Gerry Carroll
West Belfast · People Before Profit Alliance · Northern Ireland
“Yesterday morning, as others did, I stood alongside our resident doctors as they commenced a 24-hour period of industrial action. We often praise our healthcare workers in the House and more generally, saying things such as that they are invaluable and that we wish them well.”
“If we have learnt anything from the political events of the past week, it is that powerful people — powerful men, in particular — and institutions should always be held to maximum account when it comes to abuse, neglect and victims, and that victims and survivors should be believed and supported on every occasion.”
“Agency spend has, again, gone through the roof and is sky-high; locum spend has gone up and continues to go up — it has gone up by in the region of £0·5 billion over the past few years; and, almost every single year out of the past five to 10 years, hundreds of millions of pounds of public money have been pumped into the for-profit privat…”
“With bills increasing month-on-month and year-on-year, that is true, and those workers need a proper settlement that meets their needs and the ever-increasing cost of living. One striking doctor put it to me starkly yesterday. They said that they left Scotland and took a more senior position in the health sector in Belfast.”
“I commend Stephen and his colleagues in the Bill Office and the Executive Office officials, who worked closely with me to try to support, amend or help along my amendments — whatever way you want to look at it. I also want to commend the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone who spoke out during the last few stages.”
“I commend people for speaking out on the issue, especially Sharon Burke. I think that she might be in the Gallery. She has been emailing Members on that issue.”
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“That is what is in front of us. That is what is in front of and faces Palestinians. <BR /> <BR />Yesterday's announcement needs to be followed quite swiftly by action from the British Government. We cannot have a situation whereby we have a fractured, Bantustan-like Palestinian state starved of resources and support. Next door, meanwhile, we have Israel, one of the most heavily armed, militarised states in the world, and Israel being allowed still to exist as an apartheid state, practising ethnic cleansing, implementing genocide and wreaking havoc across the Middle East whilst having a nuclear armoury. <BR /> <BR />Recognition of a Palestine state cannot be seen as an attempt by the British Government or other Western Governments to absolve themselves from having backed Israel's war to the hilt, which they have done.”
“The former Israeli ambassador to France warned Emmanuel Macron recently:”
“However, while symbols can be important in politics and life, Palestinians need a lot more than symbolism today and in the weeks ahead.”
“Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker, for selecting this Matter of the Day, and I send my best wishes to the Speaker. <BR /> <BR />There is no doubt that the British Government's decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state is a significant and welcome move. We should not forget that the state that had chief responsibility for sponsoring and bringing Israel into existence as a state is Britain itself. Let us not forget that, for over 30 years, prior to the creation of Israel as a state, Britain sponsored the destruction of homes and villages, the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people and eventually the expansion and creation of the apartheid state, which refused to recognise Palestinians, except when trying to take their homes and land and expel them. <BR /> <BR />This is no doubt a welcome move.”
“— and usually, statistically, a white person. We need to be careful about that narrative, especially the Member for North Belfast, because his comments were quite dangerously giving approval to some of those dangerous actions.”
“It is a distraction from the Executive's refusal to crack down on Airbnbs, and it is a distraction from soaring rents, which we are trying to challenge, but the Minister has not stopped yet. Rent in Belfast has increased by more than 11% in the past year alone, driven up not by migrants or asylum seekers but by landlords. <BR /> <BR />On a final point, a dangerous narrative is developing, and it is from the playbook of the far right, which is that, if a man of colour is in a park, in a shopping centre or on a street corner, he is putting children at risk. That is racist scapegoating, and it needs to be challenged. Unfortunately, children are at risk from abuse and neglect, but it is usually from a family member —”
“Yes, and there are other problems that I do not have time to elaborate on, but I thank the Member for that. <BR /> <BR />I also have to say that launching attacks on migrants and asylum seekers — political or violent attacks — is distraction politics at its finest. It is a distraction from the fact that we have inaction, from this Minister and from other Ministers and the Executive, on empty homes. There are at least 21,000 empty homes in the North, if not as many as 50,000, depending on what figures you read from different Departments, but there are zero empty home officers. The Minister could move at speed with that, but he has not. Attacking migrants is a distraction from property hoarding by landlords and investors.”
