Justin McNulty
Newry and Armagh · Social Democratic and Labour Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for challenging some of the narratives that are peddled in relation to immigration. <BR /> <BR />Minister, what steps are you taking to support community safety partnerships in addressing misinformation on illegal immigration and to help build confidence in how local criminality is being managed?”
“I thank the Minister for her statement. I welcome the progress that has been outlined today on major waterways projects, including the Ulster canal project.”
“Will you commit to throwing your full support and that of your Department behind that effort by backing the establishment of the task force and by working proactively with local councils and partners, including the Department of the Taoiseach's Shared Island unit, to realise finally the enormous economic, tourism and environmental potenti…”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. We have all seen the deterioration of our high streets and streets in our towns and villages with the shift to online shopping. Vacancy and dilapidation are now sadly the norm. Will the review act as a stimulus for businesses on those streets in our towns and villages?”
“Absolutely. The Minister and the Department can never relinquish the reins of proper scrutiny. <BR /> <BR />The reclassification by ONS will mean that all trust ports can borrow, which will allow them the commercial flexibility to invest more in their infrastructure.”
“<BR /> <BR />The trust port model has stood the test of time and has worked well for the North. We can see the economic and social benefits in the local communities around the ports. In 2025, the DFI completed a review of the trust ports in the North to explore how the Department's policy on trust ports could be updated.”
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“At the outset, it is important to establish a critical fact: the North of Ireland is in the grip of a mental health crisis. Mental illness is indiscriminate, and it is influenced by so many factors, from access to housing and high levels of poverty and inequality to logjams in our education system, the trauma of our history and the challenges of our environment. People from every walk of life are struggling on so many fronts, and, sadly, that includes children and young people. The immense challenges of dealing with our mental health crisis are well documented. The cross-cutting and indiscriminate nature of mental ill health is well known. What we need in response to that crisis is a collaborative and joined-up focus on health and well-being, rather than siloed solutions that tackle the symptoms but ignore the cause.”
“I thank the Minister for her answer. The survey results show that satisfaction with treatment by the police was at only 8%, with respondents citing incidents, particularly of domestic abuse, being belittled and not taken seriously and saying that officers were not trained to deal with sexual assaults. Those statements are in direct contrast to the aims of the domestic and sexual abuse strategy that the Department launched last week. Does the Minister accept that the absence of systemic reform by her Department and the budget set by her Department actively harm victims and deter them from coming forward to report crimes?”
“Will the Minister agree that ongoing underfunding of the police will continue to erode faith in the justice system to the detriment of victims? Will she also agree that the Chief Constable should take every measure possible to secure adequate funding to keep people and communities safe?”
“Minister, as a result of flood events, flood risk and inadequate mitigation measures, households and businesses in Newry and South Armagh are being crippled by the cost of extortionate insurance premiums. What specific actions, bar cutting down ancient Irish oak trees, does your Department propose to take to address flood risk factors in a manner that will ease the burden of crippling insurance costs for my constituents?”
“The Minister referenced what others euphemistically refer to as "the Troubles" and the electric shock that the BBC host had when he knew and understood that more people had died by suicide since 1998 than died during the Troubles. How many of those deaths could be attributable to the intergenerational trauma from the Troubles and the consequences of and hangover from the Troubles?”
“<BR /> <BR />Today's motion and amendment feel an awful lot like a group of students jointly presenting a class project that they have cobbled together on the school bus on the way in. There is a lack of joined-up thinking, a bit of exaggeration about who is in charge of what, a lack of evidence of continuous working and some finger-pointing on who is to blame for the confusion. If I were marking that work, it would be with qualified support and, "Must do better".”
“How do the Executive plan to avoid a two-tier planning system that prioritises development of rural mobile infrastructure while leaving family farms and rural housing out in the cold? Bizarrely, the motion and the amendment raise more questions than they answer. Neither the task force nor its planning and publicly owned assets subgroups have published any meaningful work since they were established. The communications subgroup seems to be the only one that has conducted any substantive work. It signed off a stakeholder engagement strategy and communication plan, and, by last August, all 11 of the North's councils had identified digital champions/coordinators. None of the strategies or plans has been published, and the subgroup does not seem to have had any outworkings since August 2023.”
