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.”
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“I encourage the Department to consider the licence-surrender principle, if it is not in this legislation, because it is very concerning that we are losing our local community pubs to supermarkets and shops. <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much, Minister, for bringing forward the Bill. We are aiming for Easter, and, hopefully, with you, we will get the legislation through for Easter.”
“However, as has been raised here before by others, that means that the regulated, controlled environment of the pub is not there to protect and manage drinking. My colleague Paula Bradshaw MLA has said — indeed, Mark Durkan brought this up today — that we need to manage alcohol, and, indeed, we support minimum unit pricing of alcohol. We also support responsible drinking, as does the hospitality sector. <BR /> <BR />I am delighted to say that we support the Bill's Second Stage. The legislation is long overdue and is good. We look forward to its scrutiny. If amendments happen to come along, be they from the Minister, the Committee or whomever, we will look at those.”
“Private trade means that, while court costs for a licence remain within a few hundred pounds, the licence can be privately traded for five- or six-figure sums. That happens because of the number of licences available here. If anybody wants to buy a licence to open a new pub, they have to wait until someone else surrenders theirs. However, that person will have to compete with supermarkets or convenience stores to purchase that licence. While I support competition, what has happened in Northern Ireland is that there has been the loss of local community pubs and an increase in off-sales. <BR /> <BR />Sixty-five per cent of alcohol may be drunk at home, and that may appear to suggest that selling alcohol through off-sales is the way to go.”
“Local breweries already export the majority of their products. They cannot sell it on site, so they export. With Brexit looming, which may impact their export sales, they need a strong local market to enable them to invest in their employees and equipment in order to facilitate exports. <BR /> <BR />The nature of taprooms is that they are ancillary to the main purpose of breweries. It has been proven that breweries become less financially dependent on a taproom once they have established their brand in the local market, which the taproom allows them to do. We will look at that issue when it comes forward for further scrutiny. <BR /> <BR />One of the issues that has come up, and I have received an awful lot of communication about this, is the cost of buying a licence. I appreciate that that is not in the Bill.”
“<BR /> <BR />Until 2016, national stadiums such as Windsor Park and the then Ravenhill rugby ground had to use an occasional licence for every fixture held at their ground. Hospitality Ulster argued that, because there was public demand for alcohol to be served at matches and occasional licences were not designed to be used in that way, a new category of licence should be created to allow national stadiums to serve alcohol at matches. That argument was successful, and a new category of licence was created. That is not dissimilar to what the breweries are seeking. <BR /> <BR />In Northern Ireland, 99% of beer sold is produced elsewhere. Building local brands will encourage more pubs to begin selling local beer on draught, keeping money and jobs in the local economy and increasing HMRC tax revenues.”
“Given that they are not currently legislated for, the only legal way for breweries to operate taprooms is by using occasional licences. Breweries acknowledge that that is not what occasional licences are designed for. That is the specific reason they are asking for the ability to obtain a producers' licence, and I am sure that they will come to the Committee to seek that. By using an occasional licence, a brewery can operate a taproom selling whatever drinks it likes and have the same closing time as pubs. I can certainly understand why pubs would be concerned about that. However, breweries are willing to compromise by selling only their own products and limiting their closing time to 11.00 pm.”
“<BR /> <BR />However, there are other aspects of the Bill that we will consider, and I look forward to doing so during the Committee Stage. For instance, one issue that has already been raised is the producer's licence. That licence does not allow local producers to sell produce from their own premises. Our current model inhibits the growth of local producers due to the fact that a licence on the private market can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. That leaves publicans with no choice but to sign contracts with multi-national brands in exchange for financial incentives, cutting local producers out of the market and sending money out of the economy. <BR /> <BR />There is wide public support for local-producer taprooms, and we have all been approached by many people who would like to see them.”
“However, although we are in the grip of an economic crisis, we have to set aside the immediate concerns and create legislation fit for the future. <BR /> <BR />There is a lot to be grateful for in this legislation; there is a lot going forward and aiming for the future. The Alliance Party supports the increase in the number of late licences for pubs and clubs. We are delighted to see the changes to Easter opening times, which we have supported for some time. We welcome the clarification that school formals can remain on premises after 9.00 pm as long as alcohol is not served. I expect that there may be further debate about extended drinking-up time, given that it will mean people coming out of pubs and clubs as late as 3.00 am.”
