Órlaithí Flynn
West Belfast · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“<BR /> <BR />Parliamentary privilege is a complicated issue, but it is a very important one for all Members to understand. It was helpful to get Matthew's intervention on the fact that the repeal changes nothing for Members. It simply takes away the reference to privilege which never fully existed. I thank Matthew for his intervention.”
“My comments will be brief. As Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Procedures, I welcome the opportunity to conclude today's debate on the motion to repeal Standing Order 70 and make a number of consequential amendments.”
“<BR /> <BR />I thank the Chairperson and members of the Committee on Standards and Privileges for undertaking a comprehensive review of Standing Order 70 and for bringing the outcomes of that work to the Committee on Procedures, with the recommendation to make the changes to Standing Orders.”
“I thank the Minister for that response. As you outlined, Minister, a key part of creating a more resilient road network is having the workforce to deliver it. We know that British austerity has severely impacted on our workforce in DFI, creating an over-reliance on contractors and driving up the cost of works as a result.”
“I support the motion, and I thank its sponsors. <BR /> <BR />For many people, the journey to becoming a parent is not straightforward. Whilst some conceive without difficulty, others face years of heartbreak, uncertainty and loss.”
“<BR /> <BR />I have learned that people often talk about IVF as though it guarantees a baby. Tragically, the reality is that that is not always the case. This is not the first motion calling for three cycles of IVF that we have debated.”
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“I thank the junior Minister for her response. Will she provide us with an update on the minority ethnic development fund?”
“I thank the Member for raising the issue of the paediatric pathology service. The Health Committees, North and South, held a joint meeting in Dublin last week at which the issue was raised. We hope that we might be able to find some sort of resolution. If there is an all-island resolution, regardless of what it is, we should work towards it.”
“I call on the Assembly to support the motion and the amendment and advocate sustainable funding for the Children's Hospice. It is our duty to ensure that that lifeline for so many families not only survives but thrives, every child in need can access world-class palliative care and every family can find the comfort and support that they deserve during the hardest times.”
“Without that support, many families would face traumatic experiences of seeing loved ones suffer in pain without adequate help.”
“Appropriate funding would not only sustain the hospice but enable it to continue alleviating the strain on our healthcare system by providing specialist end-of-life care at home and in the community.”
“We know that, my God, the budgets are completely constrained and that the Health Minister is finding it very difficult to prioritise where he should put his money. We all get that. However, it is important that everyone in the Chamber, as elected representatives from right across the North, has the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns. Hopefully, we will get a resolution and see some action following today's debate. <BR /> <BR />The motion proposes that the Minister for Health try to cover 50% of the hospice costs, but this is not just about the shortfall in the budget; it is about affirming the right of every child in the North who needs specialist end-of-life care to receive it.”
“Although that public fundraising is fantastic and raises massive amounts of money, that level of funding, even with such public generosity, is not sustainable for the hospice in the long term, given the rising costs of care, inflation and the increased demand on its services. The hospice should not be left to rely primarily on the public's generosity to keep its doors open. The point has been made that, while we know that the hospice is the responsibility of the Department of Health and the Executive overall, everyone has a stake in it. No one wants to see the service fail or any of those families or children being let down. That is the reason for today's debate. We are highlighting the issue to, hopefully, show the public that we genuinely care.”
“Despite such immense challenges, the organisation continues to adapt and provide essential services. It conducted 725 home visits and over 1,600 phone or video consultations, ensuring that no family felt isolated at a time when all the in-person support was severely limited. That determination to meet families' needs, even in the face of a global crisis, underscores the critical role that the hospice plays in our communities. <BR /> <BR />However, as has been said, the hospice is, as we know, facing significant financial pressures. The 2021-22 impact report highlighted that it took over £18 million to run the NI Children's Hospice that year. More than £6 million of that was generously donated by the public, including a local GAA club in west Belfast, O'Donnell's GAC, which raised over £90,000 through a sleep-out event.”
