Colin McGrath
South Down · Social Democratic and Labour Party · Northern Ireland
“Minister, regardless of where people stand on the exact figure, surely we can all agree that a health service cannot function without the doctors whom it trains.”
“Minister, climate change is happening, and extreme weather events are taking place. We saw that in Downpatrick a number of years ago when the town centre was ravaged by flooding, and it has taken the businesses affected many years to try to get over that flooding.”
“Minister, given that capital funding is, generally, being decimated, the extent of which may increase as a result of the Executive's not agreeing a Budget, what impact will that have on any final road maintenance strategy, and are any contingencies being put in place to manage that?”
“<BR /> <BR />Since March 2025, the parliamentary excellence programme has delivered dedicated sessions with the Executive Office on the strategic framework and its delivery plan, enhancing Members’ understanding of the cross-government approach and their role in scrutiny, legislation and constituency engagement.”
“<BR /> <BR />More broadly, the Assembly Commission supports Members and Committees in carrying out their scrutiny functions, including in relation to the Executive Office’s work on that framework.”
“As the Member mentioned, one example is the Assembly's Women's Caucus, which has a particular focus on supporting women in public life and highlighting the increasing challenges that women face in the digital sphere, including online abuse.”
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“The report recognises the Building's grade A listed status, which places inherent constraints on the scope of physical adaptations that can be made to its historic fabric. Therefore, the recommendations seek to balance statutory and best-practice accessibility standards with the preservation of the Building's architectural and heritage significance. Where physical modifications are not feasible, the audit highlights the importance of operational adjustments and management strategies to ensure accessibility for all users. In total, 34 recommendations have been identified, such as automated doors, lift controls and toilet layouts. Officials are considering options to address the recommendations, and an update will be provided to the Assembly Commission.”
“I thank the Member for his supplementary question. The disability access audit provided a comprehensive assessment of accessibility across Parliament Buildings in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. It encompasses all key areas, including approaches and entrances, internal circulation routes, sanitary facilities, signage, general amenities and evacuation arrangements.”
“I am not sure whether that is a consideration at the minute. However, without speaking out of turn — without the facts — I know that some new spaces have been provided in the upper car parks of late. I have seen those myself, but we can come back to you on the finer details of the question in a written answer.”
“With your permission, Deputy Speaker, I will group questions 5 and 12. <BR /> <BR />I thank the Members for their questions. The Assembly Commission is committed to ensuring that Parliament Buildings is accessible to all. To that end, we have recently undertaken a Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) survey. That comprehensive assessment identified any areas where improvements could be made to enhance accessibility for all people with disabilities, additional communication needs or mobility issues. Now that the DDA survey is complete and the final report has been received, we will carefully consider its findings and develop a plan to implement necessary adaptations, where possible.”
“It is being done because the entire system is not being examined and dealt with properly. It is good that we have the model that is there. It would just be so good to see that model implemented, allowing our police to police and our medical staff to carry out their medical work. Fundamentally, if that was done and done properly, it would be for the good of the community as well, and that is what we would all like to see.”
“Thank you very much. I appreciate that. As I said, it is the old line that I trot out, and it is not meant to be aimed at an individual party. It is the frustration that the public feel when they ask us to stop talking about things and get on with doing them. If we are raising awareness and are pushing the Executive towards some sort of delivery on that front, that has to be something that is positive. <BR /> <BR />I have a number of other pages in my speech to talk about how, if we do not change this, we will simply push our police, especially, to burnout because they are undertaking roles that they feel they are not trained to do. It puts them under pressure.”
“That has been proven to work in other places, and it would be good to see whether we could get it to the stage of working here. However, for the model to work here, we need to see the Executive funding it and the responsible Ministers driving it, and we must see cross-departmental work between Justice and Health to address the issue. That is why we will be supporting the amendment to the motion. <BR /> <BR />The old line that I have not trotted out in a while is not lost on me, so I will revisit it: we have a motion from one party in the Executive criticising another Executive party, with an amendment from another Executive party, all as part of a non-binding motion. We all agree on the fundamentals, so I would love to see the Executive going ahead and doing that.”