“I thank the Minister for bringing the Bill to the House, and I confirm that the Alliance Party, of course, supports it. <BR /> <BR />I would like to thank Hospitality Ulster for some of these figures. The hospitality sector sustains 60,000 jobs, 40,000 of which are in tourism alone. Tourism delivers £750 million to the Northern Ireland economy, and food and drink accounts for more than 30% of visitor spend. <BR /> <BR />While the Assembly had targets to grow tourism income and the number of the jobs in the sector annually, unfortunately COVID-19 has caused catastrophe in the industry. Without the financial support provided through the furlough scheme, rates relief and other measures, many pubs and clubs would have closed, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs across Northern Ireland.”
“Thank you very much to the Minister for a very ambitious housing plan that has come to the House today. At the start of your statement, you asked us for support. The Alliance Party will not be found wanting in that, because this is well needed across Northern Ireland. I noticed that, in paragraph 38, you talk about mixed tenure being at the heart of this. Does that mixed tenure extend to shared housing? The Executive's commitment to shared housing has been very welcome over the years. I want to make sure that, when you talk about mixed tenure, that extends to the people who live in those houses and shared housing.”
“Thank you very much, Minister, for giving way. I had not realised that school equipment, such as laptops, was being used for this purpose in particular. Does the Minister agree that Engage funding is allowed to be used by primary schools for this purpose?”
“Finally, how much money is being paid into the system by the private companies that are getting our schools and our teachers to prepare children for their tests?”
“What was the rationale for using existing codes that retain their original purpose rather than creating specific and additional codes — as has been done across England and Scotland — that are much more clear-cut and honest? Where the aforementioned codes are used, non-attendance is only meant to be recorded if pupils are partaking in home-based learning. Can we have an update on progress on blended learning? What additional methods are used by the Education Training Inspectorate (ETI) to ensure consistency of standards and access to remote learning for children who are not physically attending schools because of circumstances related to COVID-19?”
“I am not misrepresenting. You do allow post-primary tests that are run by two private companies to be held in schools that you fund. <BR /> <BR />This year, we are in a pandemic and 10- and 11-year-olds already have huge mental health concerns. On their behalf and on parents' behalf, I ask you this very clearly: what specific advice has the Department of Education received from the PHA and the Health and Safety Executive regarding test-day arrangements for upcoming post-primary transfer tests that will be hosted in many grant-aided schools across Northern Ireland on a Saturday? Who is paying for that? <BR /> <BR />The Department Education has decided to use a variety of existing different codes, namely "8", "I", "P" and "!", to record non-attendance attributed to a number of circumstances related to COVID-19.”
“Minister, when I say that you allow those companies to do the test, you allow post-primary schools to issue criteria in the book and allow grant-aided schools to have this test performed in their buildings.”
“That is horrendous. As someone who grew up with free school meals, I find that answer shocking. I look back at Education and ask, "What type of system are you making?". <BR /> <BR />There are other answers that do not come as a shock. Some 43% of respondents want the post-primary transfer test abolished and 29% say to reform it. Minister, you have already reformed GCSEs, AS levels and A2s. Why not step in and change the post-primary transfer? <BR /> <BR />This is where we get to the nub of the matter. It is not within the Minister's gift to control the post-primary transfer tests, because the Minister allows two private companies to use school premises to make money out of tests that stress children. They have gone out of their way to protect their tests during a pandemic.”
“As adults, we should be doing all that we can to put children at the centre of this. We need to think about how the pandemic has already impacted on those children. We need to do everything in our power to reduce the mental health impact on those children. The post-primary transfer test is one area that is creating stress for children — they said it in their own words — at a time when society is under such stress from a killer virus. <BR /> <BR />There are some shocking findings in this report. I am disgusted that the majority of parents, teachers and other interested parties in this survey feel that free school meals entitlement is a poor or very poor criterion to use. What is going on in our schools or with parents? To me, that suggests that adults do not want children who receive free school meals to be in a class with their child.”
“Thank you very much to the Member but, if he knows how word clouds work, he will know that, the larger the word appears, the more it has been said by children. The words that he used are tiny, whereas”
“As others have said, this is not a debate about whether we should have a post-primary transfer test. It is a debate about what should happen this year, in the midst of a pandemic. Before Mr Allister asks to intervene, I do not support transfer tests, but this is not about what I think. This is about what we should be doing to make a change in the difficult circumstances that children face. <BR /> <BR />This is an important discussion about how child-centred our education system is. In this survey, children used words like "stress", "worry", "nervous", "excited", "hard", "scared" and "unfair". Those are words coming from 10- and 11-year-olds. We have to do all that we can to put children at the centre of considerations. As adults, taking appropriate consideration —”
“I am a huge supporter of co-production and co-design, and it is right that parents and children should be part of the debate. We all agree that their voices are of paramount importance in the debate.”
