is properly looked after.”
“Moving beyond managing individual fisheries, the Bill recognises the interconnected nature of our rivers, loughs and seas — an approach that is very much in line with Alliance's commitment to evidence-based environmental policy. The inclusion of a national benefit objective is also significant.”
“A while ago, we saw that commercial bottom trawling had all but decimated the horse mussel population in Strangford lough. It has since been changed to a special area of conservation. That limits a lot of activity in the lough, which is not a bad thing considering that horse mussels are coming back.”
“They allow for timely action on lower-level offences without over-burdening the courts while still acting as a meaningful deterrent. If only everybody were acting properly, we would not need to have those deterrents, but we are where we are, and the Bill hopes to improve upon that.”
The complete record
Every one of 2,635 lines we hold for Kellie Armstrong, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 11 of 53.
“I would rather that that money be used to provide the housing that so many people desperately need than it end up being handed back as a reduced requirement.”
“<BR /> <BR />Minister, in this year's figures, the Department for Communities has headroom included of £3·3 million in revenue and £1·5 million in capital. Will you confirm whether that includes the money that was allocated for storm Éowyn or whether that is in a separate headroom account? That information would be appreciated. <BR /> <BR />On net capital DEL spending trends, capital spend seems to be finally turning a corner after a period of falling investment. The draft Budget that the Executive are consulting on suggests an increase in DFC's capital that, I very much hope, will be used to achieve the housing strategy objectives and to deliver new social homes. Minister, given the ongoing issues with waste water and planning delays, are you confident that increased investment in social housing can be delivered?”
“As I said, I am on the Committee for Communities, so my comments will focus on the Department for Communities' Estimate. I see that the Assembly is once again being asked to authorise expenditure on welfare mitigations for people on universal credit on the sole authority of the Budget Bill. What assurances have you received from the Minister for Communities that he will have new legislation in place by 1 April 2025 — only six weeks away — to put welfare mitigations on a statutory footing so that we stop relying on the sole authority of the Budget Bill. My understanding is that sole authority is used for smaller amounts and for a short period. The Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons, has been in post now for over a year, but that issue has still not been sorted out, and we are coming very close to the end of the financial year.”
“For example, in the June monitoring round, the Department for Communities received a general allocation of £10 million and, in October, a general allocation of over £11 million. It is only in the memorandum that I have the detail of how that has been spent. That information should be provided to Committees at a much earlier stage to enable us to complete our scrutiny role. Minister, can you do something to encourage Departments to bring this forward much earlier in future?”
“I thank the Minister of Finance for tabling the Supply resolutions for the spring Supplementary Estimates, the Vote on Account and the 2023-24 Excesses. I congratulate him on his new ministerial post and on sitting through what will be one of many boring Budget debates. <BR /> <BR />I thank the Department of Finance and all the Departments for the provision of the Estimates memoranda. I know that there are some in the House who may not have come across this before, but this is the first time that we have received such a document. It is extremely useful, as it explains in simpler terms what the key issues and the expenditure trends are for each Department. Now, as the Deputy Chair of the Finance Committee, Diane Forsythe, said, it would have been better if this document had been provided to Committees much earlier.”
“We want legal mechanisms to end the inflation-busting rent rises and save tenants from living in poverty; mandatory time frames for landlords to inspect and carry out essential repairs so that people are not forced to live in homes that are unfit for inhabitation; open-ended tenancies and a ban on no-fault evictions to give tenants security in their homes; and new measures to boost the supply of affordable rental accommodation in every council area. It is only through delivering that new deal for private renters that we will end the misery that so many tenants across Northern Ireland experience. I hope that the Communities Minister will heed those calls and deliver a desperately needed new deal for private renters.”
“I rise to make an urgent call for greater support for over 300,000 people who are living in Northern Ireland's private rented sector. While many private renters have a good experience, that is far from universal. For some of them, life is, sadly, defined by a mixture of unaffordable rent hikes, long delays to have basic repairs carried out and the threat of being evicted and ending up homeless. Those challenges are not new, but the Communities Minister has been in post for over a year and, like his predecessors, has done little to tackle them. All the while, we have some private renters who cannot afford to eat, who are getting sick from the damp and mould in their homes and who do not know whether they will have a place to live in 12 months' time. That is why we in Alliance have published our plan for a new deal for private renters.”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. I agree that, if someone is defrauding the system and is convicted, they should be penalised. However, it is hard enough to get into the system in the first place. The Minister mentioned repeatedly bidding for additional resources for benefit security. Will he tell us, specifically, how much he has requested, for what purposes and why those bids were unsuccessful, given the Executive's stated commitment to tackling fraud?”