“I support the motion with a deep sense of responsibility and, of course, urgency. The urgency is why we are discussing it today. The Children's Hospice provides vital life-affirming palliative care for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. As we know, it supports not just the young patients but their families, offering comfort and compassion during the most difficult times. Families often describe the Children's Hospice as their lifeline. It offers them a chance to catch their breath, knowing that their children are in the best possible hands. The service goes far beyond medical care, wrapping a blanket of support around families and helping them to navigate the most difficult of journeys. <BR /> <BR />The hospice has also been a place of innovation and resilience, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.”
“The social workers who work with them are, again, in fear that they are not able to give the cases involving those kids and those families the time that they want to give them. The other example is the families with children with learning disabilities whom you mentioned, and we must give credit to that BBC programme. One of those mothers is in my constituency of West Belfast. I wrote to the Minister about her and her son's case previously. Again, it is about how all those flaws in the system impact on the most vulnerable families and on the kids who need the help and support. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response.”
“We know that they work 50 to 60 hours per week and have additional stress, but, when I have spoken to social workers locally, they have told me that one of the biggest mental burdens is not even the additional hours and the excessive workload; it is the guilt and regret that they feel because they know that they are not meeting the needs of the people in the constituency who need help. They carry the mental burden that they are potentially not helping the people, families and kids who need help. <BR /> <BR />I will finish with some of the cases that I have been dealing with in my constituency. Some kids — some of them are really young — are dealing with really bad mental health issues and addiction issues. I am talking about kids who are really young.”
“<BR /> <BR />Given the situation that we are in and given all the limitations on the budget, there is definitely a role for cross-departmental working, and I know that the Department is looking into that. We need to seriously look at every option in the immediate term, given that social workers think that children's lives are at risk. Carál made the point: what are we waiting for? Are we waiting for the next SAI and something terrible happening to a child? We know that the system is broken. It is about how we can rectify the problem. <BR /> <BR />Carál mentioned that, like the rest of the health and social care system, social workers face burnout.”
“<BR /> <BR />Regrettably, the feedback that we receive from social workers and families — I can speak only for West Belfast, but Carál and Gerry are here and others can speak for North Belfast — is that the situation is getting worse, hence the need for this afternoon's debate. It is really worrying that we hear directly from the mouths of social workers that "services are no longer safe". I do not think that warnings get any starker than that. It is really worrying. There was feedback related to the strikes that were held just before the summer, with social workers from the Belfast area saying that children's lives were being put at risk in the current circumstances. That is really worrying for all of us in the Chamber, and, hopefully, we can make some progress.”
“I thank the Minister for coming to this afternoon's debate. I am conscious that we spent a couple of hours earlier debating children's social care services, and all the points that were made in the Chamber earlier are, of course, relevant now. <BR /> <BR />As Carál and Nuala outlined and as you know, Minister, North Belfast and West Belfast, the areas that we represent, sadly have some of the highest levels of deprivation in the North. Carál also mentioned the 81 vacancies that the Belfast Trust had as of summer 2024. I know that the Department was putting in place a recruitment process, and the hope was to recruit 60 new social workers. When the Minister responds to the debate, it would be great to get any update that he may have on that.”
“I know that the Minister is due to speak at an event on Thursday morning on infant mental health and well-being. Will the Minister consider investing in a child and adolescent psychotherapy service, because, at the minute, we do not have a fully commissioned service for that?”
“I thank the Minister for the statement. I go back to the questions from Colin and Nuala earlier. I know that it is really hard to set specific definitive timelines at this stage because, obviously, it is an early phase of the process, but when do you foresee the proposals for reconfiguration going out to the public? The consultation closes in January 2025. Do you foresee that happening in 2025, or are we talking 2026, or later?”
“Thank you very much, Minister. You referenced training on suicide prevention. I met your officials about that, and I plan to bring a private Member's Bill to the House that will make it a statutory obligation for every Department to provide suicide prevention training for all their front-facing public staff. I know that that is a conversation for the time ahead, but, hopefully, the Minister and all Departments can take it on board.”
