Keith Buchanan
Mid Ulster · Democratic Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“Minister, we watched a gentleman having his head nearly removed on the street. That is a problem, whether you think so or not. I referred to it as being like something that I witnessed in the slaughterhouse in my previous job. We have to address it. I am not radical; I am just a normal MLA who talks to normal people in the street.”
“It is always a privilege to celebrate sporting success in mid-Ulster. Today, we congratulate Nigel Davidson, a proud Cookstown businessman, on his outstanding achievement at the Hyrox world championships in Stockholm. To see him compete and succeed on the world stage is an achievement that makes all of us in Cookstown incredibly proud.”
“Minister, I was contacted on Friday by a lady whose brother was in Muckamore — a lady who did not tell her story. Now the report has come out and sparked a degree of need for her to speak. I use the word "need", but that is maybe not the best word. What can that lady do now?”
“I thank the Minister for that answer. We are starting to see the impact of investment into local communities through funds from the Ulster-Scots Agency and the Arts Council. In the past, Sinn Féin has been critical about your priorities, complaining recently that consistent funding for Ulster Scots and bands was for "vanity projects".”
“Last Friday, I had the privilege of walking alongside the Veterans Commissioner for Northern Ireland, his dedicated team and veterans as they completed a six-day journey: the Somme 110 walk. The final day coincided with the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Battle of the Somme is not just a story from the past but one that lives on in families, regiments and the hearts of those who continue to serve. It stands as a stark reminder of the sacrifice, suffering and bravery of those who fell and fought. Those men faced unimaginable conditions so that others might know freedom.”
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“In the COVID times, we saw the benefits of forests, and many people went to them. Obviously, that is still developing, because more and more people are going to them. Can you provide an update on what your Department is doing to put right the devastating damage caused by the storms at the start of the year? I appreciate that trees do not grow overnight, but what work is going on to put that back the way it was?”
“It is time for the Minister to work alongside farm businesses to provide that way forward.”
“To purpose such a place for the glorification of terrorism is not only deeply offensive; it is a betrayal of the values that bind us together. No matter where such events are held, we must be vocal and unequivocal: no terrorist should ever be celebrated. <BR /> <BR />The organisers of that commemoration have inflicted renewed pain on a community still scarred by the ethnic cleansing of Protestant people. The decision to hold such an event in south-east Fermanagh, or anywhere, is not just insensitive but simply wrong. It speaks volumes about their disregard for reconciliation, healing and basic human decency. Let us reject the glorification of violence and ensure that history remembers the truth — the actual truth — and not a revisionist fantasy that seeks to sanitise terror.”
“For any right-thinking person, reflection must centre not on the perpetrator but on the innocent victims whose lives were stolen. We must remember the people who went to work, protected their communities or simply went about their daily lives and never returned home because of Lynagh's campaign of terror. Those are the individuals who deserve our remembrance and respect. <BR /> <BR />It is beyond belief that such an event could be hosted in the grounds of a former school; a place once dedicated to learning, growth and community.”
“I rise to express my deep concern about, and unequivocal condemnation of, a recent event that was held in south-east Fermanagh that sought to commemorate Jim Lynagh, a man whose legacy is steeped in violence, terror and murder. Let me be absolutely clear: there is nothing thought-provoking about the campaign of destruction that he orchestrated. His actions were not political discourse: they were calculated acts of terror that were designed to instil fear and inflict suffering. Jim Lynagh was not a freedom fighter: he was an architect of terror. <BR /> <BR />Before being killed by the SAS in the Loughgall ambush, he helped to plan a brutal bombing attack on a police station as part of a wider campaign to destabilise and murder. His legacy is one of bloodshed, not bravery.”
“Minister, do you share my concern that the use of lawfare is further weaponising the Irish language?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Several people in Mid Ulster followed advertisements on television — that is the right thing to do — and reached out but did not get the help that they needed: help came too late. Further to the answer that you gave me, have there been any improvements in the past number of months, or is that is what is there? Have there been any improvements in the service? I ask because, when they reached out, the help was not there.”