“While the Department has tried its best to time the roll-out well, if you are moved on to universal credit in September and then have a five-week wait until you finally get a payment, it is going to hit the run-up to Christmas. If you get moved to universal credit in July and have your five-week wait, it is going to hit the time when you are facing uniform costs. There are times of the year that cause people the most pressure and, unfortunately, some have been hit by the timing of the move to UC. The Alliance amendment provides solutions that have been designed by people with lived experience. My colleague Sian Mulholland has spent an extraordinary amount of time with people who are on universal credit and who have experienced the five-week wait. I ask Members to support the Alliance amendment and the SDLP motion.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I know that the Department is trying its hardest, but one way that we could make that change is through the solution that we have proposed in our amendment — making the grant a default payment and not offering people other choices; just making the default payment. As my colleague said, the cost of the upfront two-week payment would be covered by the savings that would be made from other things. Any fixes to the five-week wait are not going to be free — there will be costs to them — but let us make it as easy as possible for people who, to be honest, are living in poverty because of this. <BR /> <BR />The roll-out of universal credit has caused difficulties.”
“Two weeks' payment as a universal credit new claims payment, for instance, could be a way of mitigating that loss so that people, including children and families, are not living for those periods with no money. The contingency fund, rather than the loan, should be offered as a matter of course. I appreciate that the Minister has said that a lot of promotion of the universal credit contingency fund is happening, but it is still not working. There are still people coming to our offices and many of the advice centres saying that they were offered the loan first, and that they did not know about the contingency fund — that non-repayable fund that they could have accessed.”
“Advance loans are not the answer for people who are already in debt. People who have been moved on to universal credit as part of the planned migration have not had time to save up and prepare for that period without money. I have to say a huge thanks to the departmental officials, including Paddy Rooney, who came along to provide an informal update to the Communities Committee on the work that they are doing to try to mitigate those losses — they are doing the best that they can — because we all recognise that that five-week wait is causing harm. Those mitigations, while welcome, need to be added to. That is why we have called for the universal credit contingency fund to be changed to the new claims payment. My colleague Sian Mulholland talked about backdating, as supported by the IPPR.”
“That paramilitary lending is not recorded anywhere, because the services try to protect the person. They do that, because if the paramilitaries find out that that person is going to the social supermarket and telling it about their paramilitary lending, they will get an increased percentage added to their loan.”
“I can understand why the DUP amendment mentions a working group, but we have working groups coming out of our ears. We need to be doing something. We do not have any more time to waste. <BR /> <BR />As others said, the Trussell Trust has stated that, as universal credit has been rolled out, the use of food banks has increased. Social supermarkets, which one of our DUP colleagues mentioned, are great. I am, however, disappointed that, not all the time but a lot of the time, the underlying cause of the use of food banks and social supermarkets is paramilitary lending.”
“Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. I thank Mark Durkan and the SDLP for tabling the motion. I also thank my colleague Sian Mulholland for proposing our amendment, the DUP for its amendment and the Minister for his comments today. <BR /> <BR />My colleague Sian talked about what universal credit is and about the five-week wait. Others mentioned the run-on. Although some legacy benefits have a run-on into the five-week assessment period, carer's allowance, disability living allowance (DLA) and the personal independence payment (PIP) are some, along with child tax credits, that do not. That impacts on a number of families and causes them a loss of income. As my colleague Sian said, the Alliance Party has a policy paper called 'No More Time to Wait'. It reflects exactly what we have heard from individuals across Northern Ireland.”
“They said that the challenges that they face hit them every day. We have the opportunity, as one House, to speak on their behalf and to support them.”
“However, in giving them that money, the Government could acknowledge their worth and tell them, "You deserve a break". <BR /> <BR />I have to say that one thing that makes me most cross when I go to a GP's surgery is that there is no prescription for respite for a carer, only for the person whom they care for. The carer could be at breaking point, at their wits' end and devastated, yet respite is not provided for them. Those people are left behind in the health service, and carer's allowance will be deducted from their universal credit. It is a kick every way they turn. <BR /> <BR />The Assembly should want to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. However, the experiences of carers were shared in the Carers Northern Ireland report on caring in Northern Ireland now and in the future.”