“<BR /> <BR />Also lacking is a specific call for a robust rethink of the mechanisms for engagement with communities to identify appetite and secure buy-in for mobile infrastructure development. One recurring issue for me as a constituency MLA in Newry and Armagh, which is largely rural, has been balancing the need for enhanced coverage with local objections to conspicuous development in areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and with safety concerns about proximity to masts. If the call today is for an overhaul of processes, I would like the Executive to show more thought about how they propose to bring communities into the process more meaningfully. <BR /> <BR />The DUP wants to update planning guidance to prioritise mobile infrastructure. How will that chime with existing planning guidance on rural development?”
“Today's motion and amendment feel a bit like déjà vu all over again, with the leading parties in the Executive jockeying to pat their own Ministers on the back while expressing disappointment in the Ministers of their partners in government: so much for joined-up working and collective responsibility. I am curious as to why we are asked to acknowledge the work of the Department for the Economy in leading a planning subgroup that it does not actually lead, a fact made more curious when you consider that the group in question has met only twice that we know of since it was formed. Before I join the chorus of applause, I would like to know what the subgroup has achieved.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. This morning, I spoke with a young voter, who is a constituent of his in Lagan Valley. She expressed her disillusionment at not being able to vote in the Brexit referendum and how the outcome might have been different — we could all still happily be in the EU — had 16-year-olds been allowed to vote in it.”
“Minister, raising the skills profile is essential to combat poverty. What proportion of the new skills fund will be directed towards areas of higher deprivation?”
“Demonstrate your ambition by committing to targets and timelines. Without committing to targets and timelines, it is just blah, blah, blah.”
“One of the key commitments of the green growth strategy is to develop the North's first climate action plan. How come there is no mention of that in the motion? <BR /> <BR />We are getting too comfortable with throwing out aims and objectives and empty, hollow motions without any actual actions or time frames to measure progress against. That is, arguably, the biggest barrier to green growth. We can talk about the issue as much as we like, but without effective leadership, we will be talking about it for years, with no action, and we will reach the point of no return. Let us not look back on this moment in shame because we did not do enough. We must take decisive action now to put the necessary measures in place to heal our environment. We must show some real ambition, not hollow motions, on green growth.”
“The Minister has spoken on multiple occasions about his commitment to improving the planning system through the work of the planning improvement programme and to publishing a revised regional planning policy for renewable and low-carbon energy, but it concerns me that we are yet to see concrete details on precisely what actions will be taken to reduce the processing time and the burden on overworked planners who cannot cope with their caseloads. <BR /> <BR />However, that is not the first, or only, barrier to green growth. I welcome the work to bring forward a green growth strategy and the mention of green growth in the draft Programme for Government, but, again, the lack of concrete action and timescales is an area of serious concern.”
“That is a question for the Minister. <BR /> <BR />We have some of the most beautiful areas of natural beauty, but we are allowing them to deteriorate, year-on-year. So, while work from the Minister to bring forward a green growth strategy is welcome, it is shamefully overdue. The delays in our planning system are known to us all and pose one of the biggest barriers to sustainability and sustainable economic growth. It is shocking that provisional figures for renewable energy applications up to quarter 3 in 2023-24 showed a 30·8-week processing time.”
“In addition, 12% of species assessed across the North are under threat of extinction. We are also seeing blue-green algae blooms in several of our waterways, and stale tasting and smelling water has been pouring out of our kitchen taps over recent weeks, which is frightening. We have some of the most beautiful areas of natural beauty, but we are allowing them to deteriorate, year-on-year. So, while work from the Minister to bring forward a green growth strategy is welcome, it is shamefully overdue.”