“We have insufficient social care capacity, and we also have fragmented pathways between various agencies where people are looking for help. Because of all of those failings taken together, the police, already stretched to breaking point, are being asked to hold the system together. <BR /> <BR />As is referenced in the motion, there is a solution, and it is not one that we need to invent. It is the Right Care, Right Person model. That model ensures that, when someone is in mental ill health, the responder is a mental health professional, not a police officer. It ensures that, when someone is experiencing a health emergency, the responder is in the health service and that, when somebody is in social distress, the responder is a social worker, not the police.”
“That happens because there are gaps in other parts in the system, and they are being left to do it. <BR /> <BR />It has not arisen because of a surge in crime, and it is not because of poor policing. It is because the health and social care system is under extreme strain, and vulnerable people are falling through the gaps. Those gaps have widened, and we have had many debates in recent months about the under-resourcing of our community mental health teams, delays to the implementation of the mental health strategy, inconsistent out-of-hours provision, the lack of crisis services that are available and the way in which we are removing funds from those who are providing alternatives to emergency departments.”
“We are starting to get through some of the noise to hear agreement on that from everybody who has spoken so far. <BR /> <BR />It is clear that it is not the police's fault. They are stepping into the breach because they care deeply about public safety, and they cannot, in good conscience, simply ignore somebody who is looking for help. It is an impossible position in which we place our police, because they should not be left to make clinical judgements at a roadside, and they should not have to sit for six, seven, eight or, as has been referenced, 14 hours in an emergency department, waiting for somebody in their care to have a mental health assessment. They should not be the first port of call for someone who is experiencing suicidal thoughts or an overdose or acute psychosis.”
“I welcome the debate, but I do so with a sense of deep concern, sympathy and frustration at the position in which the Executive continue to place our police officers and some of the most vulnerable members of society. It is simply astounding that, for example, the police respond to over 100 concern for safety calls every day, that more than 97% of those incidents have no link to a crime at all and that 1,600 a month have a mental health component. I will segue from that point by saying that I know that from being a member of the Policing Board, and I declare that as an interest. Every one of those calls takes time and resources, and they take officers off the streets and place them in situations that, essentially, they are not trained for and should never be expected to handle as primary responders.”
“<BR /> <BR />The failures that contributed to Cimarron's death show the consequences of a system that has been weakened, underfunded and allowed to drift financially. If we are serious about public safety, the rule of law and protecting the vulnerable, let us finally face the reality of what policing needs and fund it accordingly. That is the House's responsibility, and we cannot afford to have it fail again.”
“Recruitment and legacy are intertwined, and pretending they are not is part of the problem, but it does not have to be that way. We can do so much better. <BR /> <BR />Today, the SDLP has set out four clear actions for Stormont, London and Dublin. First, the Department of Justice must stop dodging the issue of officer numbers, and commit to 7,000 officers by 2028 and pursue the £230 million required for the data leak liabilities. Secondly, reintroduce the 50:50 policy on recruitment as part of rebuilding a representative and effective police service. Thirdly, begin a serious process to renew the rule of law, reviewing what has worked since 1998 and what now needs to be strengthened. Fourthly, let us get legacy right: truth is the only route to reconciliation, not avoidance or political theatre.”
“<BR /> <BR />Instead, the Executive mismanaged the data leak liabilities, ignored the inevitable cost and made it easy for the Treasury to turn down emergency reserve funding, which should be available for genuinely unforeseen and unavoidable pressures. The result is a workforce at breaking point, collapsing recruitment, communities left with fewer officers and an increased risk to the public. <BR /> <BR />We cannot ignore the impact on representation. Catholic participation rose to almost 28% under the 50:50 policy on recruitment, which was a major achievement, but since the policy was scrapped, progress has stalled. The Chief Constable has said that headlines about legacy remain the biggest barrier for many young nationalists who might otherwise want to serve.”
