Alan Chambers
North Down · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“<BR /> <BR />A relatively recent piece of important character that was added to the village some years ago was the addition of a number of trees along Main Street.”
“It is my pleasure and privilege to present a petition signed by more than 1,500 people calling on the Department for Infrastructure to drop plans to chop down a number of mature street trees in Main Street, Groomsport. <BR /> <BR />Groomsport is a beautiful village with a strong community spirit.”
“Indeed, in the past week, it has been adjudged to be the best-kept town on the island of Ireland. It has many outstanding characteristics, including three lovely beaches with clean and pollution-free bathing water; a well-sheltered harbour that is reputed to have been first constructed by the Vikings; a modern children's playground; and t…”
“Minister, I sent a question for written answer in May 2025. You told me that your officials had identified a problem on the A48 in November 2024 and that a works order had been issued.”
“The Department's approach to the problem, however, has been to fire up the chainsaws. That is a shameful and unacceptably lazy plan. There are many engineering solutions that do not involve such crude environmental vandalism. Government policy, rather than to chop down healthy mature specimens, is to encourage more tree planting.”
“For many, the ability to start or grow a family is a major priority; for others, it is not a priority at all. When fertility problems stand in the way of that dream, the emotional toll can be immense. There has already been reference to the commitment in NDNA, which was one reason why my party very much welcomed that agreement.”
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“I look forward to the reopening of the Bangor minor injuries unit when circumstances allow. In the meantime, I commend the work of the Ards minor injuries unit. Will the Minister consider coming with me one day to visit Bangor Community Hospital to meet the staff and hear of the many services that it currently very effectively provides?”
“<BR /> <BR />One email that I received within the past few days — again, I think that all Members received it — accused me of being a war criminal. The person got it partially right: we are in a war. It is a war that we can win if we all work together. I certainly do not concede that I am a criminal by the actions that I take, or the House takes, to protect the health of the people of Northern Ireland. I can understand and appreciate that an individual may have grounds or personal reasons for not wishing to take up the vaccination. It is their right to hold that position. What I cannot understand is why many people feel the need to, openly and actively, campaign to discourage and stop other people from taking the vaccination.”
“<BR /> <BR />As others, such as the Chair of the Health Committee, have said, the pandemic is worldwide. It is not just restricted to Northern Ireland. It is real. It is killing people and leaving behind tragedy and sadness in families. It is making many people very ill, and it is also putting tremendous pressure on hospital admissions, with the effect that that has on hospital staff. Thankfully, however, vaccination has helped many people, including vulnerable people, to fight off the worst effects of the virus. I certainly encourage anyone who has not been vaccinated to get vaccinated. Further regulations are possible. However, we can all contribute to stop them from happening. We need to go back to the basics: mask wearing, good hand hygiene, social distancing, and congregating only in well-ventilated places.”
“I listened to the news last evening and this morning, and I was disappointed to hear that a Minister appeared to be seeking a way out of working in a cohesive and collective way to deal with the pandemic. If ever there was a need for the public to see collective leadership in the Executive, it is now. We must always be guided by the medical and scientific advice of qualified, professional experts. Given the number of anti-vaccination emails that I and, no doubt, the rest of the House have received, there seems to be an army of virus-control experts out there. However, I will continue to rely on the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser to guide my actions. My party will continue to support any measures that the medical and scientific advice say are required to protect the health of our population.”
“I welcome the proposed Bill that has been brought about mainly by the dreadful plight of the grieving and dignified families of Charlotte Murray and Lisa Dorrian. Whilst the proposed new law will offer hope to the Murray family that the remains of their loved one could be recovered and given a Christian burial, due to the fact that someone has been convicted and is serving a sentence for that murder, could anything be incorporated into the new law that might encourage those with information about a case, such as Lisa Dorrian's, to come forward with that information? In a just world, doing the right thing would remove any need for any such encouragement to conclude Lisa's case. It is not too late for someone to do the right thing.”
“<BR /> <BR />That is why there was broad agreement from around the Committee that, even after the abolition of the board, but before the new, more permanent alternatives were in place, there needed to be some degree of local input. I very much welcomed the early commitment from the Minister that he would retain the LCGs until the new area integrated partnership boards had been legislated for. The amendments are delivering on his commitment, and I hope that, after today, we will be one more important step towards securing the change that has already taken too long. <BR /> <BR />I, and my party, fully support the Bill and the amendments.”