“I thank the Members who sponsored the motion for bringing it to the Floor. I support the motion and the amendment. It is particularly important to speak on this issue, given the events of recent days, but my support is not without reservation as there is a lot of self-back-slapping and a degree of buck-passing inherent in the motion. <BR /> <BR />The shameful state of our environment is not something that we can be proud of. In February 2020, the Assembly declared a climate emergency, and yet, since then, we have let our environment deteriorate even further. According to the 2023 State of Nature report, Northern Ireland is one of the most nature-depleted areas in the world. The abundance of farmland and bird species has, on average, fallen by 43% since 1996. We have seen a 14% decrease in the number of flowering plants since 1970.”
“I do not argue with your saying that there is an issue with the planning system, but there is certainly a personnel issue as well. If you talk to the planners in the Newry planning office, they will tell you about their workload and the over-expectation on them to get through their caseload. They cannot keep up with the demand that is placed on them daily.”
“Does the Member recognise that planning departments are on their knees? Hard-working staff have caseloads that are out of control, and staff are voting with their feet, going down South and getting jobs in planning offices with much smaller caseloads and much higher salaries. That has to be a huge blockage to our planning system in the North.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. He mentioned local development plans. What does it say about the planning system and about the efficiency of the departments that local development plans are now generally 10 years out of date?”
“Minister, city deals are seen as an important catalyst for so many crucial projects and initiatives, with huge effort and cost having already been expended. What are the consequences and costs of pausing the Mid South West growth deal, what impact will that pause have on places like Armagh city and what efforts are under way from you and your Executive colleagues to have those deals restarted?”
“The original Shared Prosperity Fund was clearly not designed with the North in mind, and these institutions had little control over what decisions were made or how they were made. What conversations has the Minister or her officials had with the new British Government to address those problems, and what commitments has she sought or got?”
“Minister, what hope can you give to the 47,000 — 47,000 — people who are on the housing waiting list, given that you have confirmed that only 600 social houses will be built this year?”
“What will the Executive do to build the broken relationships between Gaels across the island and this Government? Trust is in tatters. With respect to the junior Minister who tabled the Matter of the Day, why are Ministers not here to answer questions? There are plenty of questions to be asked, but no one is here to answer them. Why? <BR /> <BR />This is a failure of government at virtually every level. Casement Park was never a UEFA project: it has been an Executive commitment for more than a decade. The collapse of government on two occasions for more than five years has had a catastrophic impact on delivering this showcase project. We must provide hope to Gaels in Antrim. We must provide hope to Gaels in Ireland and to the people of west Belfast.”
“When did Executive Ministers first know of the announcement? When did they know that it was coming, and what representations did they make to the British Government? What commitments had they sought? Why were the tender documents not issued in March when they were ready to go? What commitments have Ministers sought and secured on the financial commitment to Casement Park and the timeline for delivery? <BR /> <BR />I find it startling — startling — that a junior Minister has been sent out on the issue. Who has been leading on this in the Executive? Is it an Executive project? Is DFC or the Executive responsible, or has the issue been farmed out by the Executive and the First Ministers? The First Minister has been definitive that Casement Park will be built: can Executive parties outline what will be built and when?”
“Frankly, there should be an apology to the generation of footballers, camogie players and hurlers who have missed their chance to step on to the hallowed turf of Casement Park and play for their club, their county, their country, their community and their friends and family. It is a desperately disappointing and sad state of affairs. <BR /> <BR />I welcome the participation of all parties, particularly Executive parties, in the discussions today and would welcome answers to the serious questions that Gaels now have. It is not just about broken promises; it is much deeper than that. It is about more than the GAA or the Euros; it is about equality and fairness. The GAA runs through people like the letters through a stick of rock. It is core to almost 50% of us in this place and to who we are.”
“This is a sad, sad day for Gaels across the island. The developments over the weekend have compounded 13 years of frustration for those of us who believe in the potential for the redevelopment of Casement Park to be a huge win for Gaelic games, for those of us who treasure the power of sport and for the community in west Belfast. There was a huge opportunity to host a global sporting event in the heart of west Belfast with a spin-off economic, cultural, community and sporting multiplier effect that would have happened as a consequence. <BR /> <BR />The last match played at the park was over a decade ago, in 2013.”
