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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“We support the legislative consent motion on the Pension Schemes Bill, in particular the provisions that relate to terminal illness. We raised that matter with the Minister previously, and I appreciate that the LCM has come forward now. We also welcome the provisions on pension protection and the wider reforms that will extend important protections to people in the North. <BR /> <BR />Marie Curie's report 'Dying in Poverty 2024' laid bare the reality that, every year, thousands of people across the North spend their final months in poverty. One in four terminally ill people of working age dies below the poverty line. Those are not abstract statistics but, rather, mothers, fathers, partners and friends. They are human beings, many of whom have worked all their life and paid into the system.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Minister, I have worked closely with the Cappagh Village Regeneration Group. It has really good plans to regenerate the village, and the forest is a major part of that. Will your officials meet me and my colleague from West Tyrone, Declan McAleer, to discuss how we can further the conversations between councils and Forest Service officials to make the most of the potential of Altmore Forest?”
“Does the Member agree that, if you can acknowledge one Member's heartfelt contribution as a woman with experience, the honourable and decent thing would be to acknowledge both women who spoke from the same perspective, rather than accusing them of the usual equality stance?”
“Does the Member agree that the reason for introducing the Bill was to try to make up for the trauma that has been caused to so many mummies who, like her, have lost their babies and to allow them the recognition that the baby existed? By making it more convoluted, all we are doing is adding to the trauma that, in some cases, has been ongoing for many years.”
“Minister, your last line is really the nub of it. It is about trying to understand and whether the family will be told exactly how one administrative error led to 13 pre-release incidents. I remember the statement from the family at the time that Thomas McEntee was also a victim because of a failure in mental health services, so is there any reassurance about what mental health support that individual will get to ensure that he never becomes so ill again that something like this happens to another family? There were recommendations, and I am not sure that they have all been implemented by any Department.”
“As we celebrate this week, I call on the Minister of Health to prioritise strategic workforce planning. We must ensure that occupational therapists are equipped to meet future demand, supported in their development and recognised for the transformative impact that they have on individuals, families and our communities. Nuair a dhéanaimid infheistíocht sa lucht saothair againn, déanaimid infheistíocht i neamhspleáchas, i ndínit agus i ndeis ár bpobail — díreach na rudaí a ligeann do dhaoine togha saoil a bheith acu.”
“The challenge, for them and us, is that there are simply not enough of them to meet the growing need in our community. I commend the Royal College of Occupational Therapists for launching its first workforce strategy action plan in January of this year. The plan sets out a clear and ambitious vision for the future of the profession. Cuireann sé i gcuimhne dúinn go mbaineann fíordhaoine le gach staitistic agus páipéar beartais, daoine lena bhfuil a gcaighdeán beatha ag brath ar thacaíocht thráthúil, oilte chomhbhách ó theiripeoir saothair.”
“I rise to mark Occupational Therapy Week 2025, which provides us with the opportunity to celebrate the vital and far-reaching contribution of occupational therapists across our health and social care system. Whether it is helping someone to regain mobility after injury, supporting a child with developmental challenges or enabling an older adult to live safely at home, their work is invaluable. It is about giving people independence and a good quality of life. <BR /> <BR />As you will all be aware, occupational therapists are central to improving hospital discharge processes, facilitating timely rehabilitation and strengthening community-based care. Their work spans a range of diverse settings, including in the home and in education and mental health facilities.”
“Does the Member agree that the issue is particularly pronounced in rural areas, where we have much less provision and fewer options?”
“It is just to get confirmation that the Ladies with Letters and the women whom they represent will get an embargoed copy of the reports.”
“— acts and that values their lives and their families.”
“If a woman has any symptoms, she should go to her GP to seek help and to get the answers about what is going on with her body. She should trust her instinct, because she is usually right. <BR /> <BR />The scandal represents a profound breach of trust. The only way in which to rebuild that trust is through truth and accountability and by making sure that such failures never happen again. Women deserve better. <BR /> <BR />The other question to which I want an answer concerns the women's health action plan. Where are we at with that? All the issues that have been debated in numerous motions over the past number of weeks and months should be included in that plan. <BR /> <BR />Women deserve a health service that listens, that —”
“On that issue, we need reassurance, direct communication with women and the restoration of confidence in a system that has let them down. <BR /> <BR />I take the opportunity to make it absolutely clear that, despite all the failures, women must continue to attend their cervical screening appointments. As I have said before in the Chamber, it is not a pleasant process, but it takes a few minutes and could save your life. Those tests do save lives. The worst outcome would be that fear or mistrust keeps women from going to be tested. <BR /> <BR />I also take the opportunity to clarify a common misunderstanding, which is that cervical screening also detects ovarian cancer. It does not. I encourage women who are symptomatic of either ovarian or cervical cancer not to think, "I have had a cervical smear and am therefore OK".”