“I welcome the latest stage of the Bill; a Bill that, at last, will deliver the policy first announced over six years ago regarding the proposed closure of the board. <BR /> <BR />Closely connected with the board, however, are the existing local commissioning groups. The groups were established by a former Ulster Unionist Minister, Michael McGimpsey. He was clear that they were to be strongly rooted in their communities and to have patients at the heart of their thinking and advocacy. In the intervening years, the groups have worked with varying levels of success. However, they undoubtedly have provided an important vehicle for engagement. That was especially important throughout the three years of a non-functioning Executive and the lack of clear accountability or direction on decision-making.”
“It can only be a good thing for patient confidence, and it can only be a good thing for the likes of the MHRA to have absolute faith in the data that it is reviewing. <BR /> <BR />I do not intend to speak on each of this evening's individual motions, but, needless to say, I also support the Minister's decision, as does my party, to progress the motions on international healthcare arrangements and professional regulation. I certainly welcome comments in the House this evening that we all need to pull together to reform and repair the NHS in Northern Ireland, but calling for any reduction to health budgets will not be helpful in that regard.”
“I rise to make only a few brief comments on the Health and Care Bill and this LCM. <BR /> <BR />The Bill has a distinct focus on NHS England. However, it also includes a number of revisions that touch on matters relevant to us in Northern Ireland. The first of those, which we are discussing now, is a UK-wide medicine information system. It makes absolute sense for Northern Ireland to be covered by the new requirements. While I acknowledge that mechanisms are currently in place to capture information, due to a combination of a lack of full clinician buy-in as well as the burdensome nature of data entry on healthcare providers, those existing policies do not work as they should. I welcome the move to develop a new medicine information system and to place that on a statutory footing.”
“I thank the First Minister for his response. Far from what some parties are trying to claim, the EU non-paper on 13 October provided little detail or certainty. Does the First Minister agree that, no matter what political discussions or deals might take place elsewhere, equity of access to all new medicines and vaccines for patients in Northern Ireland should be non-negotiable? Will the Executive therefore endorse utilising whatever contingency measures are necessary to deliver that?”
“I thank the Executive Office, through the deputy First Minister, for the comprehensive statement. Minister, this whole heart-wrenching story, going back many years, has been a very dark period and is a stain on our history. It reflects badly on those who let it happen and allowed it to continue. The love and compassion of Jesus was certainly in short supply in those institutions. <BR /> <BR />My question is really the same as that asked by Ms Bradley a few moments ago. The Executive are bringing forward a statutory duty to compel the retention of relevant records, but is the Minister confident that some damning records have not already been destroyed in an attempt to obstruct full disclosure?”
“<BR /> <BR />Before taking my seat, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker, I will say that there is a responsibility right around the Chamber for us, as Members, to consider our words and measure our tone.”
“I echo the words of my colleague Dr Aiken. My party wishes to be fully associated with the outright condemnation of these senseless attacks. Aside from the cancelled services, several diversions to bus routes are in place. Some bus stops may not have service, but the bus may still pass nearby. Although we hope that normal bus services can return as soon as possible, there is a need to inform the travelling public fully of local changes to normal routes, which I appreciate have been forced on Translink. Listening to the radio yesterday, I thought that the information being given about diversions was not as clear as it could have been. In fact, it was a bit confusing. Will the Minister contact Translink to encourage it to try to inform people of the nearest continuing public transport services in order to assist the travelling public?”
“I am sure that the Minister will share my concerns that there may be negative impacts from stories of this nature that may discourage people from coming forward to be vaccinated. Will he confirm what steps his Department has taken to protect patient data, and can he confirm that no data breach has occurred?”
“However, Donaghadee has problems due to the fact that there are 20 outlets south of Donaghadee that have a licence to release untreated sewage into the coastal waters in emergency situations. That has been resolved by a huge investment that was announced in the last number of months. In the coming years, that problem will be addressed.”
“What is the answer? The last piece of the sewerage jigsaw in North Down is the Cotton pumping station, and that has to be addressed. It needs to have a storage capacity whereby in heavy rain it can retain the sewage rather than releasing it in an emergency situation into the river. That is the answer, it is the last piece of the jigsaw and it will fall to the Minister for Infrastructure through Northern Ireland Water to implement it. I hope that in the near future they can address that. <BR /> <BR />It would be remiss of me if I did not mention that Donaghadee is still experiencing problems. I have spoken about that in the House before, so I will not rehearse those arguments.”
“There is also a pumping station at Sandringham Gardens, which services all of the sewage from Ballyholme. The properties there are all very mature and have a single storm drain and sewerage system. That system overflows from time to time, which, as it is only a couple of hundred yards away from the sea, means that practically raw, untreated sewage is going straight into the sea thereby increasing the bacteria levels.”