“The alarm bells are deafening, and yet the Executive have done nothing meaningful in response. <BR /> <BR />Today is White Ribbon Day, as has been referenced. It is a day to highlight the impact of violence against women and girls and to recommit to ending the violence, and yet the Executive cannot even fund the Police Service to cover the basics. They are letting women and girls down in the worst way possible by not providing a viable, visible and properly funded police service. In June, after the racist riots in Ballymena, we heard big declarations that funding would be signed off, and that £200 million would be a game changer, and six months on, not a single pound has appeared, not one.”
“In July, he warned that, without £200 million, visible policing would disappear in some communities, and the murder investigation teams would fall below UK standards. In September, he said, bluntly:”
“The PSNI has said outright that it simply did not have the resources needed to respond as victims rightly expect, and what we have is just not working. Let us be clear for the avoidance of doubt, police resources and funding levels are not an operational matter but a strategic decision for the Minister and the Executive, and the buck stops with the Minister and the Executive. People have been promised more by the Executive, and yet the Chief Constable has warned for over a year that police numbers are at a historic low and that public safety is at risk. His warnings are not vague. In March, he said that he was worried that it would:”
“Maybe if we changed the rules on when the Opposition have to give their notice of motions for Opposition day and bring it a little bit closer to the day, we would not have to pick something from two weeks ago to discuss. The report shows that there were serious delays, poor prioritisation and a failure in risk management and bail supervision. The key conclusion is unavoidable: it was not a failure of will, but a failure of capacity.”
“Thank you very much, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Today's motion comes as a result one of the most disturbing policing failures in recent years. I welcome the contributions from across the House. A young girl, Cimarron Thomas, lost her life, and her father later took his life. Both deaths were linked directly to the actions of Alexander McCartney and to the delays that allowed him to keep offending while he was on PSNI bail. That is the essential point. It is not about every detail — it is just about the simple truth that a child was failed, a family was devastated and an offender was left free to harm others because the system could not keep pace. <BR /> <BR />The ombudsman's investigation and report into the PSNI's handling of the case paint a stark picture. The report was published two weeks ago; I say that for Mr Clarke's benefit.”
“Some towns have more vacant properties than others. Downpatrick in my constituency is particularly badly hit. The scheme, which provides support for two years, is welcome. As part of your considerations, however, is there the potential to extend the scheme beyond two years for some businesses, especially in areas that are particularly badly affected by vacant properties on the high street?”
“Thank you. Absolutely, we need to pay our staff, but, if the budget books are not balanced, if we have had to slash the money that was being made available for waiting lists to deal with that and if we go into next year's budget with trusts that are pared back to the bone and will probably struggle to find any more savings, how perilous will our health service be?”
“I appreciate what the Minister said about the development of that plan. It will save people from having to travel great distances, especially if their condition means that travelling is difficult. There is a need for that service, but we have been hearing about it for years and years. Do you have a timescale for that capital investment being made so that the people of the east coast of Down and the Lecale area can have that service and not have to travel for it?”
“Does the Member agree that it is a bit difficult to listen to parts of this debate without reflecting on how the Education Authority totally changed the landscape by taking away places such as Ardnabannon outdoor education centre in Castlewellan and reprofiling the Killyleagh outdoor education centre so that it is no longer residential, and on how there is even a threat to the Tollymore national outdoor centre? Does she agree that, if we do not have such residential places, people will not be able to enjoy what she is suggesting?”
“Thank you very much, Minister. That is at the application stage. Will you confirm whether, if what happens on the ground varies from the planning application, and the planning permission therefore comes under question, NIEA can go back and retrospectively remove the permit that was given?”
“On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I suggest that, to help the timings of the day, we could take the statement now, and then break. Members would then have their lunchtime to assess the statement. That would be helpful, because there is a lot of business scheduled, which will take us into quite late this evening. If the statement were to be made now, we would have lunchtime in which to consider it and could ask questions on it later.”