“Why can we not afford what could potentially be £43 million for a carer's allowance? I calculated it out based on the figure of 77,400 and £550 a year; a bit like the Scotland model. It comes to £42·5 million. It sounds like a huge amount of money, but, as a carer, if I were handed £550 — now, I do not get carer's allowance, so I would not be included — that would pay for electricity and oil for the house. It would pay for groceries for my dad, not for me. Some people may be able to use that to pay someone else to sit with their loved one so that they can go and get their head showered for a while. It may pay for — I know rightly what carers are like — a new bed, part of a mattress or whatever for the person whom they care for. It is rarely the carer's intention to take money to use for themselves.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is difficult to think that some of the most important people we have, who are delivering care in the community in Northern Ireland — the real care in the community that was all planned for years ago in the reform of our health system — are being forced to live on the poverty line. The Minister has talked about the budget. I do not believe that it is solely a Communities budget issue; it is a cross-departmental issue. <BR /> <BR />I am delighted that there has been agreement on Sian's amendment, because, if you were to take the £5·8 billion per year that carers save Northern Ireland's health service and added to that the cost of domiciliary care to replace the 77,400 people and the costs for those people if they could not work at all, my goodness, we would be looking at a humongous amount of money.”
“The stress and pressure is difficult, but I count myself lucky because I am not one of the people who are sitting, like my dad used to be, at the beck and call of the person whom they are caring for 24 hours a day. They cannot work. My dad had to leave work at the age of 47 to look after his disabled brother when my mother passed away. That means doing everything from feeding them, washing them, dressing them, making sure that they have the right food all day and that they take their medication, taking them to doctor appointments — everything — to putting them to bed at night. For that, you do not get to work and are treated as somebody who, from April, is worth only £90-odd a week.”
“I declare an interest as a carer. I thank Gerry Carroll from the People Before Profit Alliance. Gerry, you do not get many motions in the House, and for you to commit your time for a carers' motion is much appreciated. I also thank my colleague Sian Mulholland, who has really grasped the subject and taken it to her heart. As we have said here with one voice, we all care what happens to carers. <BR /> <BR />I have been a carer for most of my adult life. It started with my disabled brother, who, sadly, has passed away. Now I have the joy of caring for my father, who will love me talking about him. I have to say that I am lucky as a carer because I can go out to work every day.”
“Those people receive an allowance that is not means-tested but is deducted from the other benefits that they receive. From April, if you earn £197 per week — £1 more than the £196 limit — you will lose the whole thing. There is no easing into it or anything like that. It is just gone.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Minister for his comments today. The number of unpaid carers across Northern Ireland has grown massively over the past five years. Looking at the benefit claimants extract from the Minister's Department, in December 2024, it says that 77,400 people are in receipt of carer's allowance. Others quoted figures such as 220,000. That shows that 35% of carers in Northern Ireland receive a carer's allowance.”
“I congratulate the Minister on her new post. Like Sinéad, I look forward to working with you, Minister. Minister, you mentioned the Open. The Open's bringing so many tourists to the area puts pressure on accommodation and public transport. What discussions have you had with the Minister for Infrastructure to ensure that there is enough public transport and that it is accessible?”
“Minister, now that we know that the review of primary social needs criteria and points will report around October 2016, will you confirm whether it will include co-production with victims or be based on the current framework and add something to that?”
“Why would we want to deny our young people opportunities to expand their knowledge base that may not be available in Northern Ireland? Does he agree that the best way to do that is through partnership?”
“— to favour first-time buyers should not be lost. As such, Alliance supports both amendments to the motion because we believe that more has been done, can be done and will be done.”
“Westminster could reform property taxation to increase market liquidity and encourage more efficient use of existing homes. However, the lessons of using stamp duty land tax —”
“<BR /> <BR />I believe that the Department for Communities should continue what it has started to do with the housing supply strategy and look to commit to having a package of housing policies and reforms that can achieve a successful housing market here in Northern Ireland. Working with lenders, the wider housing market industry and the public, the Department for Communities should aim to make homes more affordable, more available and more appropriate to the needs of those living in them and the world that we live in. <BR /> <BR />I will move on quickly, because I am running out of time. Our priorities have to include improving the supply of existing and new homes, including the increased delivery of affordable homes, and revising the planning system, with a greater focus on strategic planning and less focus on development control.”