“The Cotton river, which some call the Ballyholme river, flows into Ballyholme Bay. Back in 2016, I asked the Minister of Agriculture whether any domestic waste water or street rainwater was piped directly into the Cotton river from that pumping station. I got a very honest answer: there is only one asset along the Cotton river, and it has an emergency overflow that is piped directly into the river. That problem has never been addressed. There has been a lot of talk about it, but it has never been addressed. From time to time, sewage comes down the Cotton river and flows straight into the sea at Ballyholme.”
“That was unacceptable and spoiled the whole project. Northern Ireland Water therefore made a huge investment and introduced three, I think, large sewage retention tanks along the line so that, in heavy rain, the water could be retained; it did not have to be released into the sea. When the rain eased off, it was pumped up, in a controlled way, to the treatment works. <BR /> <BR />I know that, in the past year, the coastal waters around Helen's Bay, Crawfordsburn and Groomsport have all got A1 pollution results and low bacteria results, so why is Ballyholme still a problem? It is not solid matter in the water; it is bacteria. You cannot see it. The water is clear and looks clean, but, if you took a mouthful of it, you would probably be sick. It is a bacteria problem. Where does the bacteria come from?”
“It therefore decided that it would upgrade the treatment being provided at the new works to what is called "tertiary treatment", which means that the water leaving the waste water treatment works is of drinking quality. I have not put that to the test, but I will take their word for it. That is gold-plated activity. <BR /> <BR />Ballyholme continued to be a problem, however. At times of heavy rain, the system could not cope with the sheer volume of sewage coming down from Bangor to a pumping station to be pumped up to the new treatment works. There had to be release valves, and if those were not opened in time, there would have been an explosion in the pumping stations along that line. To avoid that, the valves were opened, and whatever rainwater and sewage were in the system went straight out into Ballyholme Bay.”
“It was so bad that fishermen had to disinfect their ropes at the end of a day's fishing, and local youth groups, for example, had to cease all inshore water activities because of the unsightly and unacceptable flotsam that polluted the waters, particularly around Ballyholme. <BR /> <BR />Northern Ireland Water's investment in a new waste water treatment works outside Donaghadee was a game changer. It decided that it would give the sewage secondary, or what I would describe as silver-plated, treatment. It was going to extend the outlet at Orlock to pump the treated waste further out to sea. However, it found that, logistically, it could not extend the pipe. I do not know what the building problems were.”
“North Down has a history of coastal seawater pollution, mainly brought about by the population boom in the early 1970s when so many families moved there from Belfast. The area had an outdated sewerage system that released all the sewage produced in North Down through an outlet at Orlock. It was totally untreated and flowed through a grill that was meant to capture solid material. Some poor Northern Ireland Water employees had to scrape clean those grills twice a week and take that material away to be incinerated. Those who use the waters around Groomsport and Ballyholme will remember those bad old days.”
“Will the Minister provide an update on the number of GPs coming through the training pipeline currently? I once again place on record my continued appreciation for the efforts of all our health and social care staff.”
“I especially welcome the recent announcement of additional funding for No More Silos. Primary care has a huge role to play before people make the decision to present at an emergency department. A well-resourced primary care network is therefore essential.”
“It is absolutely imperative that people consider that and make the choice to get vaccinated and, when the opportunity comes along, to receive the booster injection. <BR /> <BR />It is easy to forget the simple messages that we were all given at the start of the pandemic about wearing a face covering, social distancing and hand hygiene. All those things are still relevant because the virus is out there seeking every opportunity to infect every one of us. We have a responsibility to protect not just ourselves but the people around us. The Ulster Unionist Party welcomes and fully supports what is in front of us.”
“The Ulster Unionist Party welcomes and supports any guidance or regulation that is put in place to protect the health of the people of Northern Ireland and ease the intolerable burden that is being experienced by our health and social care system. We have every confidence that the evidence and advice that is being offered to the Executive by our experts enables them to make informed decisions. <BR /> <BR />The pandemic has not gone away. We are simply in a stage of trying to manage it and provide the public with an opportunity to return to some form of normality. However, that comes with a responsibility for the public: they must assist the process and ensure that the return to normality is allowed to proceed. The public can do that by increasing the number of people who have received the vaccination.”
“I welcome the Minister's comments that Health should be our top priority. I especially welcome the fact that the Health Minister will now be in a position to deliver the 3% wage increase to health staff. Will adequate funding for the health service continue to be a priority for the Minister? Given his comments about hypocrisy, does he agree that some parties in the Chamber are not being entirely upfront about where their priorities lie?”