“I end the debate by joining Trevor Clarke and the other Members who took the opportunity to formally record their thanks to the Assembly Commission staff, who continue to support the work of the Assembly with commitment and dedication.”
“I thank Alan Chambers, who spoke on behalf of the Audit Committee, for the work that that Committee does in scrutinising the Assembly Commission's budget.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Assembly Commission considers the resource DEL budgets for the next three years and the capital DEL budgets for the next four years to be reasonable estimates of the financial requirements to effectively and efficiently support the Assembly and to deliver the required services to Members. The budget proposals presented today embody the Assembly Commission's continuing commitment to ensuring that the Assembly is fully supported with robust, innovative and secure systems in a modern working environment. The budget not only meets the costs that will arise in the provision of services to the Assembly in terms of staff and running and maintaining the Building but ensures that Members have the resources that they require to deliver effective constituency services for our community.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Members who have contributed to the debate. <BR /> <BR />The Assembly Commission recognises the wider financial pressures in the public sector and has carefully considered that context when drafting the budget requirement for the next three to four years, while seeking to balance the need to ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet its statutory obligations of providing the necessary services to the Assembly and its Members. The Assembly Commission has considered its requirements for 2026 to 2030, recognising that a significant element of the budget is not discretionary and relates to payments to Members, Members' consistency offices and staffing costs, as set out in the relevant determinations.”
“The motion does not seek to attack the Minister or throw him under the bus; rather, it simply says that, if we listen to the voice of our healthcare staff and make fairness and coordination the hallmarks of the system, next winter perhaps, for once, we will not be talking about coping with a crisis but instead delivering care with confidence.”
“We have the people, the skills and the ideas to make winter preparedness meaningful, but it requires joined-up planning that values every part of the workforce, listens to all the professional voices and acts on evidence. <BR /> <BR />The amendment rightly acknowledges additional funding for staff pay. I welcome that recognition, because fair pay is not an optional extra. However, it leads me to one reflection: is it not amazing how other Executive parties — this is not exclusive to the party proposing the amendment — will readily throw the Minister under the bus when he needs the funding but, when the money suddenly appears, they all jump at the chance to declare that they were the ones who found it?”
“Including dementia expertise in the Department's "Big Discussion" could have helped to ensure that training, discharge planning and community support were properly aligned with the reality on the ground. We must do better. <BR /> <BR />The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has warned that GPs are again being asked to deliver more with little extra support. The additional winter funding this year equates to about 2·5 days' worth of appointments spread across four months, a figure that simply does not reflect the scale of the challenge. GPs are the foundation of community care. If we continue to under-resource them, the pressure will spill back into emergency departments and the cycle will repeat itself. This is what our motion is about: coordination, communication and accountability.”
“Aside from paramedics, they do not appear in the plan at all, and that omission matters. AHPs are essential to keeping people independent, mobile and out of hospital. Excluding them from planning discussions means that we are underusing one of our greatest assets in tackling winter pressures. <BR /> <BR />The Alzheimer's Society has similarly voiced deep concerns that dementia is not mentioned in the plan. That is startling, when dementia now accounts for over 16% of winter mortality and, we are told, is the leading cause of death in Northern Ireland. One in six patients in hospital at any given time has dementia, and there are about 15,000 A&E visits each year by people with undiagnosed dementia. The plan talks about older people living with frailty but fails to recognise that many of those people are living with dementia.”
“The Department has had a draft community rehabilitation framework ready for some time, yet it still has not been published, and no explanation has been given for the delay. That is a real missed opportunity, because rehabilitation is a necessity. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and rehabilitation assistants enable people to recover safely at home, prevent avoidable admissions and support timely discharge. While the plan includes some pieces of the puzzle, it does not have a strategic framework. We need a clear home-first, rehab-first approach embedded across all future winter plans. <BR /> <BR />Allied health professionals more broadly, the second-largest workforce in our health system, have also been overlooked.”