“Their approach is around the fundamental shift in how we deal with mental health. That is the place where we all need to get to.”
“<BR /> <BR />To finish, Diane mentioned the work of the New Script mental health activists.”
“<BR /> <BR />I was at a mental health conference about two years ago, one of the speakers was asked, "What is the biggest cause of the mental health challenges here in the North?", and he just nailed it when he said, "Poverty, poverty, poverty". What more can the Department for Communities do to introduce an anti-poverty strategy to try to deal with homelessness and the people who are on the streets? It has been flagged up that there might be possible cuts to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's out-of-hours service, which deals with those people who sleep on the streets and who inject drugs — the most vulnerable. When you talk about people with poor mental health, that is it. We need to be really conscious of all that. Hopefully, that is what the Executive subgroup can talk about and take on head first.”
“Paul Givan has taken that positive step in Education, but hopefully he can take further steps, such as reintroducing the Happy Healthy Minds programme, which looked at the counselling provision that we have across our schools and youth clubs. It is about how you get into early intervention at the earliest possible stage. <BR /> <BR />What more can the Department of Justice do to address mental health and addiction in prisons? How can it improve wrap-around care and rehabilitation for people in the prison system? How can it tackle the circulation and use of drugs in our prisons? Are there any plans to try to prevent the production and sale of the vapes filled with spice that are circulating in schools?”
“Health has a responsibility, as Diane said, in what it does with its budget and how it prioritises things. Do I think that people are getting health services at the point of need, be they for addiction, a mental health crisis or a mental illness? I do not. I do not think that we are there yet. There is much more that the Department of Health can, hopefully, do in the time ahead. <BR /> <BR />I will look at the Department of Education and what it's doing to address mental health. I welcome the Education Minister's recent announcement on reducing mobile phone usage in classrooms, which will have an impact on kids' well-being. Less screen time and more direct interaction are good things.”
“I thank the Minister for personally meeting some of the families a number of weeks ago. I look forward to meeting, alongside him, the People's Kitchen charity. It is about directly meeting the people who are impacted on by these issues. The People's Kitchen works with some of the most vulnerable people who are, sadly, homeless and who are injecting on the streets. <BR /> <BR />As for cross-departmental working, the structure for that is already there in the Executive subgroup that was set up a number of years ago on mental well-being, resilience and suicide prevention. That structure is there. It is about how we build on it. I genuinely think that the will is there, but how do we build on the cross-departmental structure that we already have in place? <BR /> <BR />I want to talk briefly on the responsibility of individual Departments.”
“They are the people who have already lost their loved ones, and we need to take guidance from them about what we can do better and about how we can do it better.”
“Given that drug and alcohol deaths have doubled over the past 10 years, it is timely that we are having this debate today to try to refocus minds on how we can make some of this better. <BR /> <BR />Over the past number of years, Sinn Féin has gathered with families that have been bereaved through suicide and drug deaths. We met families at the front of Stormont around Christmastime, when the Christmas trees were going up. Those families have been calling for the same thing that the motion calls for: more action, more cross-departmental working and more investment in tackling addiction and mental health. The Alliance Party joined us last year at the front of Stormont, and if the families, who are from right across the North, gather there again this year, I hope that every party will come out and talk to them.”
“I thank the Member who tabled the motion. Colin and Diane mentioned some of the statistics around deaths by suicide. As Colin said, when we are talking about the issues and using numbers and figures, we are talking about the impact on people's lives and their families. There are over 200 deaths by suicide a year, with provisional figures for 2023 showing a slight increase, thus perhaps bringing the figure up to 221. We cannot have a conversation about mental health and suicide prevention without mentioning the 585 lives that have been lost as a result of drug deaths over the past three years, with the biggest killer being alcohol, which accounts for around 350 deaths every single year. The sad thing to note in this debate is that all those deaths were preventable somewhere along the line.”