“Given the recent critical report on river basin management plans by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), what steps will the Minister take to ensure that the new ammonia strategy is fully compliant with the water framework directive regulations and contributes significantly to the water framework directive's environmental objectives? What lessons could your Department learn from what Teagasc is doing in the South in relation to engagement and being proactive —”
“Minister, it is sad to see that your Department and your Executive colleagues have raised the white flag of surrender on winter fuel payments. It is also ludicrous that some of your colleagues point the finger at the Opposition. Will you confirm that you did, in fact, receive a letter from the Opposition on this important issue and let us know whether your Department has any idea how many pensioners are entitled to pension credit but are not receiving it?”
“There is nothing divisive about an Armagh flag.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. Does he agree that the Justice Minister's often-touted commitment to respecting the operational independence of the Chief Constable is in contrast to her Department's public excoriation of the Chief Constable's acting in accordance with that operational independence?”
“Thank you, Minister. You have emphasised that two years were lost during the suspension of the Assembly, but you are also on record as saying that your officials have been working on your legislative programme for four years. You have emphasised the human resource constraints in your Department, yet your officials have found the time to engage in grandiose spats with the Chief Constable. You have been unambiguous on the need for stand-alone hate crime legislation. Most people recognise that the recent racist violence only amplifies the need for such legislation to be progressed urgently. Do you concede that your U-turn today sends out a very disheartening message to victims of hate crime and that your money and your mouth are in totally different places?”
“Will you demonstrate your intent? Will you demonstrate your ambition by committing to the completion of Casement Park — a flagship project and new beacon of hope, reconciliation and prosperity for Belfast, the North and this island — in time for Euro 2028?”
“That, I agree with. You also reference making progress on Casement Park's redevelopment. Wonderful. In your draft Programme for Government statement, you say that you:”
“First Ministers, your draft Programme for Government states:”
“<BR /> <BR />I will give an honourable call-out to our Armagh man Daniel Wiffen and the joy that he brought on top of the orange pride that we already experienced with the All-Ireland success.”
“That is why I have asked the Communities Minister to engage directly with the Irish Government on how to harness the full potential of their recent announcement of a €400 million investment in sports and infrastructure. Sport can take us all and make us all faster, higher, stronger and bring us together. <BR /> <BR />With 13 medals having made their way back to the island of Ireland, it is abundantly clear that we, as a people, punch well above our weight on the international stage. I commend the Minister on having a joint ceremony here for the Paralympians and Olympians, which would be a wonderful festival of sport in this place. The best way that the Assembly can celebrate the success of our Paris Olympians is to lay the foundation of success for future generations who have been inspired by the success of our local champions.”
“Citius, Altius, Fortius — Communiter: Faster, higher, stronger — together. Wow, the success of our Olympians in Paris has been nothing short of extraordinary. The passion, grit, determination and conviction of our local competitors has been matched only by the pride of their families and local communities. It was inspiring to see communities rally behind all our local competitors, irrespective of whether they represented Team Ireland or Team GB. It is vital for all of us in the Chamber today to do more than just join a celebratory chorus. Sporting excellence in our local community is on full display after the record medal haul, and I believe that it is incumbent on us to seize on that momentum and harness those opportunities.”
“Minister, to what extent are you concerned about the representations from the Royal Society of Ulster Architects that experienced professionals believe that this legislation could result in a situation in which innocent parties are held liable for the fault of others? Should that not be enough for serious consideration? That does not seem to have been the case in this instance. Instead, from the society's perspective, it appears that a hands-over-the-ears strategy has been adopted.”
“Minister, how do you propose that professional firms — architects — deal with fighting legal cases potentially from 20-plus years ago, when records were not kept in the manner that they are now? What about the fearfulness of older architects especially — those who are close to retirement — about the potential implications for their businesses and families?”
“Minister, one of my earliest formative memories is of sitting in a kitchen on the Crumlin Road in Glenavy, eating Lough Neagh eel freshly cooked off the frying pan. It is a special memory for me, doing that with my dear Auntie Rita — God rest her soul — and my Uncle Barney. To what extent, Minister, do you take responsibility for protecting the Lough Neagh eel, which is a delicacy in France and elsewhere across Europe? Have you met the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on the Lough Neagh eel?”