“I begin by clarifying that I am not on the Education Committee. "Thank goodness", say some Members. However, I declare an interest as a member of the board of governors of two schools — one primary and one post-primary. I do not have a child facing the transfer test this year; I have never had. My family chose not to go through the system as we did not need to. The school that my daughter attends is the closest integrated school to my home. It accepts children on an all-ability basis. She is sitting her A levels, so not taking the transfer test did not hold her education back in any way, shape or form. <BR /> <BR />As a parent, I thank the Committee for Education for asking parents, teachers and children what should happen with the transfer test this year.”
“I thank the Minister and her Department for all their hard work throughout the pandemic. The Minister mentioned the new Community Safety Board. As we all know, some communities are tortured by antisocial behaviour. Can the Minister tell me who sits on the newly established Community Safety Board? What work is being done to prevent antisocial behaviour in communities?”
“My supplementary question has been answered, Mr Speaker.”
“Will the deputy First Minister ensure that applicants to the redress board are made aware of what information is being sought about applicants, particularly if the board is seeking their criminal records, as this is very distressing for victims?”
“The reports that will be brought forward from each pension scheme or master trust will be welcome. As the Chair said on behalf of the Committee, while the Committee welcomes it, we would have preferred that it were not an LCM, but we are where we are. I must ask the Minister to confirm that any future amendments will be brought back to the House so that nothing slips through that would be bad for customers or exclude us from opportunities for master trusts.”
“<BR /> <BR />As the Minister said, the Bill requires master trusts to provide information on how money is being invested by reporting climate-related sustainable investments. That will help us as a society, as we move towards a lower-carbon economy with the ultimate goal of zero emissions. <BR /> <BR />I welcome the pensions dashboards for both the public and private sectors. After all, they are our pensions. It is not fair to ask a normal person on the street to try to find out exactly what is happening with their pension, so the dashboard is welcome. <BR /> <BR />The LCM provides openness and transparency for customers. The dashboards, as I said, will be one way to do that. It protects people's pensions by giving the Pensions Regulator more powers. It works towards a low-carbon economy.”
“The power to override contract terms allows the Department to make regulations that restrict charges or impose requirements on certain pension schemes. For example, if a contract between those persons currently provides for a type or level of charge, such as member-borne commission or an exit charge, that is prohibited under regulations made under paragraph 1 of schedule 18. It allows regulations to provide that the provision of a scheme will be overridden in the event of any conflict in the legislation. The Bill caps early exit charges. It does not set out what those levels will be, but it is vital for customers to know that they will be able to access pension freedoms without overly expensive barriers.”
“The reason why my party supports the LCM is that part 1 of the Bill provides authorisation for master trusts to be introduced along with the criteria that they have to meet. That means that all master trusts will have to demonstrate to the Pensions Regulator that they can meet criteria and that their trustees are fit and proper persons who can meet the criteria and act within required parameters in the event of wind-up or closure of a trust. The Pensions Regulator will have greater powers to take action where key criteria are not met. It also means that master trusts operating outside the UK will be open to employers here as long as the master trust registers in the UK and complies with that criterion and the Pensions Regulator. <BR /> <BR />Part 2 of the Bill supports a cap on early exit charges.”
“I thank the Minister for Communities for tabling the LCM. The Pension Schemes Bill extends to Northern Ireland the provisions of the GB Pension Schemes Act 2017. The extension could not proceed as intended in 2017 as this place was suspended. It is time that we ensured that people who have workplace pensions here are covered by the same protections as people elsewhere in the UK. Therefore, on behalf of the Alliance Party, I support the LCM. <BR /> <BR />Following the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, it was compulsory for employers to automatically enrol eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension. The pensions market responded, and master trusts developed. Master trusts are multi-employer pension schemes that employers pick for their staff rather than having to set up their own scheme.”
“We need to get it out the door quickly, and we need those Departments that are sitting on it and expecting to spend it to look to see whether there is an underspend so that they can share it out.”