“Given the comments that we have heard in court, and to follow on from John's question, which raised that point, is there any indication that the Minister will bring the matter to the Executive table? That is the place to sort out such things and have everybody in the Executive agree them, rather than take them through the courts.”
“Obviously, the scheme will cover rural and urban halls. In the past, a previous AERA Minister supported 113 rural halls. I questioned the Minister yesterday in the Chamber, and he indicated that he was having conversations with you about supporting the fund. Do you see the AERA Minister putting his hand in his pocket and supporting you when you step in to support rural communities? Will he support you financially to cover more halls than you have talked about with the figure that you referred to?”
“I thank the Minister for that answer. You mentioned, I think, £145·4 million: what is that figure like going back over a number of years? Has it increased, decreased or stayed the same effectively? What is the history on that figure, broadly?”
“Minister, we have heard the magic numbers of 62/24/12 from agriculture, sewage and septic tanks respectively. Can you provide evidence for those numbers, or were they part of a desktop exercise to point the finger at the industries involved?”
“Thank you, Minister, for your answer. You rightly referenced the scheme that Minister Lyons launched last week. Your predecessor launched a rural community halls scheme, which supported 113 halls. Do you envisage giving financial support to Minister Lyons to do more with his scheme, bearing in mind that it takes in rural communities, which are within your remit?”
“Yes. It is related to farms. Farms have a metered supply, and they are allowed to offset a percentage of their costs against their domestic usage. How will you square the circle of somebody having a domestic house on a farm? How do you define the hosepipe ban there? Ultimately, they are paying for water but have a domestic allowance.”
“However, those are two things to look at: the farm aspect of the 20% relief and how we protect the property and not only the domestic building as such, which is the way that this is worded. <BR /> <BR />There are a few other wee lines — I will not go into them — about cleaning a private motor. There are terms that use the word "hosepipe" and terms that do not. We can argue about that all day. There are wee terms that need to be tweaked, but this is not the day. I will not talk all day on this, you will be glad to hear. I look forward to the meeting tomorrow and working with my colleagues across the House on this — all of them.”
“I have always queried the flood protection grants because they protect the building, for example, the house or the garage of a standard dwelling, but it does not protect the property. There were a few incidents where, if the property had been protected, it would have been cheaper than protecting the physical house. It depends how you look at that. <BR /> <BR />I appreciate that we can get into the nuts and bolts of this — it is probably not the day for that — but those are two things that jump out at me immediately. There are other things that we can go through in more detail, but this is not the day to do it. If the Bill passes, we will have further communication tomorrow from officials and research papers that can go through the issues and go into them in more depth.”
“My comments will be short. First, I congratulate my colleague, Peter, who is taking up the Committee Chair. Deborah is probably watching. I do not know which camera to wave at — normally, we get an indication — but I wish her well, and I wish Peter well. <BR /> <BR />I have only two brief comments. A lot of the issues have been covered, and I am not going to get into the depths of the Bill. First, on the clause on the hosepipe ban, I have a query about how the domestic allowance will be covered on farms. Maybe the Minister will cover that issue. What thought has been put into the domestic allowance? Also, the Minister mentioned that the flood protection grants would move from £10,000 to £13,000.”
“It is about how we get that scoring right. There is something wrong there. I have pushed and pushed, but there is an issue there. It is a box-ticking exercise to spend active travel money quickly so that people can say, "We've spent this amount of money", but it is not spent on the cleverest projects. You can ask the people locally which are the ones to do. I know that everybody has their parochial issues, but, broadly speaking, there is an issue there. It is a box-ticker in order to spend money quickly. <BR /> <BR />It has been a good debate. We have covered a lot of things, and there is no point in me rehearsing them all. We talked about the amount of money that is being spent on potholes. Unless we invest, that will not be reduced. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I appreciate your time.”