“Quite often, they are like prisons for most of those people. They want a home, and they should be entitled to one. I urge the Minister to get on with it —.”
“They feel over-policed and under-protected, especially in minority ethnic communities; they have felt that way for decades. <BR /> <BR />To challenge another myth, I say that Ireland is not full. The country is not full. The number of people who are seeking asylum in the North is 2,535. That is 0·13% of the population. Compare that with other countries across the world: Turkey takes in millions of asylum seekers; Lebanon takes in millions of asylum seekers; and Germany did so a few years ago. Challenge the narrative every step of the way. There are 246 people who are seeking asylum and are living in emergency hotel accommodation, but those whom I have talked to — quite a few over the years — do not want to be in hotels. They are not luxurious, and they are not a wonderful set-up.”
“People who have now been intimidated and subjected to sectarian or racist attacks will lose out on the points that they could have received to help them to get a new and permanent home in a place of safety. Instead, they will be forced to stay in a home where they are subjected to violence or intimidation or to uproot their life and move into temporary accommodation or be stuck on the sofa of a friend or relative. It is completely unacceptable. <BR /> <BR />The stats show that, unfortunately, in the past year, there were 2,049 racist incidents in the North and 1,300 race hate crimes. Those are the highest levels since records began. We have a problem with racism in the North; let us not sugar-coat it. We know that thousands more incidents have gone unrecorded, because, quite simply, victims do not trust the PSNI.”
“The removal of the intimidation points had a devastating impact on those individuals and marginalised groups that are in the temporary accommodation sector, which is under extreme pressure, and on the wider housing system, particularly in North Belfast, which has been mentioned, but elsewhere as well. If he changed that decision and reintroduced those points — made that one move — it would send a signal to people who are under threat and intimidation that he gets it, he understands it, and he has their back, but it looks as though he is not for budging any time soon, which is shameful. <BR /> <BR />The Minister should have reformed and improved intimidation points and extended them to survivors of domestic abuse. Instead, he levelled the playing field downwards and removed them for everyone.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for extending the time. I thank the Members for tabling this important motion. We have heard a lot about honest conversations and legitimate concerns, but honest conversations about migration do not always happen, especially with some of the politicians who are further to the right than me. Those conversations do not often happen in good faith. Quite often, myths and misinformation are spread, fuelling hate and fear. <BR /> <BR />We need to challenge the role that the Communities Minister played, particularly in relation to Larne leisure centre around the time of the violence during the summer. We also need to challenge his decision to remove intimidation points earlier in the year. That was reckless. The Member for North Belfast had a terrible and risible defence for that.”
“I thank the Member for giving way, and I join in his condemnation of the disgraceful events in north Belfast and elsewhere. Does he agree that those unfortunate and disgraceful attacks and intimidation should focus the Minister's mind on his disgraceful decision to remove intimidation points from people who are on the housing waiting list?”
“On that point, I will emphasis that unity and the working-class struggle is the key to overcoming the division that the Member is happy to stoke.”
“I remind the Member that my constituency takes in a large part of the Shankill Road. I let the Member know that my party, alongside trade unions, organised a significant march in 2019 of trade unionists and workers from the Shankill Leisure Centre, up through Lanark Way and down the Falls Road, against the privatisation of leisure. I invite the Member to give me one example of his party uniting working-class people of any stripe for any occasion across east Belfast, west Belfast or south Belfast. He is unable to.”
“Unfortunately, far right agitators and paramilitaries want to control the narrative around the problems that are faced by our communities. They weaponise genuine feelings of despair and frustration for their own gain to scapegoat migrants and marginalised people for their own failings. Unique —.”