“It is a balancing act. The number of first-time buyers is closely linked to the state of the mortgage market, housing market and wider economy. As such, there is an inevitable balance between support given to first-time buyers and the effects of that support on the housing market and the economy, both immediate and in the future — a point that Ciara Ferguson raised. It also works in reverse, with policies that impact on the housing market or economy having direct and indirect effects on first-time buyers. An important balance is the compromise between financial stability and first-time buyer numbers. The past decade has seen the balance tilted in favour of financial stability, with the inevitable cost of many being excluded from homeownership. It is now time to debate the costs and benefits of the current approach.”
“Given the substantial deposit barrier, the ability to become a first-time buyer is increasingly dependent on the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad, while successful first-time buyers increasingly need to have two incomes that are higher than the average wage. Meanwhile, those without family help or in single or lower incomes have been excluded from homeownership.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is also important to understand the possible lifetime costs of buying and owning a property and how those compare with the costs for previous generations. That helps our understanding of how the housing market works and the implications that it has for potential policy solutions. For example, comparisons across generations raise questions about long-held assumptions, such as whether the housing ladder still exists.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I may speak quite quickly, then. <BR /> <BR />I think that everyone here understands that becoming a first-time buyer is expensive. It is now possibly the most expensive that it has been over the past 70 years. There are two distinct parts to measuring the affordability of becoming a first-time buyer. The first is the cost of buying the house, and the second is the cost of owning. The Building Societies Association's property tracker shows that the affordability of mortgage repayments has become the biggest barrier to purchase. Prospective first-time buyers now find themselves in a very difficult situation, but, unfortunately, many of the proposed solutions to help them, which were dependent on low mortgage rates, are no longer as effective or even viable.”
“There is an opportunity to secure a sustainable future for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and those who have tinnitus.”
“AdaptNI was formed to provide specialist employment, pre-employment and training support for people who are deaf or have tinnitus. Despite the need for that type of support, support for deaf people is under threat, as funding to enable specialist help has not been made available. <BR /> <BR />With the imminent introduction of a sign language Bill, for which I am very grateful, there is a unique and pressing opportunity to ensure that sustainable service delivery is provided. That landmark legislation will increase the demand for accessible workplaces, career opportunities and training services. To that end, I call on the Minister of Health and the Minister for Communities to lead the charge to provide stable funding to provide support for individuals and organisations to meet those new standards.”
“I wish to highlight Tinnitus Week. This year's theme is the title of Tinnitus UK's report, 'Ringing the alarm: The tinnitus care crisis', and this week seeks to raise awareness of that crisis. Tinnitus is the name for the hearing of noises that are not caused by an outside source. It is common: around one in seven adults has such ringing all the time or regularly. Most often, tinnitus is linked to hearing loss or other ear conditions. Thankfully, it is rarely a sign of a serious condition, but it is a condition that can be debilitating. The persistent noise causes headaches and exhaustion. It feels like your brain never quietens. Help for people with tinnitus is provided in Northern Ireland by RNID and AdaptNI, which provide vital services for deaf, hearing loss and tinnitus communities across Northern Ireland.”
“If so, will the police be required to verify applications?”
“Today is an important step in our peacebuilding process when we see that Northern Ireland has the opportunity to remove intimidation points and not give paramilitaries the opportunity to threaten people and create a society that only they control. I thank the Minister for that and for addressing some of the frustrations that many of us know. I also appreciate that this decision reflects on many of the responses that were received by the Housing Executive from Homeless Connect and bodies like that, and I thank the Minister for that too. <BR /> <BR />In the review of primary social needs, there are still gaps. For example, it does not talk about the victims of human trafficking. I would welcome a review of that. Is it the Minister's intention that the primary social needs points will replace intimidation points?”
“Although I welcome the Minister's announcement about the anti-poverty strategy, my concern is that it will not come into being until after the Budget for the next financial year has been set. What actions will we therefore see coming out of it? Will it be another year before anything happens? <BR /> <BR />This debate comes at a difficult and emotional time, because it is our children in Northern Ireland who are suffering. I ask everyone to support our motion and the amendment so that we can make the lives of children better.”
“<BR /> <BR />Lots of parents out there are very concerned about the impact of poverty on their children. Hopefully, they will have an opportunity, through the public consultation, to look at what is being proposed and to have their say on what they think of the proposals. After all, they are the people who have to manage budgets, who have to see their children going without and who have to manage the expectations of those children in a household that is living in poverty. <BR /> <BR />It is very sad that we cannot copy what Scotland has done. Its approach, especially for children with disabilities, is much better than ours. That is because ours is framed on a Budget that is extraordinarily difficult.”