“<BR /> <BR />Minister, are you investigating in depth whether all the money in all the Departments will be spent, and, if not, are you recalling it? I seriously hope that in the October monitoring round we have some good news for those who are under the age of 25 and those who are unemployed. <BR /> <BR />As I said, there is no safety net. This is a crisis Budget, but the crisis is not over yet, and we may have much worse to come. <BR /> <BR />That is all that I want to say on this. I will not take up too much time, because many people have spoken about the Budget and it was debated yesterday. A lot of money is knocking about in Northern Ireland. There are a lot of people who have not got that money, and there are a lot of people who are depending on it.”
“There are a lot of people in our community who are citizens who have worked all their life and paid into a pension fund and who may now find that it has been impacted because of investments that have been hurt as a result of the global economic crisis. That will be an important determinant of when they can retire. <BR /> <BR />I do not think that there is any safety net in this Budget, but I think that there is headroom. Health, for instance, has £600 million set aside. None of us in the House would deny Health money, but there is very little time left until the end of March. If any Department has any money that they can give to and share with where there are pressures in other Departments, I ask them to please do so.”
“<BR /> <BR />We need to support the so-called scarred youth. We need to support our unpaid carers, who are at breaking point at this stage. We need to support house building in order to meet the growing list of people who do not have a home. Short-term investment in Communities is needed in order to fund the 900 staff that will have to be taken on to address the number of universal credit applications that are just about to hit the Department. <BR /> <BR />We need investment in real-time monitoring. It is critical for us to understand the impacts. We need to plan ahead for the issues that may be coming because of COVID. For example, has anyone here thought to look at their pension fund and at how much the investment has been hit because of COVID?”
“While I mentioned the under-25s, we have to consider that the apprenticeship scheme that has been brought forward by the Economy Minister needs to extend to older people too, because that is an age group of people who are losing jobs and who will not be employed again unless we give them support. <BR /> <BR />Departments have received a huge amount of money. There is a huge amount of money for the Department of Finance to work through this year, but I have to ask this: is there any headroom? I know that we have not seen the October monitoring round so far, but will all the unhypothecated amounts of money that have been given out be spent by each of the Departments? Will there be losers? The losers seem to be the under-25s and those over-55s who will lose their job as a result of the impact of COVID on our economy.”
“Therefore, without a commitment to labour market interventions, we are leaving a generation of young people without a job or any hope of getting one for some time to come. <BR /> <BR />This so-called scarring effect will hurt us for a long time. We may see young people moving away from Northern Ireland because there are no options here for them. Young people and the least well off are more likely to lose jobs and to suffer from reduced income during this COVID crisis. It is worth noting that 57% of those furloughed are men and 43% are women. We need to consider the age profile of those who have been furloughed or who have lost their job.”
“It confirms that one in four say that COVID-19 is impacting on their household finance; 75% say that they face reduced income. Ulster University estimates that 258,000 people have been furloughed or laid off — 30% of all those employed here. People who work in the food sector, in retail, in elementary admin and services have experienced the most severe impact. Furlough saved their jobs, but it comes to an end on 31 October. <BR /> <BR />There will be a huge upsurge in applications for universal credit. Those most affected are people under the age of 25 who work in those areas. Thirty-six per cent of people who are employed in the accommodation and food sectors are under 25. Under-25s represent one tenth — 12% — of the total employment in Northern Ireland.”
“The Executive received Barnett consequentials of £6·116 million of resource DEL in 2020-21 to support the Communities Jobstart programme, which was announced on 8 July and is due to commence in November, only a few days away. <BR /> <BR />The Minister confirmed that she had bid for £4·8 million for labour market interventions in 2020-21 but, to date, had received no Executive allocation. Her Department is now seeking to manage that pressure internally through reprioritisation and the reallocation of funds. She intends to make a further bid in the January monitoring round for any pressure that remains in her Department for that matter through to 31 March. <BR /> <BR />I would like to draw everyone's attention to a very interesting Ulster University report, entitled 'Labour market implications of COVID-19'.”
“I start by thanking the Minister and his staff for what must have been a very interesting year working on budgets, since every week brought new amounts of money to their table. The Budget comes during COVID-19, and we can say with certainty that no sector, Department or family has been left untouched but that certain groups will bear a disproportionate impact of the virus. Unfortunately, this Budget will not address that. <BR /> <BR />One of things that I have noticed since joining the Communities Committee — the Infrastructure Committee is happy that I have shifted to Communities — is that we are failing young people under the age of 25. I refer particularly to labour market interventions.”