“Those figures should have been shunned; instead, the red carpet and funding were rolled out to them. Over the summer, we also witnessed the disgraceful and despicable burning of effigies of migrants and asylum seekers. That is not legitimate political or cultural expression; it is disgusting hatred that needs to be condemned. Yet, year after year, political leaders give the green light to hatred and division of that kind. The deprivation ushered in by both Westminster and Stormont has created the conditions for racism and sectarianism to thrive. Normal politics at Stormont, Westminster and the Dáil has failed people right across the island. We should all be angry about poverty, the housing crisis, violence against women and many other issues that are faced by deprived communities.”
“Before the next attempt to erect a bonfire, there needs to be some kind of investigation into the health impacts on working-class people, not just from the Iveagh and St James's areas but from the Village, Sandy Row and elsewhere, who are affected by the fumes and the presence of a bonfire on an asbestos site. Bonkers indeed. It should also involve engagement with clinicians, who are the best-placed people to understand and treat any long-term health impacts on working-class communities who already suffer from, as I say, unacceptable health inequalities. <BR /> <BR />It would be foolish not to mention the role played by politicians in the community and Stormont in courting, funding and protecting loyalist paramilitaries, in particular, for many decades.”
“<BR /> <BR />I fear, however, that the damage has already been done and, as we have heard, sustained exposure to asbestos particles in the air damages lungs and causes cancer. That is well documented. I fear that more working-class people will be consigned to that fate, and because it is the health of working-class people, it is seen to be OK, justified and justifiable, which is sickening. I have written to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister demanding that a task force be set up to assess the health impacts of that toxic bonfire. It is not just about what happened in July but about what happens after July.”
“I have been raising concerns about asbestos in that general area for quite some time. If he checks the 'The Irish News', he will see that I spoke about asbestos at the Broadway Tower site earlier this year, before July. You cannot pick and choose. That was a terrible attempt at deflection but, anyway, I proceed. <BR /> <BR />That bonfire should not have been lit, but the obvious question is why was it allowed to be erected in the first place? I imagine that unionists like Mr Gaston and others would be aghast if attempts were made to prevent it from even being built. The NIEA has launched a criminal investigation into the presence of asbestos on that site, and I sincerely hope that all the asbestos has been removed, and the Executive should confirm whether that is the case. I am happy to give way to anybody on that issue.”
“We witnessed a toxic mix of asbestos, a health and safety nightmare, fused with sectarianism. I live a stone's throw away from that bonfire. None of the Members to my right lives near it, and I was concerned, then as I am now, about the impact that that bonfire being burnt at a site covered with asbestos will have on my family and my neighbours, and on my neighbours in a different constituency across the way.”
“I have just started. Maybe if you wait a second. <BR /> <BR />Illegal and unregulated bonfires are annual reminders that the threat of loyalist violence and intimidation is still, unfortunately, with us. Every summer, like clockwork, sectarian tensions are heightened. For all the talk about peace and reconciliation, loyalist paramilitaries clearly hold a tight grip on communities. I blame the paramilitaries and not the ordinary working-class Protestant people for the scourge of dangerous and threatening bonfires. <BR /> <BR />The summer saga at the Donegall Road bonfire was a clear example of the absurdity of politics in the North. That bonfire is at an interface site, smack bang in the middle of neighbourhoods blighted by poverty, alienation and decades of sectarian division: something that I talk about all the time.”
“The victim mentality of the unionist parties has gone to a different level in the debate, and not for the first time this evening. Illegal and unregulated —.”
“The Minister mentioned that it was a qualified right and talked about reckless conduct. I do not know the Minister's view, but I certainly was worried when I saw 100,000 people marching in London, maybe for different reasons but led by well-known fascist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson. I am concerned about any impact that that may have here. <BR /> <BR />Does the Minister agree that freedom of expression should exist for people who organise anti-racist and anti-fascist activities, including the organising of counterprotests to far right and fascist activities? How will she ensure that that right is protected?”
“They have been silent on the question as well. <BR /> <BR />The state should be building homes and reducing and cutting rents. I say, "Shame on those who have evicted tenants. Shame on the people in the Housing Executive who are carrying out that strategy". I call for it to end.”
