Linda Dillon
Mid Ulster · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“It is important to have that acknowledgement for the sake of history — so that the generations who come after us will understand what happened to you and what you went through. It is also important for our present and future: we must make sure that what happened to those women, girls and children never happens again.”
“I begin by offering the apologies of my colleague Carál Ní Chuilín, who cannot be here today owing to ill health. Carál has been very much invested in the work on the legislation. The Bill is very important to her, given the work that she does in the Assembly and the people with whom she has personally worked and engaged over many years.”
“My colleague Áine is the Member who probably comes closest to having a true understanding of what you have had to live with and endure, and continue to live with and endure, because it has affected, and will affect, you all your life, and we know that those effects are transgenerational. I acknowledge that.”
“We can never allow that to happen. <BR /> <BR />You showed bravery by speaking up. You spoke up, yes, so that people would know what had happened to you, but you also spoke up so that it would not happen to others.”
“Some lived to see the beginning of the campaign but not the Bill getting to this stage. Many did not even see the beginning of the campaign and did not believe that, in their lifetime — or anyone else's lifetime, for that matter — there would be an acknowledgement of what happened to them.”
“I apologise for not being in the House from the beginning of the statement and thank you for your latitude on that. <BR /> <BR />Thank you, Minister. You have outlined some of the benefits that Waterways Ireland ownership can bring to waterways and local communities.”
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“Today, in the Long Gallery, we listened to Fintan Fagan, chair of the All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care. He was very clear in how he wants to provide support. He was very good in coming to the Committee and assisting us, and he was very clear, Minister, that he will help your Department and your officials to set up an implementation framework. All of that is to be welcomed, because we understand that your Department and officials are under severe pressure. <BR /> <BR />We want to see an all-island approach in which people living in border communities can access services seamlessly; expertise, specialist teams and data are shared; and palliative care is planned on the basis of need rather than geography.”
“The report's recommendations on advance care planning, recording emotional and spiritual well-being through Encompass and supporting families though a 24/7 point of access all speak directly to that wider, holistic understanding of palliative care. The submissions from hospice groups and professionals made that crystal clear. <BR /> <BR />Despite the dedication and compassion of staff, access to palliative care remains deeply unequal across the North. The report outlines long waits for services, workforce shortages, limited community provision and significant gaps in out-of-hours care. It highlights the particular challenges that are faced by people in rural and border areas, who cannot depend on timely or consistent support. <BR /> <BR />For Sinn Féin, that reinforces the need for an all-island approach.”
“They described the fear, exhaustion and guilt that is felt when the health system withdraws and the responsibility falls entirely on them and those who support them. That is harm, and it damages people long after those final days. <BR /> <BR />One of the clearest messages in the report is that palliative care does not mean dying. It is not something that belongs only in the last hours of a person's life. Palliative care is about living with dignity. It is about pain control, nutrition, mobility supports, emotional and spiritual care, support for carers and families and enabling people, where possible, to remain at home if that is their wish.”
“I welcome the publication of the report. I commend all those who contributed to the inquiry — patients and their families, and staff in the statutory and voluntary sectors — and all those who took time to tell their stories. The evidence given to the Committee was powerful and often very emotional, particularly for those of us on the Committee who have been affected and understand this issue all too well, which was almost all of us. <BR /> <BR />When people do not receive the palliative support that they need, it is not an inconvenience; it is a trauma. We heard at first hand about that trauma. It is suffering that is avoidable and unacceptable. Families told us of loved ones left without care packages; without help to eat or move; without proper symptom or pain management; and without access to medicines out of hours.”
“I thank the Member for the answer. Can he give us a timeline for when the automatic barrier might be put in place? This is an issue of staff welfare, and everybody should be able to come to a decent place of work. We all get to a come into a nice, warm building that might not be perfect, but it is certainly much better than what they have to tolerate down there. I do not think that any of our staff should have to work in facilities that are not fit for purpose. If we can get a timeline, that will be really good.”
“— along with the interests of family farming?”
“<BR /> <BR />Given the widening gap in the property relief thresholds, which is causing the agri-food industry grave concern, as, I am sure, you are well aware, and for the long-term sustainability of farming, does the Minister believe that the comparisons being drawn with the protections available in the South — has the Minister assessed how the North/South divide on this island and on inheritance tax is causing farmers to question where their long-term economic interests will be protected —”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. To be fair, I have no doubt about the work that you, Minister, are doing in relation to this. However, farmers are really concerned. I met the Ulster Farmers' Union last week, and I know that there were meetings last week at which farmers raised their concerns about the issue. They are making comparisons with the South of Ireland. It is becoming more and more apparent that the British Government have absolutely no understanding of what it means to be a farmer or have a family farm in the North or anywhere on this island.”