“The Opposition motion is not about scoring points; it is about recognising that our system and the dedicated staff who keep it standing cannot keep absorbing crisis after crisis without change. At the heart of the debate are the people who hold the system together: nurses, GPs, allied health professionals (AHPs), care workers and all those who show up every day with professionalism and compassion. I will highlight some of their voices today. <BR /> <BR />The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Community Rehabilitation Alliance have been crystal clear: they tell us that community rehabilitation, which is one of the most effective tools we have to improve patient flow and reduce hospital demand, remains largely invisible in this year's plan.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. The motion comes from a simple but urgent concern that our health and social care system is, once again, entering the winter without the confidence, clarity or coordination that it deserves. Each year, we see the same story repeated: staff stretched beyond endurance, patients waiting too long for care and plans that arrive too late to offer real assurance. Each year, we hear the voices of health professionals saying that we need to do more to prepare for next year, and, each year, the Department of Health somehow misses the mark.”
“<BR /> <BR />There are a couple of things that we would all love to see — the SDLP would subscribe to them — including the space being made available in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and its being co-designed with users. Experts out there have been contacting us about it, and we have experts in the Public Gallery who, I am sure, would be only too willing to give of their experience and expertise to make sure that what could be provided would really work for people. That is something that we should try for, so that, when it is delivered, hopefully, and people need something from us, we will know that it will help them. <BR /> <BR />Thank you for securing the debate today; I am delighted to support it.”
“<BR /> <BR />When it comes to cost and practicality, the emergency department is a small space and every inch of it is crucial to delivering its aims, but, as has been mentioned — this is well rehearsed — there is a cost benefit to spending a little money and securing the space: it gets people through the emergency department more quickly. That means that people are able to go to it in the first instance, so there is less opportunity for illnesses and conditions to progress. When people turn up much later, it costs much more to put it all together. When we look at it from that cost perspective, we see that it is reasonable and sensible to try to help to move that on.”
“We also have a legal duty on equality: if we are going to provide services and do so on an equal basis, it is really important that we provide for those with autism, ADHD or learning difficulties so that they are able to access services in a way that works for them. <BR /> <BR />We have a number of good examples in various units around the country. The South West Acute Hospital's sensory room has been referenced, we have the Bluestone unit at Craigavon Hospital, and Altnagelvin Area Hospital has a sensory room that opened in 2021 for those with learning difficulties, so we have lots of examples about the place. Maybe it is about extending that provision rather than having to start again from the very beginning.”
“When we look at why we should have such facilities — others mentioned this — we see that it is about the fact that it reduces the stress and the pressure. <BR /> <BR />We know that emergency departments are busy places. Thankfully, in the past year or two, I have only had one occasion to be in an emergency department. It was busier than an airport and than a bus station; so much was happening. Whilst I was there with somebody who was sick, I really felt for the people who were sick and having to be that environment. I thought, "This just is not the place to be". There is nothing calming or comforting in it — it is a very harsh environment — so I can only imagine how the effect of it is multiplied for people who really struggle with all the things that take place around them.”
“Although this is an Adjournment debate about the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and whilst the hospital goes to great pains to point out that it is not a regional service for everything, some of what it does is on a regional basis, so we can all subscribe to the fact that our constituents may be using that facility and benefiting from it. <BR /> <BR />In doing some gentle research in preparation for the debate, I thought about who could actually benefit from a sensory room. If we look at the figures, we see that 5·9% of our school-age children have autism, somewhere in the broad region of 45,000 to 60,000 have ADHD and 31,000 have learning difficulties. There certainly is not and cannot be a suggestion that there is no need for a facility such as that.”
“I thank Cheryl for bringing the topic to the Chamber and for achieving the second full agreement in a row about what needs to happen. There is no issue more important than this one. I also thank Erin McAllister. I received the email and signed up to the petition because of its importance and its sense. Sometimes there are complicated reasons for doing or not doing things, but there are other times at which things are so obvious that you wonder why we have not already done them.”
“They know that the problem is there, and they have the good, solid Back-Benchers from all the parties pushing forward what we want to see. Hopefully, together, we can get a solution that will help the local communities that we all represent.”