“It is the people who are trying to fight and stand against homelessness. I commend all the housing activists in west Belfast, in particular, and beyond who stand against that intimidation and that form of state violence. I commend the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) and every other organisation, my party colleagues and other community activists, who continue to stand against homelessness and people being forcibly evicted. <BR /> <BR />The obvious question is this: where are the Executive parties? Where is the First Minister on the question? I hear nothing from her. Where is the Justice Minister on this? Where is the Communities Minister, with his terrible approach to housing? He says nothing while people are being evicted forcibly from their homes. Where are the Opposition?”
“At least six police officers showed up at 7.00 am to physically and aggressively remove that young man from his home against his will. That is really dark and dangerous stuff. Not too far up the road from his house, we saw the Housing Executive and the police try to evict a grandmother from her family home just off the Springfield Road. The police showed up with the intention of removing and evicting that person and her family but were met with peaceful community resistance against that form of police violence and intimidation. <BR /> <BR />It says a lot about the priorities of the state and the PSNI that, when we have racist, far right pogroms, fascists threatening to burn out asylum seekers from hotels and fascists roaming the streets and threatening migrants and anybody of colour, who faces the repression from the state?”
“The escalating housing crisis took a dark turn over the summer months, and it needs to be challenged and called out. We saw the Housing Executive and the PSNI step up their authoritarian response to the housing crisis in an attempt to evict people from family homes in my constituency. We should be clear that nobody should be evicted from their home, especially when no alternative housing or accommodation is provided. It is even more cruel that it is being done by the very organisation that is supposed to prevent homelessness and to help people when they are homeless: the Housing Executive. <BR /> <BR />In one situation, we had the police show up outside the home of a constituent of mine, just off the Falls Road, to evict him.”
“I remind the Member that there used to be an excellent train line across his constituency — it went to Antrim, Coleraine and elsewhere — and that it was the dividing and partition of this country that ruined it. I am sure that the Member already knows that.”
“I appreciate the Minister's giving way. Obviously, symbols and leading by example are important. Will the Minister commit to looking at installing late-night buses from the Building, not just for me — I will declare an interest — but for other Members who, I know, use public transport? The last bus out of the Stormont estate is at 6.12 pm. Obviously, we are here after 9.00 pm, and there will be more legislation to come in the next year and a half or so, so there is a need for Stormont to lead by example. Will you commit to looking at that?”
“We already know that the best and safest way to transport large numbers of people from one place to another is by public transport, especially rail. It is much safer and cleaner for the environment. We need to focus on public transport and active travel rather than on roads, and relook at our relationship with cars. <BR /> <BR />It is absurd that we are having a discussion here at 9.00 pm and the last bus leaves the estate at, I think, 6.20 pm. I implored the previous Infrastructure Minister to look at that, and I urge this Minister to ensure that there are late-night buses not just for MLAs but for the other people who work in the Building, so that they can leave their car at home.”
“Overstretched workers, a lack of cycling infrastructure, bad parking and poor street design force vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists on to unsafe roads. However, even if the road maintenance budget were increased tenfold, with resurfacing schemes rolled out for every single road, potholes and road surface defects would keep coming back, because our roads network simply was not built to handle this volume of traffic and the weight and size of modern cars. I do not blame drivers; I blame the marketing companies, especially those that tell people to buy big SUVs and other heavy vehicles, which leads to the further disintegration of the roads. The Minister needs to look at and address that. <BR /> <BR />We discovered the solution around 200 years ago.”
“I pay tribute to the workers who are responsible for maintaining the roads in the face of increasing pressure and inadequate budgets. Two years ago, DFI Roads workers went on strike over pay, and I was proud to stand with them on picket lines. To this day, they remain undervalued. I have been told, Minister, that some teams in your Department are operating at a 50% vacancy rate, which is shocking. For people whose job is to repair roads and respond to other road traffic requests, that is a shocking statistic and probably why there is such a delay and backlog in roads being maintained and repaired. Those people should not be replaced with agency staff; they should have proper terms and conditions and proper contracts. <BR /> <BR />All the problems are connected.”