“It has been said a number of times that we do not understand how the PSNI operates. A number of Members declared an interest as Policing Board members, so I think that we do have a fair understanding. I have been on it for eight years — I am happy to understand it less, any time Michelle O'Neill feels like it — but it is important. We actually do understand. That is why we are speaking to this today. It is a really important issue. We absolutely understand it from a PSNI perspective. As some of us are on the Health Committee, we also understand it from the Minister's perspective and that of the Health Department. That is why we want to discuss it. It is important that we have these conversations.”
“That is why it is so important that we find a different way of spending the money that we have, because there is no more money in anybody's budget. There is no more money coming to anybody right now. We have a block grant, and that is where we are, so it is important to find different pathways and get the trusts to come together to see how we can best deliver a good service.”
“I thank the Minister for taking the intervention. Earlier today, I was on a panel with one of your party colleagues, and, when we were discussing PSNI resources, I was the only person on that panel who said that I agreed that the Health Department and Education Department should get the budget that they get. We do not want to see our children, young people or anybody in our community ending up having to come into contact with the police or our justice services because they are not getting the services that they need.”
“I appreciate the Member's taking an intervention. The previous Member said that Right Care, Right Person would be a good thing as soon as it was safe to do it. Do you agree that how we currently operate is unsafe and people are dying because of what happens at the moment?”
“As I said, I absolutely believe that the Minister and his officials have bought into that strategy, but we need action on it and we need to see it being moved on. I apologise; I should have declared that I am a member of the Policing Board. We on the Policing Board have heard repeatedly from the senior team about how not only could the Right Care, Right Person model deliver but how the pathways need to be in our health service. That is what we are asking for today.”
“PSNI officers deserve to be able to focus on their core role, and our communities deserve a health system that is able to meet need rather than push it on to the police. <BR /> <BR />I urge the Health Minister to take the lead on a cross-departmental effort to deliver the Right Care, Right Person approach. Our police cannot continue to be the service of last resort. Actually, it is not the last resort but the first resort: when somebody has a mental health crisis, people call the police before they call the health service. The Right Care, Right Person strategy is excellent. It is a good policy, but it needs to be implemented. We need to see that happen.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Right Care, Right Person model offers a clear and compassionate framework to address the issue. It is about ensuring that vulnerable people get expert assessment and support from those who are trained to give it, while freeing up our police to focus on keeping our communities safe. However, the model needs to be delivered with urgency. Alongside that, we need the full implementation of the mental health strategy and the 'Delivering Together' vision to build proper responsive community-based care that prevents crisis rather than just reacting to it. It is not about Departments passing responsibility from one to another; it is about a whole-system commitment to ensuring the right outcome for people who are struggling. People deserve dignity, safety and the right professional response.”
“It is about doing things differently. I accept that money is needed in every Department, but we need to do things differently. <BR /> <BR />The gaps in mental health services, crisis response, community support and early intervention continue to grow. Police officers fill those gaps, often doing so late at night and alone in situations where they cannot provide what the person genuinely needs. That is unsustainable and unsafe, and it places enormous pressure on services and communities. We know that it is unsafe, because we see what happens when people do not get the right response. We saw what happened in the Cawdery case. In my area, I see people being repeatedly taken to A&E and ending up in prison because it is the only safe place to take them. That is not on. It cannot carry on in that way.”
“I disagree slightly with the previous contributor about the police being a health service. They absolutely cannot be that service, because they are not the right people. They are not able to help those people in crisis. The answer is simple: the best people to help are trained health and social care professionals, not the police. We need the right care to be delivered by the right person at the right time. I know that the Minister and his departmental officials have bought into that, but we need to accelerate it. <BR /> <BR />I have said this in the Chamber before, and I will repeat it today, because it is the core of what needs to change. The Health Minister's Department has significant resources compared with the PSNI. Those resources need to be used to target the people who most need them. We need to find better pathways.”
“Officers have told us time and again that they are being asked do work for which they are not trained or resourced and that, ultimately, cannot deliver the best outcome for individuals who need clinical and therapeutic support, not a policing intervention. This is not about criticising the PSNI — it is not about criticising the Health Minister and his Department either — which is doing the best that it can, but it is placed in impossible positions because of the failings elsewhere in the system. <BR /> <BR />For Sinn Féin and me, the issue is fundamentally about outcomes for the person and ensuring that they receive the required care. When someone is in the midst of a mental health emergency or personal crisis, the question that we must ask is simple: who is the best person to help them?”