“Is it fair for them? Are they being treated with dignity? Do they have stability? I do not think so. I am really delighted that, today, we are speaking with one voice in the House and are all in agreement that an anti-poverty strategy is needed. We all want to see it introduced as soon as possible. We want it to be the right strategy, and we want to make sure that it contains time frames and targets. It needs to be published quickly, however, and we need to have buy-in from the entire Executive. The Alliance Party is on the Executive with other parties, and we say to all our Executive colleagues, "We need buy-in for this". We also need accountability and to make sure that a mechanism is in place to enable us to check how the strategy is working.”
“I agree absolutely with my colleague Sian. The difficulty in rural areas is that people who do not have access to a local supermarket often go to a local garage that happens to have a shop attached to it, and the prices there are maybe two or three times higher than those in a large supermarket. <BR /> <BR />All that is all while we have children coming through our education system and trying to be children.”
“Also, walk into a supermarket and look at how much it costs to buy things specifically for children, such as nappies, baby formula, wipes, toys and all of that.”
“However, we know that their being there is the start of or maybe midway through a journey and that they are living in absolute destitution. As was mentioned today, they are doing that because of child support debt and paramilitary and illegal lending. The percentages that paramilitaries are whopping on to people are unbelievable. People are repaying benefits loans, budgeting loans and things like that. The amount that they have to pay out of their benefits to make up the difference between housing benefit and rent is incredible. They are then hit with the cost of school trips, school uniforms, schools constantly asking for a pound for this and 50p for that and so on. It is never-ending. We need to review exactly how much parents are having to spend.”
“<BR /> <BR />For us to make sure that the Department for Work and Pensions has enough information about the impact that its two-child limit is having in Northern Ireland, we need to take to it information on and evidence of the effect of poverty on children. Wonderful reports have come through — not wonderful; they are quite distressing to read — from the Trussell Trust, the Public Accounts Committee and the Northern Ireland Audit Office. Children should not think it normal that they have to go to a food bank. <BR /> <BR />I have to say that, in my constituency, my office is one of the offices that distributes most of the food vouchers. When we have people in the office, we treat them with dignity. We know that they are very nervous, and we try to help them by showing as much respect as we can.”
“They struggle so much with the amount of income that they have in their house and with feeding their children that their children have mental stress. Having seen their family struggle so much, those children have real difficulties with money as they move to adulthood. <BR /> <BR />The anti-poverty strategy must include the three pillars that the Minister talked about and that my colleague Sian Mulholland mentioned. The Minister talked about the strategy having a lifespan of over 10 years. Those 10 years need to see actions, and I reiterate that we need targets and timescales to make sure that that is appropriate. Those targets and time frames are some of the things that I would love to see in the public consultation that is mentioned in the amendment tabled by the DUP, which Alliance will support.”
“<BR /> <BR />Some actions have already been introduced. For example, the Minister has confirmed that the welfare mitigations that are currently in place will continue for a period of years. I believe that, as part of the strategy, the two-child limit is an important matter that must be addressed with DWP. When we cost out the savings that could be made by removing that two-child limit, we might consider it to be beneficial for Northern Ireland and consider adding it to the welfare mitigations going forward. <BR /> <BR />The Minister talked about the scourge of poverty and its long-term consequences. This morning, we heard from parents who talked about the difficulty of seeing that cyclical poverty happening.”
“Not all of this falls to the Department for Communities and Minister Gordon Lyons. It falls to a lot of different Departments, and that is why it is so important to ensure that all the Executive sign up to the anti-poverty strategy — the Minister talked about introducing that in February — and commit to meeting targets and delivering on timescales. Mr Bradley was very good at summarising what a lot of other Members said in the debate, which saves me from doing it. He said that those targets and timescales are key. The last strategy failed because there were no targets or timescales. It may not be within the lifetime of this mandate, but, certainly within the next mandate, we should be seeing differences for people. To be honest, that will take a long time to come forward, and it makes me very sad to see that.”
“People want dignity, stability and fairness, and if we are to be fair to all our children in Northern Ireland, we have to give them a place to live that is safe and enough food that they can eat well, grow well and be healthy. We do not do that at the moment. We talk about the best start in life. Are we giving our children in Northern Ireland the best start in life?”
“Some children are embarrassed to tell their mum or dad about school trips because they know that it is going to be extraordinarily difficult for the family to be able to afford that amount of money.”