“I welcome the continued and very important role that Community Pharmacy is playing in the booster programme. Is the Minister satisfied that, with so many community pharmacies engaged — there are over 200 — the booster remains very accessible right across Northern Ireland?”
“It will take long-term investment, however, to truly fix our waiting times and put them on a sustainable footing so that we never again find ourselves in this position. Everyone in the House knows that.”
“The Minister has repeatedly made that very point in the House. Last year, he inherited a truly appalling and intolerable waiting-time crisis. There was no single reason for it. Many factors have contributed: a failure to have a workforce plan; a failure to identify and close the opening gap between demand and capacity; and a failure to transform services. <BR /> <BR />In 2016, the Department published a 2016-2026 strategy for paediatric healthcare services. Within months, however, the Executive collapsed, and it was three years before patients had a Minister in place again. In June, the Minister published his elective framework, and I am glad that so much of it, not least the immediate actions, is already being widely implemented.”
“I welcome the publication of today's report. It no doubt makes for uncomfortable reading, but it is a valuable review of the seriousness of the situation that we face. I was also glad to hear some of the commentary earlier that the Health Department participated fully in the preparation of the report. Other Departments might have been less willing to engage. I welcome the relationship between the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People and the Department of Health, and I fully expect that, between them, progress will be made on the report as well as on transforming and rebuilding paediatric services. <BR /> <BR />To be clear, our waiting lists have been exacerbated by COVID, but they were not caused by it. The report makes it clear that the problem has been deep-rooted for several years.”
“Does the Member agree that it would be desirable for the Police Ombudsman to have a practical understanding of policing?”
“However, given the conditions in which their duties dictate that they must operate, they could develop many of the conditions now suffered by the first responders in New York City. Routine annual cancer screening, if practical, can only be a good thing and, hopefully, it will offer some degree of reassurance to firefighters and their families.”
“Over a very compact period of weeks, they selflessly worked through the ruins of those buildings to recover the remains of victims and were exposed to a lot of dangerous, toxic materials. Of the first responders present in the direct aftermath, 45% now suffer from upper airway and digestive tract conditions and 16% have cancer. Not all of those medical conditions can be attributed to their duties, but it is a reasonable assumption that the roots of many of those conditions were in the ruins of the World Trade Center. <BR /> <BR />Over a 20-year career, our local firefighters may not match the intense experience of the New York firefighters, which was felt over a few weeks.”
“We see them cutting free victims from bad traffic collisions or evacuating people from areas. We have even seen them rescuing farm animals that are stuck in a sheugh. However, we do not see, at close quarters, their core function of fighting fires. They enter business premises with, perhaps, only scant information on what chemicals or products are stored in the building. They may also be unaware of the asbestos dangers in properties, particularly older buildings, many of which have been adapted for storage. <BR /> <BR />With all the best protection and training in the world, it is entirely possible for a firefighter to be exposed to toxic fumes or dangerous particles in the air. Other Members have spoken about the experiences of firefighters and first responders in New York City during the 9/11 attacks.”
“I am pleased to hear the improved health news about Fra's wife. They are both living proof of the benefits of double vaccination. <BR /> <BR />Other Members have acknowledged the debt of gratitude that we owe to members of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, and I concur with all those comments. Fortunately, we as members of the public are not onlookers to the work that firefighters routinely carry out daily. Their skills extend to many scenarios other than fighting fires.”
“She explained very vividly how she felt coming away from the clinic. Would she agree with me that we cannot start to imagine how a vulnerable person, at a very low or crisis point in their life, would feel getting the treatment that she received when she left that clinic?”
“I thank the Member for giving way. It is distressing to hear what the Member experienced when she was conducting her legitimate business at a clinic.”
“We have seen that, and we have said that, at the moment, the laws are difficult for the police to interpret and act on. Safe access areas will provide police with absolute clarity on when they can intervene. We therefore especially welcome the proposal in the private Member's Bill to allow PSNI officers to direct a person to leave a place, or to remove a person from it, rather than prosecute. <BR /> <BR />The Ulster Unionist Party reserves the right to amend the Bill as it progresses, but we support its general thrust.”