“I thank the proposer of the motion. We will support the motion and the amendment. I begin by recognising the reality that faces the PSNI and, more importantly, the people who find themselves in deep distress or in crisis. Every day, police officers respond to more than 100 concern for safety calls, but only a tiny fraction of those situations involve any criminal activity. It is clear what that tells us: people who experience mental ill health, vulnerability or breakdowns in their well-being are not getting the response that they need from the health and social care system. The police are being forced to step into a space that was never meant to be theirs. That is neither fair nor sustainable, and it is certainly not fair on the person in crisis.”
“Minister, given the growing diverse and rich community that we are all part of and all live in, can you outline how the Executive Office racial equality strategy can help to confront racism in our society and stamp it out once and for all?”
“Minister, do you agree that, in the absence of the Bill, there is absolutely no reason why the British Government cannot fund the Office of the Police Ombudsman (OPONI) and the PSNI for legacy cases, so that the cases could be dealt with right now? The PSNI does not have the resource to fund them. That happened whilst there was direct rule, and the Government should pay for it.”
“I thank the Minister for the work that she is doing on safe leave. It is important that we get the legislation right, not that we do it quickly. What are you doing, Minister, to work with advocates and the groups and organisations that represent people who have suffered domestic abuse to make sure that the regulations are right and that the guidelines are fitting for those whom they must serve?”
“The wording is "must ... prioritise ... more effectively". That should not, and we have never said that it should, be prioritised over organised crime and paramilitaries. It should be prioritised more effectively.”
“It recognises that, although funding is crucial, we must work towards taking a smarter, more coordinated and more humane approach: one that keeps women and girls safe, supports vulnerable people and ensures that policing is focused on where it makes the greatest difference. <BR /> <BR />We will not be supporting the UUP amendment, and not because there is anything wrong with it. It is a good amendment, with which we have no issue, but our amendment is important, as it is about accountability and how the finite resources that are available to the PSNI are used. During Members' statements this morning, Members across the Chamber talked about how today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. If they mean what they say, they should support our amendment. I ask that everybody in the House support it.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Department of Justice must lead on a collective vision for policing and justice. That vision must recognise that harm occurs across systems, that responses must be joined up and that resourcing pressures are not limited to the PSNI. Given the rise in mental health-related cases, the rise in neurodiverse people coming into contact with the system and the rise in increasingly complex investigations, the Office of the Police Ombudsman also requires the capacity and specialist support to carry out its vital work. Proper oversight is not a luxury but an essential part of creating public confidence. <BR /> <BR />Our amendment rebalances the conversation.”
“The Right Care, Right Person model must ensure that the right professional, not just the available professional, responds to the issue in hand, and that places a responsibility on the Department of Health and the Department of Education. In fact, it places a responsibility on every one of our Departments. <BR /> <BR />A child in a foster care placement who is struggling should be met first by a social worker, not by a police officer. A person who is in mental health distress should be met with clinical expertise, not with a uniform. Yes, it is about resources, but it is not only about resources. It is about how those resources are used and allocated. It is about ensuring that we do not default to the police when it is other agencies that should be leading.”
“<BR /> <BR />If we are serious about addressing the challenges, I recognise that we need to take a cross-departmental approach, because policing alone cannot solve societal failures. The PSNI cannot continue to pick up from the point at which other services have failed and be expected to respond to everything: people's mental health crises; children in care in distress; people with acute vulnerabilities; and gaps left by overstretched Departments and services. Although the PSNI must always be available to ensure that people are kept safe, the Right Care, Right Person approach must be fully implemented to ensure the best outcome for all our people. When they need help, the right person must respond to those individuals.”
“<BR /> <BR />That case highlighted not only the gaps in PSNI capacity but the consequences when risk is not managed effectively. There were serious delays in the case's being fully investigated, because the PSNI made choices about the use of resources, choosing to prioritise organised crime and paramilitarism over violence against women and children. The report's findings carry profound implications for the safeguarding of children and for our collective ambition to tackle violence against women and children. The PSNI had a strategy in place, so, in fairness to it, it was ahead of the curve. It had a strategy for tackling violence against women and girls before the Executive and the Assembly had one, but from such a strategy must flow the prioritisation of resources, and that is not what happened in that case.”
