Eamonn McCann
Foyle · People Before Profit Alliance · Northern Ireland
“Every single Member so far has mentioned the financial constraints on the Housing Executive. Does the Member agree with me that there are ways out of this problem of a lack of resources to deal with cavity wall insulation, damp and mould, which affects houses in every constituency?”
“We cannot have it on the basis of a Government in Stormont, Westminster or anywhere else saying, 'We think this is a dangerous person and they should be put into prison'." <BR /> <BR />I am struck by the fact that none of those who have spoken in favour of this motion have even admitted that this might be a difficulty.”
“Thank you very much. When there is such a perception, and it is based on material reality, that is a real problem for law and order in any society. <BR /> <BR />Yesterday, we voted for the motion in relation to the attempted killing on the Crumlin Road.”
“Mr Frew has just referred to people campaigning with placards demanding the release of this one and that one. He characterised it as standing side by side with extremists. It is not standing side by side with extremists to call for the release of anybody — certainly not.”
“When asked what these activities were — "I am not telling you."; "Who gave you to believe that he was involved in these activities?"; "The security services"; "Did they give you the information?"; "Yes, they did"; "Will you tell us?"; "No, we will not tell you".”
“I refer, of course, to internment in 1971. Occasionally, here and outside, we refer to the major atrocities that have taken place. I include, just for the sake of the record and in case anybody suggests I would think otherwise, Enniskillen, Teebane and the dreadful, unjustified and unjustifiable atrocity in Birmingham in December 1974, wh…”
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“You could, through that exercise, say, "We can do twice as many people at 15 minutes than we can do at 30 minutes". If the measurement is the number of people in receipt of that care and those services, you can produce a figure that says that we are doing twice as well now as we did beforehand, but you are doing exactly the same. Could that happen? I think that it could, and one of the reasons that I think that is that it is happening now. Care packages and care visits are being cut back at the same time as we are being told that the statistics will show us that things are as fine as ever they were. One of the reasons that I bring that up, and this is to do more directly with the Budget and not just the way in which the Programme for Government is framed —”
“<BR /> <BR />Let me give you an example of how this might work, and then I will show you how this is a practical example. Let us imagine that the desired outcome is that everybody deemed to be in need of or entitled to visits from home care workers in the North should get them. That is a terrific outcome to desire. How would you measure it? Here is a way of measuring it: you calculate the number of people receiving care in that way, and then you look at the number last year and see whether it has improved. It sounds simple, does it not? It sounds obvious. It is anything but. <BR /> <BR />Imagine a scenario in which thousands of people in receipt of a 30-minute visit every day — not a lot, is it? — are told one fine day, "Sorry, things are tight and budgets are down, so you are now getting 15 minutes a day".”
“<BR /> <BR />We are told that there is experimental evidence that it works and makes things better. Over and over again, we have been told that some states in the United States have adopted it, as well as Scotland and Finland. What I have not heard and what I would like to hear is some reference to specific items of policy that they can say have been better realised than they would have been under any other system. I do not believe that they can do that. If they could do it, we would have heard it. What measures? In which states in the United States? What has improved in Scotland? What difference has it made to austerity in Scotland or even to the ameliorating measures in Scotland? Tell us that, and then you will have made a case for it. I think that it is dodgy.”
“I will deal with a couple of preliminary matters. I do not have as much to say as Mr Attwood. Let me put it another way: I will not speak for as long as Mr Attwood. <BR /> <BR />What slightly puzzles me about all of this is that, of course, all the proposals in and components of the Budget slot into the Programme for Government; otherwise, they would have no meaning at all. I am worried about the way in which we are going to measure these things. I am worried about this new scheme called — what is it again? —"outcome-based", which is very popular these days in certain circles. It really is the thing among those who want to be fashionable about the way in which they approach these matters. The idea is that you define what the outcome will be, and then you have things for measuring how you approach it.”
“Will the Minister give an assurance now that the management of the University of Ulster has no need for, and should call to a halt, the redundancy programme that is closing courses and getting rid of lecturers at Magee? How can we listen to all the promises about the expansion of Magee when what they are actually doing is contracting Magee?”
“Yes, indeed. I want to put that together with the Minister's suggestion that there are two vice chancellors in the North. He said that there is one in Belfast for Queen's and one in Derry. That is not true.”
“The Minister said earlier that we are all in this together. This is a phrase that, in recent years, has been mainly associated with Mr David Cameron, who repeats it at every occasion. As he puts the boot into the poor, he assures them, "We are all in this together".”
“That is not in any way, not by one iota or a sliver of 1%, a justification for what happened in Orlando but it is part of the context in which we could understand it. We should be against all hatred and killing, no matter where it comes from.”