“We are getting that footpath to Loughry campus, which, technically, goes nowhere, but we cannot get one to go to Dunman Creamery, where dozens of workers walk out every day on the hard shoulder. I do not have a problem with active travel; it is about how it is scored. There is one footpath going ahead to Loughry campus when there is a perfectly good footpath on the other route, which is actually shorter, yet they are building a new one out one way when we cannot get one going to Dunman, where all the workers walk out of the factory. There is an issue with how that is done. It is done that way because it is quick and easy: there is no land to vest; and you can spend big money quickly. You can ask anybody walking in Cookstown today whether we need a footpath to Loughry campus or Dunman Creamery, and I know what they will tell you.”
“You are misinterpreting my age, Gerry. I am not old enough to remember that. I cannot recall the noise of the steam trains in Mid Ulster, to be honest. I know that they were there, but that was some time back. <BR /> <BR />Members have broadly covered a lot of similar points. They are the same: rural roads need money, and there is a need to look at active travel. I am not a fan of that, but I want the Minister to look at an active travel scheme that got the green light in Mid Ulster. I do not want to get parochial, but I am. They are building a footpath to nowhere — out to Loughry campus. The only reason why that got over the line was that there was, unfortunately, a fatality on the other footpath. I know that there is never a reason, but there was a reason why that happened.”
“We will have to leave it there. Maybe that is something that the Minister can —.”
“Then there was the number of potholes in the area. You talked about there being one per house and about damage to cars. We could all write those points, but they are all valid. Unfortunately, you have missed your bus. I can never get a bus home from here. I do not know when I would get home; it might be Thursday.”
“That is no reflection on engineers in the area, to be fair to them. They can maintain and inspect only so much, but there has to be some way of holding to account those utility companies that come to a road that is perfectly good job and track it but do not do it well enough, so that is where it cracks. That has to be looked at. Again, Peter Martin talked about how potholes are marked instead of being fixed at the time. <BR /> <BR />Áine Murphy talked about her office being inundated with people talking about road issues. No doubt it is; I hear about a lot of road issues too. She talked about a preventative rather than a reactive road safety strategy. <BR /> <BR />Gerry Carroll talked about the number of issues that have been reported to his office. I missed the number, Gerry. It was in the hundreds, I think you said.”
“With your comments, I would not get you to do any campaigns for them. For clarity, roads are not the DUP's portfolio but Sinn Fein's, and the sky is certainly blue. <BR /> <BR />Nicola Brogan commented on road conditions west of the Bann. She is a bit like me with the issues that she has there. She referred to making sure that rural roads are not forgotten, which is a valid point. A lot of money goes on the main roads that carry the most people but not on the rural roads, and the Minister is from that sort of area. <BR /> <BR />Peter Martin talked about slips, trips and falls because of pavement conditions. He talked about efficiencies. My colleague Trevor Clarke talked about efficiencies on the road. I see that daily when a utility company does a repair that is not of the standard that it should be.”
“Robbie Butler talked about the decline of our pavements and paths. There is no doubt that that applies across NI; it is a broad theme. Any points that colleagues covered could broadly be made about anywhere. He talked about Lagan Valley road conditions and — Peter talked about this as well — instead of marking potholes, filling them as you as go. I think that you talked about getting your own bucket, Robbie, and starting to fill potholes and the risks associated with that. <BR /> <BR />You are welcome on the Committee, Justin McNulty, but I thought that you would have done a wee bit of research. Roads are not my portfolio — they are in Sinn Féin's portfolio — but I will give you a bye ball because you have just joined the Committee. You are certainly not a motivator of DFI Roads staff.”
“That is fine, but he needs to take a wee run over to rural Tyrone on his bicycle some time when he is free and see what we are dealing with. The issue was covered well. Active travel is something that we can look at, going forward, to see how we can maintain what we have and get the correct balance. <BR /> <BR />Cathal Boylan referred to the constituency casework workload. He referred to recent schemes in his area. I must take a run down there, Cathal, to see how good they are and to get a bit of experience of a quality road. Andrew McMurray touched on road conditions in his area and referred to cycling and motorcycling organisations with which his colleague had liaised.”