“I want to know whether that has created any delay or backlog, because I want to be sure that women get their results in a timely manner. How can we be assured of the safety around their being sent there? We need clarity, Minister. We need to have urgent confirmation of when the Belfast lab will be fully operational. We need answers on the accreditation process. Were those issues previously highlighted? Were warnings known about but ignored? Who was responsible for oversight? Without clear accountability, we are doomed to repeat previous failures. <BR /> <BR />We also need oversight of the entire process, including of labs in England that are now handling tests for women from here. Women need to know how long their test results will take and what safeguards are in place to ensure accuracy and safety.”
“by the Department and the trust have been deeply concerning. Women have again been left waiting for information, reassurance and leadership on the issue. That is unacceptable. We still await the outcomes of the three reports. It is probably a positive thing that we will hopefully get them together and thus be able to look at everything in the round, but there could have been more openness about the process and about the fact that there were going to be delays. That could have been done better. There could also have been better communication on the issue. <BR /> <BR />We now face further challenges, as outlined in the amendment, over the technical issues at the Belfast laboratory, which is the North's only HPV screening facility. Thousands of smear tests have been sent to Gateshead since the end of September.”
“For women, simply demanding to be heard, to be treated with dignity and to have their health taken seriously has become an act of resistance. On that basis, I support the motion and the amendment. <BR /> <BR />I acknowledge, as previous Members who have spoken did, the women and families who have been directly impacted on by the cervical screening failures in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. For too many, the review came too late. Lives were changed, and lives were lost. Again, I pay tribute to the Ladies with Letters campaigners, and all those whom they support, who have fought tirelessly for the truth, transparency and accountability that Members have talked about. They have carried the weight of those failures with courage and dignity, and they deserve answers. <BR /> <BR />As the motion states:”
“I thank the proposer of the motion and the proposer of the amendment for bringing the issue to the Floor today. <BR /> <BR />I wish that we were not, but it is devastating to be standing here once again talking about another failure in women's health. Time and again, we are in the Chamber dealing with crises that have impacted on women and with preventable failures that have cost lives and eroded trust. That is not accidental. It is systematic discrimination, institutional misogyny and a deep-rooted failure to value women's health equally and to listen to women and to act when they raise concerns. It is a form of oppression that has been embedded in our systems for far too long. <BR /> <BR />As Audre Lorde, writer, poet and civil rights activist, once said:”
“I thank the Minister for his answer so far. Minister, as you are well aware, Mid Ulster is a vast, rural constituency, and it is therefore vital that all our residents can access the care that they need. I am dealing with a number of patients who have to go to Altnagelvin for radiotherapy treatment every day for six weeks, and they are unable to get transport. If we want to seriously look at delivering healthcare better and transforming healthcare, we need to ensure that the public have faith that, if something is not available in the hospital beside them, they will be able to access it elsewhere. Can you give an assurance today that, as part of any transformation, we will make sure that every person across the North has access to the services that they need?”
“Does the Member agree that the Minister addressed that directly in his response?”
“I thank the Member for taking an intervention. I absolutely agree that everybody should pay their rates, but does the Member agree that some of those who have been unable to pay their rates are hard-working, decent people who have just been unable to pay their rates?”
“Has the Minister engaged with the migrant and refugee community or the organisations that represent its members, in order to understand their perspective? If we take at face value his saying that the issue is landlords, he should engage with the community that is affected. I know that Kate Nicholl has held a number of such meetings, and I am sure that she would welcome the Minister to attend one of them to gain an understanding of that community's perspective.”
“I thank the Member for taking an intervention. Does the Member agree that, given the fact that NIE made £181 million in profits in 2024, it could well afford to have a better system in place to provide generators to those on the critical care list, particularly those at the end-of-life stage, who potentially have to be removed from their home? Those people chose to die at home. They are moved into hospitals that can ill afford to take them, but it is more that those people did not want to go into hospital: they wanted to die at home.”
“Does the Member agree that, if we do not do something about climate change, we will continue to have worsening storms? We are having such weather events because we did not address climate change.”
“I thank them for that, but we need to have a new process.”
“Minister, you talked about the domiciliary care packages, and I appreciate the challenges that we have with them, but I raised with your officials at the Health Committee the week before last the need for a review of direct payments. We need to see a different process for direct payments. The process does not work. It puts an awful lot of pressure on families who are already under severe pressure from trying to look after the people whom they love to ask them to become an employer. I know that IMPACT provides a very good service —.”