“We want to keep that healthy balance that we spoke about, but how can you have that balance if you are needing half a million pounds to buy a house? You just cannot do it. Even MLAs could not afford that, although many people out there think that we can afford anything. <BR /> <BR />I appreciate everyone's support for the motion. It is great to see that we have that commonality. Our phrasing did not include reference to a Minister. We wanted to call on the whole Executive, because it is a cross-cutting issue that a number of Departments need to look at. The downside of that is that we do not have any Ministers here, but I do not think that that means that there is any lack of interest among the Ministers around the Executive table.”
“I encourage any departmental officials who might be listening to the debate to scope out other places that have managed the problem and come up with a solution. <BR /> <BR />Many Members referenced the important point that taking these second properties, Airbnbs and other types of lets out of the housing stock means that there is pressure on the rest of the stock. Business is business. That drives the price of properties up. That means that, for people in our local community who are trying to get on to the housing ladder for the first time in an area close to their families and to that support and community that we all referenced, it becomes increasingly difficult, because house prices are going up to £300,000, £400,000 or £500,000. That prices first-time buyers out of the market.”
“In places in my constituency such as Newcastle, Warrenpoint and others, we know about the importance of tourism, because of the money that it brings in and the jobs that it supports and how that supports the community that we are talking about trying to support. Diana referred to balance, but everybody, I think, took the opportunity to refer to the balance that is needed. <BR /> <BR />In acknowledging that there is a problem, which is probably most felt in the north coast area, a number of Members referenced the importance of not reinventing the wheel. Scotland, Wales, France and other places that were referenced face these problems. They are having to get to grips with that. Some of them are years ahead of us in the problem of over-saturation, but they are also years ahead of us in trying to find the solutions to deal with it.”
“<BR /> <BR />I acknowledge the point — I do not think it was an intentional absence — in Diana's remarks on behalf of the Ulster Unionists. We get that point; we get that it is a balance. You cannot exist without tourism. We all need it. It supports a massive industry, and, in some areas, probably the biggest industry. It was really good to see so many Members contributing by saying that it is about getting the balance right and making sure that we do not tip over into having too many people removed from an area, because it all becomes too tourist-focused. Likewise, you have to have those tourists.”
“I am not going to discuss pilfering in great detail, but, given that the Member's constituency has stolen part of our constituency, I am bound to say that great swathes of Strangford are absolutely beautiful. I know many of those areas, because I was born and raised and went to school in a part that is now moving over into her constituency. The Member's point is well made. It is about how acutely that difference is noticed. It can take longer in a city to notice that those sorts of services are being eroded. That does not mean that you do not notice it. However, especially in rural communities, as anyone who you speak to about them will tell you, it is the people who make the area. It is about knowing who is going to be in the local shops and going about their daily business in those areas.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is the role of the person who is winding up the debate to reflect on the remarks that were made in it. It is interesting that, probably to a T, everybody mentioned the same things. We mentioned the fact that the important thing for an area is a sense of community. Community is not the bricks and mortar but the people who live in it: people who come together and become part of local sporting clubs, go to local schools and shop in local shops. For them to do that, however, they need to be in that community regularly. There is no easier way of being a positive advocate for an area than to actually live there and use the local facilities. It is clear that people will miss those things once they are gone. By that stage, it is too late, but, often, that is when you realise that things have been taken away.”
“<BR /> <BR />To take a positive from the debate, it has been a great tour around Northern Ireland in which we heard people talk about their areas, putting forward the beauty of the north coast or of Fermanagh, for example, and we will not forget the cities: Belfast, Derry and the other places that were referenced. Of course, I will not get through my contribution without mentioning South Down and joining my colleagues in highlighting the beauty that is there. We would be naive not to realise that with that beauty, and with our wish to have places where people want to be, comes the problem of people taking up and occupying properties by purchasing them but, in whatever way it may be, not using them. That erodes the sense of community.”