“The journey is hairy enough as it is, but you risk getting hit by a car if you take a wrong turn or move too quickly. It is very dangerous for everybody, but particularly for cyclists and others who wheel.”
“That is not emphasised enough. Earlier this year, a constituent of mine was taking her young child to school and, because of haphazard and dangerous parking outside the school, was forced to walk on the road, where she tripped on a deep pothole and fell in the street. She was injured, though not seriously so, but, obviously, that is a risk that she took. <BR /> <BR />Due to the lack of cycling infrastructure, cyclists are also forced on to unsafe roads. Potholes cause serious damage to bikes but also to cyclists for whom there is a risk of serious injury or death. I do not know whether the Member for South Down feels the same, but there have been many times when, travelling up to the Building, I and other cyclists have had to navigate, try to spot potholes on the road and then try to dodge them.”
“That should not be normalised; it needs to be addressed urgently. The situation has been ongoing for years. I have written to the Minister, and I urge a speedy resolution to the issue for residents in Lake Glen. <BR /> <BR />The crumbling infrastructure is the visual manifestation of a state in terminal decline. Every pothole on our roads that sits unfilled is a daily reminder of the impact of more than a decade of austerity and underinvestment from Westminster and the Stormont Executive over the years. It is working-class people who pay the price for expensive repairs through injuries and through lost income when they have to wait at the roadside after a tyre has burst on a car, bike or whatever else. Roads that are riddled with potholes and other defects not only damage cars but are a safety risk for pedestrians and everyone who wheels.”
“Between January and June of this year, some 1,800 surface defects were reported in my constituency: that is one constituency. That gives a sense of the scale of the problem. This summer, I spent a lot of time talking directly to residents about their concerns, a lot of which amounted to road safety issues. One thing that united people in Andersonstown, Dunmurry, Mount Eagles — right across the west — as is the case in Members' constituencies, as they have said, was the state of the roads, footpaths and pavements. There are about 100 houses in the Lake Glen estate in the Andersonstown area — I have already contacted the Minister about this — and I counted at least 72 large potholes. That is almost a pothole for every house. That is pretty shocking, because it is a small enough estate.”
“Minister, it would be remiss of me not to mention that this month is Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month, but thank you for your answer. <BR /> <BR />Over the last few months, my office has engaged with quite a lot of women who have been failed by a broken medical system. They know what medical misogyny is. They have a problem not only with waiting lists but with dismissal of their health concerns. Have the Minister and his officials looked at Portugal, which seems to lead the way in providing extra days of leave and putting in place other support systems for women who experience particular healthcare issues?”
“Part of that demand means properly funding NI Water, which would, of course, transform the lough and people's lives. However, the Executive and, in many cases, the Opposition, see the local ecosystem as something to exploit, not protect. As the most basic bare minimum, the Minister and his Executive colleagues need to get behind efforts to clear up this mess ASAP rather than supporting lobbyists for the rich and powerful corporate polluters. Maybe then the Executive could finally put planet before profit.”
“In the past decade, the Shaftesbury estate of Lough Neagh made over £245,000 in profit from sand dredging. That is pocket change for an English aristocrat such as Lord Shaftesbury, but the fact that an absentee colonial landlord is profiting from the destruction of our lough is absolutely outrageous. He needs to hand back the lough to the people here, and he should not be paid a penny for it. It is our lough; it is not his family's lough. If he does not hand it back, the state needs to step in and requisition it into public ownership with community management. <BR /> <BR />A proper crackdown on industrial farming, factory farming and intensive agriculture is long overdue. More than 62% of the phosphorus that causes toxic algal blooms comes from agricultural sources.”
“What an apt description of what has been happening in the past couple of years. Without an independent EPA to fine and punish guilty factory farms and agri-food polluters, nutrients and agricultural run-off will continue to flow into the lough and kill it.”