“It is fine to have that, but active travel needs to be balanced — we touched on that earlier during Question Time with the Minister — between new footpaths and cycleways and maintaining what we have. That is a bugbear of mine because in Tobermore, Desertmartin, Moneymore and Cookstown — we can all name such areas — you cannot actually walk on the rural footpaths. Then, you go through Coleraine and there is a highway beside the road. I am not suggesting that anybody drives on the footpath, but there is a contradiction. It is like building a new extension to your house when you are not using the rooms that you have. That just does not make sense. <BR /> <BR />My colleague to the left is a big advocate of active travel.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I do not intend to take all that time. I will briefly run through some of the comments that Members have made, and put in my own bits and pieces during that. <BR /> <BR />First, Stephen touched on road safety's being compromised by different issues, such as potholes etc. He talked about road freight's being transported on Northern Ireland roads, and said that, over the past five years, £32 million has been paid out due to damaged roads. He also talked about active travel. I have a bit of a bugbear with active travel, although not with the concept of it. Over the weekend, I went through Coleraine. There is a great active travel scheme in Coleraine, but its active travel footpaths are wider and in better shape than most of the roads in rural Tyrone.”
“Just a quick point on that, Minister. I read from my notes that, in the previous financial year, approximately £8 million was paid out for 4,615 claims due to potholes. Have you any way of looking at it and saying, "Right, if we do x, we will save on that to a degree"? Is there any way of reducing that? Are you looking at getting the payout figure down by spending more on the network? I appreciate that it will take spending a lot of money on the network, but how are you going to get the payout figure down?”
“Minister, active travel schemes are obviously to be welcomed. How will you get the balance with new schemes and keeping existing footpaths clear? There are loads of footpaths in my constituency that people cannot even walk on, yet I see new ones being built to nowhere — literally nowhere. How will you get that balance right?”
“<BR /> <BR />The hypocrisy that we hear daily from the party opposite is as clear as looking through a window. Those are the facts, and you cannot take away from them. I say this to the perpetrators of those crimes: you may have escaped justice in this world, but you certainly will not in the next. Be 100% sure that you will not in the next. Every morning when you wake up, think about the eyes of the victims that you murdered. You saw their eyes. Every night before you go to bed, think about what you did. Sleep well.”
“It is only a little book, but thousands of lives were destroyed. <BR /> <BR />There were 343 Orangemen and one woman murdered, and this book covers only some of those murders. One man was murdered by the IRA at his farm whilst leaving milk cans out for collection. His wife was pregnant at the time, and he had a one-year-old daughter. Another gentleman, while working on his farm, was shot at least eight times by four masked IRA gunmen who had emerged from an adjoining farm, where they had taken a hostage. His body was found by his 80-year-old mother. He had no connections to the security forces and was killed simply for being a Protestant. Another gentleman, a 49-year-old married man with three children, was murdered. A 64-year-old married man was murdered along with his wife and daughter.”
“That was violence against women and children. Another example:”
“Where was the thought to end violence against women, children and girls there? I could go on, and I will, because I have three minutes and I intend to use that time. Also in the book:”
“I stand to reflect on 1 September, Orange Victims Day. The date was picked due to the horrendous crime that took place on 1 September 1975, when five innocent men were slaughtered in Tullyvallen Orange Hall, 50 years ago last week. At the weekend, I attended an event in the Apprentice Boys Hall in Londonderry, which included moving tributes that remembered its murdered brethren: 343 men and one woman. We hear from the First Minister for all about ending violence against women and girls, which, indeed, is a major issue. Nobody is doubting that fact. However, how can she refer to ending violence against girls, women and children but, in her next breath, say that there was no alternative? That makes no sense to me. <BR /> <BR />I will read some quotations from this book:”
“Thank you for your answer, Minister. There was a consultation on the socialisation of NIE connection costs that, I think, has now closed. Can you provide an update on where that sits? Broadly, what are your plans on that?”
“I thank the Minister for her statement. My question relates to Lough Neagh, which you touched on earlier, and the River Blackwater. It may not be directly under Waterways Ireland, but there are safety and navigational issues there where no boats can pass safely. Were there conversations about that?”