“<BR /> <BR />In addition, although the right to assemble and express an opinion is an important freedom, it needs to be balanced against causing undue distress and disruption to any user of any service. The Bill is not about stopping freedom of speech but about stopping the practice, albeit in limited situations, of women being impeded or openly confronted when accessing such facilities. <BR /> <BR />The legislation will not stop people protesting. It will simply determine where they can carry out those protests. If groups or individuals feel moved to conduct a protest, in Belfast city centre or in the centre of any of our towns in Northern Ireland, they will be perfectly entitled to do so, as long as their protests are lawful and peaceful. <BR /> <BR />The police have a difficulty in dealing with such protests.”
“No one should be obstructed or intimidated when accessing lawful healthcare services, for whatever reason. That includes staff working at such facilities. <BR /> <BR />Another behaviour that the Bill will prohibit is filming and recording people. Again, my party supports that. <BR /> <BR />We also cannot lose sight of the fact that some of the buildings where the clinics are conducted also house other businesses, offices or industries. Staff in those offices who may have suffered the loss of a baby through stillbirth, for instance, have to run the gauntlet of the placards, the pamphlets, the protest, the shouting and whatever. We cannot forget that. In all conscience, that cannot be right, and we cannot allow it.”
“Equally, however, people who are seeking medical advice or guidance are entitled to do so in an atmosphere that is not frightening or intimidating, especially when those people may be at the lowest and most vulnerable point in their lives. <BR /> <BR />The Bill requires the Department of Health to establish safe access zones around abortion clinics to protect the women using the clinics. It would become a criminal offence to harass people in a safe access area around those clinics. I am pleased that the Bill has not been definitive about the scope of these safe access areas, because different locations will obviously have different requirements. It is good that the Department will be able to call on the advice of people in those locations who will be best able to judge the extent of those safe access areas when they are created.”
“It is important to separate the proposed legislation, and this debate on that legislation, from our personal positions on abortion, whether pro-life or pro-choice. No connection should be made, either spoken or implied. <BR /> <BR />Protests outside trusts or charitable premises have been going on for some considerable time. Over recent weekends, we have seen that type of protest copied outside COVID vaccination hubs in a part of west Belfast. No matter what the protest is about, such behaviour cannot be condoned. <BR /> <BR />In considering this legislation, we must balance competing rights. People have the right to hold a view strongly enough that they will stand on a picket line, carry placards or write irate letters to public representatives or to the media.”
“The statement paints a rosy picture of North/South cooperation with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. Will the deputy First Minister confirm that, for example, the reality of the Republic's unacceptable delay in providing track and trace data on international arrivals in Dublin airport heading into Northern Ireland has meant that the people of Northern Ireland have not enjoyed the cross-border cooperation for dealing effectively with a virus that they expect and deserve? Will she confirm that the blame for that difficulty lies with Dublin and not Belfast?”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I will reflect on it, and I hope that the Member will go away and reflect on what he said in here today. Thank you.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. <BR /> <BR />I really do not know what service Mr Frew feels that he is delivering in his words today about these regulations. I have had a lot of letters, as, I am sure, the rest of the Chamber has, from what I refer to as the "tinfoil hat brigade". I have been getting some very bizarre emails; all Members get them. They reference all sorts of Google links, where you can read all sorts of bizarre statements about the vaccine killing people and all the rest of it. Listening to Mr Frew today, I feel that he could be the author of one of those letters because that is how he comes across to me.”
“Mr Frew, you might be well advised to go and speak to your First Minister, and he might be able to give you some thoughts about what the Executive think about that. I am sure that your party and your party leader have views about that. Go and talk to them and come back and tell us what the DUP position is on vaccination passports. I would like to know where your party stands on that. Please, take the opportunity of speaking to the First Minister and come back and share that with us. I think that the population out there would like to know where the DUP really stands on these regulations.”
“I would have loved it if all these regulations had come from the Executive and been debated in here at length before they became law, official guidance or regulations — whatever you want to call them. However, while we would have been doing that, people would have been buried, having died as a result of our slow reaction to the pandemic.”
“Nobody likes that. I do not like it. We like to do things the democratic way. Mr Frew talked about us wanting to get back to normal. He is almost attributing to the Health Minister the ability to get us back to normal. When I look around the Chamber, what I see is not normal. These empty seats are not normal. Wiping the tables every time that we leave the Chamber is not normal. It is not the Health Minister who is making us do that; I take it that it is the Business Committee and the Assembly Commission that insist that we do those things. We do it because it is the right thing to do, and we have been trying to encourage the public to do those things. We have to set that example to the public. It is not a case of, "Do as we tell you" but "Do as we do".”
“Thank you. We talk about the democratic process being pushed to one side, but we all get it. We all realise why the democratic process has, at times — in fact, for the past year and a half — had to be short-circuited.”