“The Executive are remarkably poor at protecting our environment, and the NIEA has not done the job for Lough Neagh. It is clear that it has failed to regulate pollution and protect wildlife and communities. As Friends of the Earth put it:”
“The solutions have been identified by the Save Lough Neagh campaign, Friends of the Earth and many of the communities from around the lough shore. The state of the lough is a permanent physical reminder of our urgent need for an independent environmental protection agency.”
“Each year, 1·5 million tons of sand are suction-dredged from the lough. It takes the ecosystem decades to recover from that. The lough bed is supposed to be a protected nature reserve for plants, fish and diving birds, but, instead, the Executive allow it to be plundered. Fishermen and fisherwomen have been sounding the alarm about sand dredging and the harm that it does to fish nurseries in an already fragile lough. In 2020, the then SDLP Infrastructure Minister supported sand dredging. The SDLP has still not walked back from its support for that. <BR /> <BR />Saving Lough Neagh is not an impossible task. The solutions to the crisis are clear and always have been. It should not take decades to save it, and we do not have decades in which to save it.”
“<BR /> <BR />More recently, as has been mentioned, the Minister developed proposals for a new nutrients action programme, which is aimed at tackling pollution in Lough Neagh. That was a bit of positive action: it did not go far enough in the direction in which we need to go, but it would have made some difference to the lough. For other parties in the Chamber — Sinn Féin, the DUP and the UUP — those modest proposals were too radical. They have fallen in line behind the Ulster Farmers' Union, which, certainly in this case, is dead set on maintaining business as usual and defending big corporate polluters rather than on representing the interests of most farmers. <BR /> <BR />Agricultural pollution is just one cause of the crisis at Lough Neagh, which is multifaceted. Another of the causes is sand dredging, which scars the bed of the lough.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Lough Neagh is one of our most precious natural resources and wildlife sites. It is the source of 40% of the North's drinking water. It is supposed to be protected under local, European and international law, but, in reality, Lough Neagh is a public health hazard and a toxic death zone for local wildlife. Despite the safeguarding of Lough Neagh being a key priority in the Programme for Government, the Executive's empty promises simply are not cutting it. Executive approval was finally secured for a Lough Neagh action plan last summer. Of the plan's 37 points, 23 have not yet been implemented. There are snails' paces, and then there is this. It is no surprise that the parties that continue to subsidise billionaire polluter corporations are not acting in the interests of the lough.”
“Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. How long are Palestinians expected to wait for a departmental internal review to be completed? Recently, the Scottish Government decided to stop investing in companies that are connected to Israel and are involved in the war industry. We should do the same here at speed. I urge all Ministers, especially Sinn Féin Ministers, to make that happen. I support the motion.”
“Motions are important — absolutely — but action is what makes the difference. The question is this: why have the First Minister and deputy First Minister not done anything about the fact that Belfast International Airport is facilitating the US war machine and its flights? Why is the Economy Minister allowing funding from Invest NI —?”
“Disgracefully, one was attacked last night by an Israeli drone, despite attempts to say otherwise in this debate. Instead of clamping down on activist groups, such as Palestine Action, which should never have been marked as a proscribed terrorist organisation in the first place, the British Government should be ensuring that aid gets in to the millions of Palestinians and that the Sumud flotilla is left untouched. <BR /> <BR />The motion is very important. I hope that it is passed, and I will be voting for it. However, it has some obvious omissions that need to be addressed. There is growing frustration in the Palestine solidarity movement that Ministers and the Executive are refusing to do all that they can to exert maximum pressure on the British Government and, by extension, Israel.”
“I commend everyone who is, bravely, on the Global Sumud Flotilla, taking huge personal risks to go out on the open sea to try to break the siege of Gaza. It is the biggest humanitarian aid convoy ever to depart for Palestine. It consists of people such as Greta Thunberg, other activists from across the world, some TDs, including my party colleague Paul Murphy, and, I think, some members of Sinn Féin. Dlúthpháirtíocht le gach duine ar na báid.”