“I thank the Minister for her answer. Does she agree that the Manufacturing and Engineering, Growth and Advancement (MEGA) Group Mid Ulster, which is a cluster of engineering companies in the mid-Ulster area, is one of the best local examples of clustering? Does she agree that that is exactly why we need to listen to engineering companies about what we need and how we can work together with universities, local schools and the industry to ensure that the skills base required to keep our engineering companies going will be there in the future?”
“First Minister, I know that you have previously acknowledged that every death during the conflict years left a deep legacy of suffering and trauma. Given the deep suffering and trauma carried by so many families and victims across our society and beyond, how can we ensure that, in the Chamber, there is less petty politicking, and using and abusing of victims, and that we conduct ourselves in a manner that is about acknowledging all loss, with everyone taking responsibility for what was done in their name?”
“Does the Member agree that, although she has said that children cannot take care of themselves and thus rely on other people to take care of them, many children are, in fact, carers for their parents? We therefore need to ensure that those children are looked after in any strategy.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. I am aware from his response to the debate that he is very understanding of the issue. He said that he would like to do something to ensure that people who are diagnosed with a terminal illness get early access to their pensions. What response was there from the British Treasury? Has there been any movement? Is the Minister able to progress that in his Department?”
“<BR /> <BR />I have no doubt that the staff who work in our psychiatric units to treat women with postpartum psychosis and serious mental health episodes after the birth of their baby are doing the very best that they can, but they can only treat the mummy and the mental health disorder that she has at that moment. They do not have the expertise, the skills, the time or the resources to deal with her as a new mother or to deal with her baby and her family. I am asking that we do our best as soon as possible. If we cannot have a mother-and-baby unit soon, what can we put in place that looks after those mothers and their babies? I know that that is what everybody in the Chamber today wants. I ask that we all work together to deliver the best for them all.”
“We have said that interim measures are in place in England and Wales, so we need to speak to people there to find out what a good interim measure might look like and what the best possible practice is, right now, for women and their babies. <BR /> <BR />I accept what was said about care in the community, and it is vital that we have that. We have talked consistently here, as has the Minister, about health inequalities and the shift left. It is really important that women get the care that they need closest to home when that is the suitable care. We know, however, that there are women who need 24-hour care with their babies, with all the services that have already been outlined, including support from different types of clinicians.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. That is right. At the end of the day, clinicians serve their patients; they want to do the very best for mothers, babies and their families. They do not care about borders or how the service is delivered; they just want to be able to deliver the best care. All that we are asking is that we look at the possibilities. I do not doubt that there will be challenges, but we all need to work together. We, as a Health Committee, will certainly support you, Minister, in that regard. <BR /> <BR />I ask the Minister to come back to the Health Committee, first, to tell us what "safe" looks like or why it would be unsafe now to provide an interim service. What conversations, then, can we have with counterparts in the South and across these islands around best practice?”
“You said that you spoke to the previous Health Minister in the South, but I would like to see a conversation between you and the new Health Minister, even about interim measures. Is there the potential for all-Ireland interim measures? I do not know whether that is possible, but the conversation needs to happen. It is a challenge to see what can be done. We ask that your Departments, including the clinicians, work together and see what is possible.”
“I accept that it does not all fall to your Department. It is also an issue for the Coroners' Court and others. There is a wider issue, but we need Departments to work together to gather that data. There will be an effect on your Department. Although others may collect the data, there will be a real issue for your Department. <BR /> <BR />Pam outlined the impact on the entire family and other children. Many Members also referenced the approach to women's healthcare. Over the past number of weeks, we have spoken about a number of areas in which, effectively, we have seen neglect in women's healthcare. In this case, that extends to the wider family, the children and the baby. <BR /> <BR />Minister, I am in no doubt that you see the need for a mother-and-baby unit. I accept what you have said about that.”
“We talked about the non-collection of statistics for women who die by suicide within the first year after having a new baby. That is a real problem. There are many women who suffered undiagnosed postpartum perinatal mental health disorders or postpartum psychosis — perhaps the medical profession did not even know about them — who may not be included in the stats that we are talking about today . They may not have taken account of serious adverse incidents in which mothers died. There is potentially a problem out there that we do not even know about.”
“We need to remember that, very often, in cases involving a mother and a baby, there are other children as well. Pam spoke about those other children. It is traumatic for a mummy to be separated from any of her children, not just her new baby. That is really difficult. I understand that best practice allows those children and that family connection to be part of the service. That is really important. <BR /> <BR />Órlaithí, Cara and others referred to the failure to collect data. They talked about it being a barrier to addressing the need for a mother-and-baby unit. I do not think that it is necessarily a barrier to that — I think that the Minister has accepted that we need a mother-and-baby unit — but it is a barrier to our understanding of exactly how many women out there are impacted on.”