“Minister, you responded to colleague about land going back to farmers. Will you indicate what it will cost to put that back? I referred in the Chamber to "Devastation in December". That is exactly what it was: you motored on, wrecking and ripping through farmland without consulting the farmers. It was "Devastation in December". You are going to have to put all that back, plus loss of income. Will you confirm that the loss of income, taken from the time of vesting, will be paid in full to those agricultural holders?”
“I thank the Member for the response. After the recent "Kill your local MP" comments by Kneecap, is the Commission content that it is doing all that it can to keep us safe while we are here, at home or anywhere?”
“We hear, "They need more money, they need more money, they need more money". Are you content that the money that it gets is being wisely spent and managed properly?”
“I thank the Minister for her statement. Minister, your statement, under "Payments to Supplier", states:”
“We all want to protect our environment — we all want clean rivers and healthy lakes — but sustainability must not come at the cost of survival, so we must do it in a way that is fair, balanced and rooted in reality. Along with my party, I will continue to ensure that the voice of the farmer is heard.”
“As farmers stress, they are not minor adjustments but fundamental shifts that threaten the sustainability of family farms across Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />What is most troubling is that the proposals were drawn up without proper consultation with the very people whom they affect most. Farmers feel ignored, sidelined and disrespected. That is not how we build a sustainable future for agriculture. That is not how we build rural livelihoods. I stand with our farmers in calling for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to go back to the drawing board and deliver a plan that supports environmental goals and economic survival. <BR /> <BR />Farmers want DAERA to engage meaningfully with the sector and to listen to those who work on the land every day.”
“Last night, at an event in Fivemiletown that I attended alongside my colleagues Carla Lockhart MP, Deborah Erskine MLA and local councillors and at which there was a contribution from former Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) president David Brown, I heard a message that was powerful, heartfelt and deeply concerning. The message from our farming community was clear: the changes proposed in the nutrients action programme (NAP) are not workable. <BR /> <BR />Farmers were angry that the proposals, which include stricter phosphorus limits, mandatory low-emission slurry-spreading equipment and enforced uncultivated buffer strips, represent sweeping changes that would place an unbearable burden on our farmers.”
“Minister, the aim is to have the active travel budget sitting at around 10%; I think that it is currently at 6% or 7% or thereabouts. Will that be to the detriment of existing roads and footpaths, because we are swinging too much one way and cannot drive or walk on what we have at present?”
“Minister, in your statement, you referred to support for victims' project advisory groups. My question relates to something that you touched on briefly with respect to the Omagh inquiry. What conversations were had about the Kingsmills case, the disclosure of information more broadly and adequate cooperation?”
“Let us honour the vision, dedication and hard work that brought the college to life, and let us continue to support the brave men and women of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, who stand ready every day to protect us all.”
“From the cutting-edge academic building to the technical firefighting facility, the mock fire station, the floodwater facility and the call-out village, every element has been purpose-built to simulate real-life emergencies. These environments ensure that our personnel are not only prepared but equipped to respond with skill, confidence and resilience. This college is more than bricks and mortar. It will foster a culture of lifelong learning, adaptability and continuous improvement. Just as importantly, it will strengthen collaboration with the Fire and Rescue Service's partners in other emergency services and statutory agencies to ensure a more integrated and effective response when it matters most.”
“Wednesday 28 May 2025 marked a truly important and historic event as the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service's new state-of-the-art learning and development college at Desertcreat, just outside Cookstown, was officially opened. The event was more than the unveiling of a new facility; it represented a bold and forward-looking commitment to the future of our Fire and Rescue Service and, most importantly, the safety and well-being of our communities across Northern Ireland. It is a place where courage meets preparation, where tradition meets innovation and where our dedicated Fire and Rescue Service personnel will be trained, developed and supported to be the very best that they can. <BR /> <BR />The facilities at Desertcreat are among the finest in Europe.”
“Minister, you touched on funding for bands, which, as you said, reaches everywhere — rural and urban areas — across Northern Ireland. Can you update us on when the scheme will open?”
“— are safe when travelling to and from their place of education.”