“Although resourcing pressures absolutely and undeniably affect policing capacity, the debate cannot simply be about the numbers of police and staff. It must also be about how priorities are set, how responsibilities are shared and how the wider system responds to vulnerability, risk and harm, as the Member who spoke previously outlined. <BR /> <BR />The ombudsman's report on the handling of the case of the high-profile child sex offender Alexander McCartney was deeply alarming. Members have spoken about the fact that there were at least two deaths as a result of how the case was handled. Those are only the children and young people whom we know about, however. Many children and young people whom we will never know about were affected by the actions of Alexander McCartney. Our thoughts therefore need to be with all those families.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I appreciate your taking the point of order. During Dr Aiken's speech, he made reference to Maria Walsh as a Sinn Féin MEP. To correct the record: Maria Walsh is a Fine Gael MEP and has never represented Sinn Féin. I think that she would appreciate the record being corrected.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. That is an important point, because nobody is saying that the health service in the South is perfect or that the health service in the North is anywhere near perfect. I can tell Members that both jurisdictions are failing women, day and daily, so we have an opportunity to create a genuinely better health service that delivers better for all our people, particularly children with cancer, because, in order to have real specialisms, we need to have demographics. We need to have enough people in order to create specialists.”
“Minister, on that specific issue of the reports, what engagement have you had with the Justice Minister on conversations with the judiciary? Very often, the judiciary is directing social workers to look at only one element of a child's life. That is not satisfactory in determining a child's entire future and the future of that child's family.”
“Junior Minister, you mentioned that, on 12 November, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland issued a press release acknowledging previous safeguarding failures. Our thoughts are with anybody who was impacted on by that. I absolutely concur with everything that you said about victims and survivors. Do you agree that the latest revelations reinforce the point that lessons must be learned and highlight the need for a renewed focus on safeguarding, so that all bodies can be fully aware of, and honour, their obligations?”
“I thank the Member for taking an intervention. Does she agree that this is a great opportunity for schoolchildren to work with local community and voluntary groups? I have seen great examples of that in my area, where the Lough Neagh Partnership has worked closely with St John's Primary School, Kingsisland. These are real opportunities for children to learn about the place that they live in and want to grow up in and love.”
“<BR /> <BR />I want to say to Sinéad McLaughlin that we are thinking of you and your family, and we sincerely hope that you will have the best possible outcome. I will give you a quick example. When I was 19 years old, I discovered a lump on a Sunday night; I saw my GP on the Monday morning; I was in Daisy Hill Hospital on the Wednesday; and I had the lump removed on the Friday. My mother, who never went to hospital, although she worked in the health service all her life, repeatedly went to her GP and the ED, but she died of stomach cancer, because she was not diagnosed until a nurse told her to sit in an emergency department until she saw the consultant who she needed to see. That is the difference that we can make if we get this right.”
“Encompass should already be giving us live information on delays, diagnostics, treatment stages and bottlenecks. If we are not seeing that yet, we need answers on when we will and why we are not. Transparency and real-time data — many Members have referred to the data — are the only way to protect patient safety and rebuild trust. It is not just about collecting data but about how we use it to achieve real-life improvements for people. Turnaround requires robust tracking of every patient, active prioritisation of those who are at the highest risk and firm accountability in each trust. That type of management is standard elsewhere, and it must become the standard here. That will only happen, however, with transparency, urgency and political will.”
“That level of investment must deliver more than new IT infrastructure; it must deliver real-world improvements for patients. That means integrating primary care, including GP care, into Encompass so that we have a single, accurate view of every patient's journey. Without that, we cannot track patients properly, identify the highest-risk cases or manage backlogs safely.”
“An all-island approach can expand access to clinical trials, accelerate diagnosis, share specialist capacity and attract major investment through initiatives, such as the proposed all-island oncology innovation cluster. Rural patients should not have worse chances simply because of where they live. Strengthening cross-border links ensures that they can access the right care in the right place, including services just across the border in Donegal or Dublin. <BR /> <BR />The Department has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on the Encompass system across the North.”
“Thank you. I absolutely agree with the Member. That is my next point. I want to highlight the rural dimension. For women and men in rural communities, including Mid Ulster, the system is even harder to navigate, with longer travel, limited public transport and fewer diagnostic hubs all contributing to later presentation and poorer outcomes. That is exactly why cross-border cancer care is not an optional extra but a necessity. <BR /> <BR />The evidence is already clear. Cooperation through the North/South US National Cancer Institute partnership has delivered major benefits from shared trials and training to Altnagelvin's cross-border cancer centre, which is now European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) accredited.”
“It is about getting those children access and making sure that they are comfortably brought to where they need to be and kept where they need to be, if that is necessary, with family members.”
“They said that they had the staff and the people ready to go and could provide stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to prostate and lung cancer patients in the North West Cancer Centre, but they are currently the only radiotherapy department not providing that on these islands. We need to understand why that is and why we cannot look at that seriously. <BR /> <BR />Mr Carroll made a comment in relation to the distance that children have to travel. As a rural representative, I absolutely, hand on heart, feel for anyone who has to travel for treatment, but, in those presentations, we were told by the national cancer control programme that combining four centres for children into one has had outstanding consequences for improved treatment and outcomes for children.”