“<BR /> <BR />I will go back to the point that was raised by Órlaithí and, potentially, Nuala about whether what is in place in Exeter and other places in England and Wales has been looked at as possible practice, if not best practice. I listened to Julie Anderson say this morning on 'Good Morning Ulster' that she is concerned that the unit will not be built during her time as chairperson. She did not talk about interim measures being unsafe. That does not mean that, if we looked at what is possible, we would find that they are not unsafe, but we really need to look at what is possible. <BR /> <BR />As Sian Mulholland and others said, the current fragmented, complicated service, or lack thereof, is causing additional harm to mothers, their babies and their wider families.”
“It is important to get an understanding of what is best practice and what is safe. I accept that an interim measure will not be best practice, because it will not be a mother-and-baby unit or what we have envisaged, and, more importantly, what the advocacy groups and the families who have suffered in the system want. "Suffered" is probably the right word, because it has not just been an experience: it has been suffering. We need to understand what can be put in place, which probably will not be best practice, but will be safe. I am making that challenge for positive reasons, and I am not criticising for the sake of it, because none of us wants to do that today.”
“<BR /> <BR />My colleague Órlaithí Flynn, Robbie and others spoke about the advocacy groups, clinicians and families who have kept the campaign alive, and that is very true. I pay tribute to my colleague Órlaithí Flynn, because I do not remember — I think that Robbie mentioned this as well — a time when she was not raising the issue of perinatal mental health, and specifically the need for a mother-and-baby unit. Even before we were elected, when we both worked for the party, I remember being at Sinn Féin meetings, and Órlaithí was banging the drum about the issue at that time. I appreciate that she has stuck with the issue, no matter what brief she has been in, because she sees it as really important. <BR /> <BR />I will throw the safety issue back to the Minister, because it has been raised in the amendment.”
“I thank everyone who contributed to the debate on the motion today. One of the sad things that we are saying is that women and babies are still being failed on this island. In 2025, mothers are still forcibly separated from their babies, and I do not say that for the shock value; I say it because it is the truth, and it is a sad truth. I do not doubt everyone's commitment to changing the situation. I thank Sian and the Minister for sharing their personal experiences, which is not easy, but it shows that it affects every single person. People in the Chamber are affected by all the things that we talk about. Sometimes people forget that, but we are impacted on, and we have very real and relevant experiences. It is important to acknowledge that.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.”
“I appreciate the Minister's taking an intervention. You mentioned Baby Loss Awareness Week, which begins on Thursday. Will the legislation provide for backdating to ensure that mothers and families who lost babies in the past are able to get a baby loss certificate? Will that be at least considered as part of the legislation?”
“Minister, can you tell us how much LPS collected in 2024-25?”
“I thank the Minister for taking an intervention, because this is an important point. Can we ensure that, when the work is being carried out, there is no continuation of the treatments that are being given that just mask symptoms? We would never say to somebody with cancer, "Take painkillers and hope that you get better," while it is spreading. Let us not put women on the pill or into early medical menopause while the disease is spreading, connecting to and destroying their internal organs.”
“Today, I am protesting, not for the sake of protest but in the genuine hope that the Minister, our health service and our clinicians will work together to do better for women with endometriosis right across this island.”
“I will finish with the words of Mary Lee, a Monaghan-born woman who became one of the most fearless suffrage campaigners over a century ago. She said:”
“That is only a short excerpt of a brave, articulate, heartbreaking letter written by an amazing woman who became a shell of herself and had to spend thousands of pounds to go to England for surgery to try to become the woman that she wanted to be and was meant to be — the mother, the wife and the daughter that she aspired to be — and not the burden that, she felt, she had become. I urge you all to read that letter. The Minister's officials were given a copy of it at an event in the Long Gallery.”
“Anne was a teacher who was passionate about her job and her students. She had to leave her job and was left almost completely immobile as a result of endometriosis. She wrote this to her younger self:”
“Cara told me about having to go private to be seen, having to attend A&E on a number of occasions and being discharged with pain relief that made her sick and did not deal with the excruciating pain. She said:”
“If you truly want to tackle health inequalities, give us the plan that shows us that women's health and well-being matters and that it will not be only the women who have the financial means who get the treatment and care that is so badly needed. <BR /> <BR />I reached out to a number of women and girls whom I have been in touch with over the past few years — I know that all Members have been in touch with many women in this circumstance — and asked them for their thoughts on what they would like to be reflected today. They are the ones who are living it. It is they who will suffer if nothing is done, but it is they who will benefit if we get it right. Olivia said that we need:”