“We wait to hear what he has to say, but it would be foolish of any of us to imagine that the atrocity will not be used for nefarious purposes by people who are peddlers of hate to exactly the same extent as the Islamic fundamentalist ideologues who are behind the thinking of those who perpetrated the atrocity are. <BR /> <BR />It is also relevant to mention the fact, given that reference has been made to people from other cultures coming here, that the presumed perpetrator of the Orlando atrocity was American born. He did not come from anywhere but the local neighbourhood. We should keep in mind that Western forces do not simply come among people of Muslim lands but have actually come above them in drones or in aeroplanes and have been massacring — massacring — thousands of Muslims over recent years.”
“<BR /> <BR />I welcome the statement that was made last night by LGBT Against Islamophobia, an international organisation, in which it appealed to people not to allow the atrocity to be used to whip up hatred against any section of the community and, in particular, not to allow it to be used to intensify the Islamophobia that is being spread in the United States, including by very powerful people. I regard it as ominous that one of the presumptive presidential candidates in the United States last night issued a statement announcing that he will be expressing his forthright views in a major speech on Orlando tonight.”
“I, of course, associate myself with the remarks that have been made so far regarding the horror and distress that we all will have felt at the news from Florida last night. That terrible atrocity is a reminder that, despite all the social advances and changes in the legislative framework over recent years in this part of the world, although we have not completed the journey yet, and all around the world, LGBT people still face hatred and violence. Uganda has been mentioned, and anyone who looks at the background to the treatment of LGBT people in Uganda and the killings there will be aware of the extent of the problem not just in the United States but elsewhere.”
“They do it, no doubt, with affection and love for the children. Nevertheless, they should not have to do it. Very simply, the point that I am making is that, when we talk about the effects, and they are very strong, on the potential development of children, we should keep in mind that those effects stretch from earliest years right through to the oldest years of our citizens. <BR /> <BR />I hope therefore that we are going to see, in as short a time as possible, a Bill that will bring this about so that we can then discuss priorities, spending priorities and all the rest of it. This, however, should have the highest priority.”
“The absence of childcare affects the oldest in society, in many instances, because the people in the family who replace the childcare tend to be grannies and some grandas. So, at the time of their life when people ought to be able to say, "I've certainly done my stint at child rearing; I can now relax and get on with the rest of my life", they find, heavens above, that it is all starting over again.”
“As I said, we are supposed to be in an equal society, but everybody in the House will know that women do most of the child rearing and most of the housework. It is not unusual to hear a man boasting of the fact that he hoovered the stairs, for once in his life, and, when it comes to childcare, there are still many men who say it is not their business. There are many men who have never changed a nappy and seem to be boastful about that. The fact that we have to mention that is an absolute shame and disgrace, and it illustrates that some of the assumptions behind the distribution of childcare and everything to do with children operate to the detriment of women in society. <BR /> <BR />This will be my last point, if I can get it in.”
“I am concerned that this aspiration, even if it is a commitment, would come into the pattern of the Programme for Government, which is a series of aspirations and supposed mechanisms for attaining those aspirations. The Programme for Government is not set up to state a time-limited series of measures that will bring this about. That is not the type of structure that we have got so far from the Programme for Government. <BR /> <BR />I am keeping a good eye on the clock, but let me say this, in the time available: this is a woman's issue, primarily. For all that we say that things have changed and that there is more equality now and so forth, all experience and investigation shows, overwhelmingly, that it is women and women's work opportunities that suffer when there is not adequate provision.”
“We have been talking about private provision, state provision and the generally prohibitive cost of childcare, but, put simply, the simple fact is this: the better off you are, the more chance you have of getting early years schooling for your children. It is common sense. That has been true for a very, very long time. That is still happening today, the same as it happened in previous years. It happens at a time — at the end of a period, I hope — when the state provision of childcare is under threat. It is under threat across the water, and I believe it is under threat here too, because money's too tight to mention when it comes to many of these issues. I have no doubt that we are going to hear, in the course of the year, that many of the aspirations contained in the motion are absolutely admirable, but they are simply not affordable.”
“OK; the implicit advice is not to take an intervention, I suppose. Let me say, first, that I support the motion, of course, and I commend Claire Hanna and her party for bringing the issue forward at such an early stage of the mandate. I hope the fact that it has been given this priority in coming to the Floor indicates that it will, as so many have said, be given appropriate priority by being brought forward in a Bill and having these matters put into effect. <BR /> <BR />All experience and evidence show that the two main factors determining educational attainment over a lifetime are poverty and childcare and early years learning. That point has been made, but the point that I would like to make is that those things are very closely connected.”