“The presentations were outstanding. The speakers talked about the research and the work that has gone on, but we need to understand whether that research is being used. I am hopeful that we will see really good stuff in the strategy. Is it being used to direct where we put the resources that, as the Minister rightly points out, are limited? Are they being put where they need to be? Are those resources being used in the best possible way to ensure that we save as many lives as we can with the limited resources that we have? <BR /> <BR />We also had presentations from the North West Cancer Centre.”
“We have been left carrying the consequences of decisions that were not made here, by people here or for people here. <BR /> <BR />I turn specifically to the price that women pay, because that is where the delay becomes especially dangerous. Survival rates in the North for ovarian cancer are among the worst on these islands. Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late, and survival drops sharply with every week of delay. Breast cancer waiting times, which we have already referenced, have deteriorated even in the absence of rising demand. Women are being diagnosed later and treated later, and, far too often, the window of curative treatment is narrowing when it does not need to. <BR /> <BR />I attended the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association meeting last Friday, and one of the plenary sessions focused on cancer services North and South.”
“Thank you very much. I thank the Minister for his remarks, and I thank the Members who tabled the motion. I honestly think that we could talk about the issue for 50 minutes and still not cover what has been said in the Chamber today. However, everything that we have heard confirms what we already know, which is that cancer waiting times in the North are no longer just a performance issue; they are a patient safety emergency. Delays here cost people life-saving treatment. They cost lives. <BR /> <BR />We are now the worst-performing region on these islands for cancer waiting times, and that gap is widening. That is a result of more than a decade of chronic underfunding by the British Government, combined with a deliberate political project to run health services down and push more care into the private sector.”
“I thank the Member for taking an intervention. Does he agree that it is exactly when such things happen that we do not have the problems? I give an example of one Halloween in Coalisland when there was no fireworks display and £140,000 of damage was done. With investment from the PCSP and others, £5,000 was all it cost to put on a fireworks display, and not one penny of damage was done that Halloween.”
“I therefore support the motion and welcome the fact that this is the second time today that we have debated legislation that is compassionate. I hope that the motion will be supported. I am sure that it will. It is something to be able to say that, twice in one day, we were able to debate compassionate legislation that everybody in the House supported.”
“We want the protections to be extended further. We want all those who are facing incurable illnesses to have the ability to access their pension early so that they and their families can, in the time remaining to them, live their life with dignity and without fear of hardship or being forced into painful financial choices during a period that is already filled with enough heartbreak. <BR /> <BR />The LCM ensures that the positive changes that will be made at Westminster will apply here and that people in the North are not left behind. It reinforces the direction that the Assembly set earlier this year, which is that compassion must be embedded in how we legislate, particularly for those who need it most.”
“The increase from six months is a step forward that is long overdue. Again, I acknowledge the work of Marie Curie to lobby and campaign on the issue in the Assembly and in the other legislatures. <BR /> <BR />For too long, people have received the worst possible news while also facing the cruel and unnecessary burden of navigating complex systems, financial insecurity and delays that robs them of peace of mind in their final months. The legislation will begin to correct that injustice. It is a step in the right direction and reflects what Sinn Féin has consistently argued for, which is that it is unfair and inhumane to expect people who are living with a terminal illness to wait for the support that they may never live to receive. <BR /> <BR />Let me be equally clear, however, that our work here is not finished.”
“There was unanimous support from all parties for the motion, which called on the British Government to allow those with a terminal diagnosis early access to the state pension and further called on the Minister for Communities to engage with the Department for Work and Pensions to make the necessary legislative and administrative changes a reality. <BR /> <BR />The message from the Assembly then was unambiguous. It was that compassion must shape policy. Financial security in the final months of life is a matter of dignity, fairness and humanity. The LCM aligns with that principle and reflects progress. The Pension Schemes Bill will ensure that those who belong to the Pension Protection Fund and are in the financial assistance scheme who are diagnosed with a terminal illness and given one year to live can access an early payout.”
“They have raised a family and contributed to society, yet they are told that they must wait until pensionable age to access the very support that they themselves funded. That is indefensible. <BR /> <BR />Some months ago, I attended a meeting of the all-party group (APG) on cancer. I thank Marie Curie for its work and for using the opportunity at the APG meeting to raise the issue of early access to their pension for people who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It was on the back of Marie Curie's presentation that I tabled a motion that called for legislation to ensure that people with a terminal illness can get early access to their pension.”