“Thank you very much, Minister, for your answers so far. Can you provide an update not just on the A1 but on the A5 and the A6 flagship projects, please?”
“Why not put forward the economy pieces that we need more quickly? Why not invest in where the money needs to go?”
“The Speaker has said on plenty of occasions that we need more Executive business to come to the House. Let us get the business moved forward and start planning for the future. Let us start planning for a time when we are not closing things. Let us start planning ahead. I know that the Budget is coming through, but we still do not have the October monitoring round. We still cannot see what is happening with next year's Budget. We need to move forward. <BR /> <BR />Why are these amendment regulations coming to the House so late? It does not have to be 26 days. We will work with you. The House will work with the Executive to do what needs to be done to ensure that our citizens have the best possible service from us. Amendment (No. 10) was laid today, and it could be done next week. Why not move it forward more quickly?”
“When the carers go down, our health service will be on its knees. <BR /> <BR />While we are sticking this out and trying our best not to spread the virus, we should recognise that up in Derry — my goodness — there are further weeks when people have no opportunity to make an income. We are in the mouth of Christmas, and families do not know what they will be doing. Presenteeism is happening because some employers are forcing employees into the workplace. Some employees are working more hours because they feel guilty as their children are at home, and it is presumed that they are not working. <BR /> <BR />We cannot afford any more delays. Can we please get all the outstanding regulation amendments forwarded to the House as soon as possible?”
“They do not need their businesses going down the pan because they have closed again. They have to keep at this because it is all about saving lives. I read on social media that the reason people wear a mask, wash their hands and keep a social distance is to keep someone else alive. We have to keep that message going. <BR /> <BR />When the next round of amendment regulations comes forward, I ask the Minister to recognise the carers and not just the businesses that Ms Anderson talked about. Since March, the carers have been caring 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I know that people on Twitter or some smart alec will say that you cannot work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but carers do. They do not get a break. They have not had a break. There is no day care. There is no respite. There is no help. No one is rushing to help carers.”
“While people are frustrated with the virus, we have delayed things. We need to move more quickly. <BR /> <BR />I have already written to the First Minister and deputy First Minister to say that part of the current problem is not only the rising COVID infection rate in the community but the boring message that we are giving to people. The arts sector is on its knees, and thank goodness the Executive have said today that money will go to the sector. Can we please use interesting people to get the message out? No harm to anyone, but the podium has become irrelevant to folk. A boring message is being put across in such a doom-and-gloom way that people just hear it as "another day at the podium". <BR /> <BR />We need to take people with us on this journey. They need to fight with us. They need to be with us. They need to stick to the message.”
“The money is there and it needs to go out. People need it. Why is there still a delay? The situation has changed since the amendment regulations were written. That was so long ago that the pubs are now closed. The amendments are irrelevant given what has since come to pass. As many Members have said this evening, Northern Ireland cannot afford any more delays for the businesses that have been impacted. <BR /> <BR />There are necessary rules in place. Please do not get me wrong. I have absolutely every sympathy for any family who has had a death, for those who have tested positive and been left with poor health, for those with loved ones in hospital whom they cannot see and for those in care homes who are heartbroken and do not understand why their family cannot see them or hug them. This virus is horrendous.”
“That is what is happening now. There is delay after delay, and we heard it from many Members here this evening. There are delays in the Department for the Economy getting money out to people. Really? What is the problem?”
“I ask the junior Minister to clarify that for us.”
“These new restrictions — amendment Nos 5, 6 and 7 — have been and gone. They are subject to negative resolution. That means that they took effect on the day that they were laid. I ask the junior Minister to clarify, please, why it takes so long for the regulations to come to the House. They are subject to negative resolution, and, as soon as they are laid, they become law, so why do they take so long to get here? Earlier today, amendment (No. 10) went through. If that had been subject to affirmative resolution, we could have debated it in the House and it would have gone through. The way that the process works means that we take for ever to get these through to the House. We could have done amendment Nos 5, 6, 7 ,8 and 9 today, but, instead, we are doing things that were passed at the end of September and the start of October.”
“Will the Minister give assurances that any investment strategy will complement and ensure a commitment to green new deal policies?”
“We should not let looked-after children be treated in the way in which we do. We have the opportunity here and now, as a whole Assembly, to say that we support the motion, we want something better and we want victims to be supported.”