“In each of these instances, commercial interests have trumped the interests of the environment. That is the real context within which we have to understand these things. Whatever we do, regardless of super-councils and the rest of it —”
“There was just mulish reluctance even to comply with their own regulations and with the law. Exactly the same has happened at Woodburn.”
“There is a housing development that begins at the edge of Prehen Wood. The developers had the nerve to advertise it as "Prehen Wood development". It literally abuts the forest, and it has been given planning permission. <BR /> <BR />The connection between those things is this — I could mention Dalradian and the gold mining, but I will not because I do not have time. I could bring you the correspondence between the Planning Service and the Prehen Historical and Environmental Society, which was treated like dirt. It was quite clear that the Planning Service was laughing at them. When the Information Commissioner twice intervened and told the Planning Service, "Give these people the information they are asking for. They are entitled to it", there was no result.”
“We have this little place; it has red squirrels, it has buzzards, it has badgers. When I was a kid, it was known as the "Bluebell Wood", because you would collect an armful of bluebells. All the kids did that and took them over Craigavon Bridge home. The magical thing was that, when you came back the next week, they had returned; it was still carpeted with bluebells. That is under threat. That is something precious. You cannot put a price on that experience. People are entitled to beauty as well as bread, a house to live in and all the rest of it. We are destroying the beauty that has been bequeathed to us by nature.”
“Yes indeed. What I am saying — I think that it is necessary to say this because we are not dealing with the issue that arises if we concentrate on Woodburn only — is that this is not a one-off; it is part of a pattern. I cannot illustrate the pattern that the problem before us today is part of without saying that. I mentioned Mobouy and Prehen wood, where exactly the same thing happened. All that is left of Prehen wood is a little clump of pristine greenery along the banks of the Foyle, just outside Derry. It is being treated in exactly the same way as this area of Woodburn forest, which is another little forest. It is the last pristine piece of forest in what was once a forest running all the way from Derry to Strabane, and it is all cut down and destroyed.”
“See the lagoons, as they are called, where water is gathered. See the bubbles coming up from below. These are not little bubbles like a fizz; these are huge bubbles —”
“Most of you have probably not heard of Mobouy Road, but, before the year is out, you will know all about it. At Mobouy Road, just outside Derry in the townland of Campsie, is an illegal dump that, at a conservative estimate — the previous Minister, Mark H, will, I think, confirm what I am saying — holds 1·2 million metric tons of waste that is illegally dumped. Members of the Assembly, you do not dump 1·2 million tons of waste out of sight, or, as we say around Derry, "unknownst". Loads of people knew that was going on — it is a wide area. The former Minister, Mark H Durkan, was good enough to accompany me and members of Friends of the Earth, the River Faughan Anglers, the Enagh Youth Forum and many others from around the area on a tour of what is there. I tell you this: you should go and see that dump.”
“I was struck by what I heard when listening to some contributions. Bells kept ringing in my head, if you know what I mean. When Members were talking about what is happening at Woodburn, the phrases used and the problems described made me think of Mobuoy Road, of Dalradian and of Prehen wood. If you want to know what all of those are, I can tell you that they are all examples of exactly the same thing as is taking place at Woodburn. Gerry Carroll and Steven Agnew were right: ideologically, economically and politically, what we are witnessing is a clash between the interests of business — of profit — on the one hand, and the interests of the people on the other. This is about rapacious capitalism despoiling our country and our countryside. That is what is happening here. <BR /> <BR />I mentioned Mobouy Road.”
“There will be nothing controversial in anything I say, as always.”
“Do you want me to say it all again? Do you want me to say it again?”
“This is the time to put pressure on the Tories. This is no time to hide behind constitutionality and the position of the Executive. If you are against austerity, fight against austerity.”
“— on 23 June, it will be toast; it will be completely dysfunctional.”
“The Tory party is in disarray. After the vote, whichever way it goes —”
“We question whether there is any political party represented in the Assembly that has more vigorously and consistently, in association with our comrades and brothers and sisters across the water, fought so hard and directly against the austerity measures emanating from Westminster. Our criticism of the Executive was not to put all the blame on them but to draw attention to the fact that they were not fighting hard enough against the Tories. That was our criticism. <BR /> <BR />We are faced with a situation in which the Tory party across the water has more austerity in mind.”
“I rise only to comment on one of the deputy First Minister's remarks. He referred to opportunist politicians or political parties that concentrate their fire on the Executive in relation to austerity and let the British Government off the hook. As he accurately remarked, the British Government are the original source of the austerity measures. The deputy First Minister did not make it absolutely clear to whom he was referring. Lest there be any possibility whatsoever that he included People Before Profit in his strictures on people not attacking the British Government strongly enough, we deny and refute that absolutely.”