“Minister, in your statement, you tell us that the proportion of people aged between 25 and 64 participating in education and training has fallen from 18% in 2016 to 16% in 2022, the lowest rate on these islands. To what do you attribute the decline, and what are the downstream consequences for our economy and our competitiveness?”
“Minister, in the context of the all-island strategic rail review, will you give us an update on the reopening of the Armagh to Portadown rail link, please?”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. All-island healthcare makes sense. It should be about cooperating and sharing resource, expertise, innovation and medical facilities. Does the Minister agree that Daisy Hill Hospital is in prime position to become a cross-border centre of excellence, given that more than a million people are within an hour's drive of Newry city's hospital?”
“It is on that basis that I commend the motion to the House in the strongest terms. Counties Armagh and Down are definitely a part of Ireland's Ancient East, and it time that we made that official so that we can reap the clear dividend from that for the communities that we all serve.”
“<BR /> <BR />In his maiden speech to the House of Commons over 40 years ago, Séamus Mallon rightly pointed to the fact that our history belongs to us all, simply by virtue of the fact that there are sites in south Armagh alone that predate Britain in Ireland, the Vikings in Ireland and even the Celts in Ireland.”
“The Quaker village of Bessbrook manufactured linen and produced granite that was exported across the British Empire, and just around the corner in Derrymore House, the Act of Union was drafted. <BR /> <BR />I would struggle to find a better way to show that we are serious about a genuinely shared future. We should work together to see Fáilte Ireland market our shared history and our intertwined heritage around the world proudly and unapologetically. The motion gives us an opportunity to harness the power of our heritage and demonstrate that a rising tide really can lift all boats. I must also give an honourable mention to the Armagh Rhymers, who have been keeping Ireland's ancient Celtic traditions alive. I will never forget the day that they walked into my primary school and mesmerised every one of us with their rhyming.”
“Each of the four pillars of Ireland's Ancient East can be found in my area or within a stone's throw of it, from Viking history and Norman castles in Carlingford, historic sites in south Armagh that predate the pyramids in Egypt, St Patrick's resting place in Downpatrick and the tomb of Brian Boru at St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh, which is the seat of the Anglican Church in Ireland. <BR /> <BR />The tourism offering in Armagh and Down is as rich as it is diverse and presents a unique opportunity for the history and heritage of Ulster to secure a more prominent place in Ireland's Ancient East. The home of Orangeism is at Dan Winter's cottage near Loughgall. Near Armagh city, we have Eamhain Mhacha or Navan Fort, which is the mesmerising historical ancient capital of Ireland and which the Egyptians recorded on a prehistoric map.”
“The SDLP has been working with local tourism providers, statutory agencies, the Irish Government and all parties in building a strategy to significantly and sustainably boost cross-border tourism in south-east Ulster. Our case has been put forward so successfully that our proposal to include Armagh and Down in Ireland's Ancient East received cross-party and cross-community buy-in at Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, even from the DUP. <BR /> <BR />There is a clear synchronicity between Armagh and Down's tourism offering and the four pillars of Ireland's Ancient East: ancient Ireland; Anglo Ireland; medieval Ireland; and early Christian Ireland.”
“It was opened in the '60s, when an archaeologist who borrowed a tractor from Sean O'Grady of Ballinaleck excavated the court cairn and removed the corbelling at the top. That corbelling should be replaced as it was so that the excitement of the experience for children who crawl into that court cairn can be increased. <BR /> <BR />Over the last number of years, I have worked alongside my local SDLP colleagues to advocate for the inclusion of County Armagh and County Down in the Ireland's Ancient East destination marketing brand. My rationale and determination in that regard are simple. It is about harnessing the potential of the tourism product in our region. It is about putting the spotlight on all that we have to offer and turning a hidden gem into the jewel of our tourism crown. That is where my focus and that of my party lie.”