“Your hard work, passion and perseverance have made you a hero in the eyes of the children from our area and from across the island. In an interview following his win at the weekend, Anto said that he is doing everyone in Belfast — north, south, east and west — proud. He is doing everyone in Ireland proud and everyone in Italy, where his father is from. That means the world to him. <BR /> <BR />To Mickey Hawkins and all the team who have helped Anto and who help so many other young people in our community, you are all amazing. What you do with our young people does not go unnoticed. I hope that everyone enjoys the celebrations and that Anto gets some well-deserved rest before his next big fight. We are all very proud of you, Anto. Maith thú”
“On Saturday night, our world champion again defeated Josh Warrington in Wembley Arena, successfully holding on to his world title. I have no doubt that friends, neighbours and supporters will again gather in their hundreds tonight at Anthony's parents' home in Andytown to give him the hero's homecoming that he deserves as the undefeated and unbeaten boxing champion of the world. <BR /> <BR />Anto is a humble, down-to-earth person and a hard worker who is dedicated to his sport. He is now rightly a hero to the people of Andytown and particularly to our young people. Maith thú, a Anto.”
“I am not sure if Members tuned in to the boxing fights that took place on Saturday night, but I am so proud to stand in the Chamber today to congratulate the boxing world champion, Anthony Cacace. Anthony and I grew up in the same part of Andersonstown in west Belfast. We went to the same youth club at St Agnes's just beside Holy Child Primary School, and little did we all know then, when we were growing up alongside each other, that we were growing up alongside a world champion. Anto, on behalf of Sinn Féin and West Belfast, I say that you are an absolute credit to our community. We are so proud of you. <BR /> <BR />Only a few short months ago, in May, the "Andytown Apache" pulled off a stunning world title win when he defeated his opponent and won the International Boxing Federation (IBF) superfeatherweight title.”
“— and trying to support people, those issues really need to be looked at. Perhaps, even given the constrained finances, we could get an increase in that budget.”
“The Minister will be aware that the Health Committee has requested sight of the proposals for the hospital reconfiguration. Again, that is going to be a massive step forward in transformation. <BR /> <BR />I end my remarks by talking about one of the biggest missed opportunities around transformation, dealing with health inequalities and trying to help people to live happier and healthier lives: the continued and stark underinvestment in mental health, suicide prevention and addictions. I am not trying to bring a negative to the conversation; our underinvestment in mental health has been a legacy issue over many years, but when we are talking about trying to prevent harm and ill health —”
“The point was made to me by a GP in my local area recently that, if we try to put in place additional screening, mental health supports, additional services and targeted services, they still need to be backed up with the staff and personnel to try to meet the people who need the help and follow-up support. <BR /> <BR />GPs and primary care must be supported to lead on health reform and transformation. One way to accelerate that change and transformation is to deliver on multidisciplinary teams for all GP areas across the North. At the moment, only seven out of 17 have access to MDTs. We were made aware at the Health Committee last week that a transformation bid is going to be submitted to try to extend those MDTs across all areas. That is true transformation, and it is a good start to transformation.”
“<BR /> <BR />What more can be done in the immediate future with the limited resources that we have available to us from the British Treasury to try to stop that depressing reality? I welcomed the Health Minister's announcement in July that covered the planned initiatives that we are going to see, hopefully, over the next few months, including the Live Better initiative, which is going to try to bring more targeted support to communities in terms of screening, vaccination, mental health, emotional well-being support, and blood pressure and cholesterol checks. However, if we are not moving forward in tandem with trying to support our primary care in the transformation process, how are we going to fully and genuinely implement all those great initiatives around screening and vaccination etc?”
“The Minister recently gave us a shocking example of what a health inequality actually looks like and what it means in reality to our constituents and the people we represent: the unacceptable fact is that women in our most deprived communities can expect to live 14 fewer years in good health than those in the least deprived communities. I am sure that we all wholeheartedly agree with the Minister of Health that, a quarter of the way into the 21st century, that really is not acceptable. That is what transformation needs to be about. It is not about boxing it into one issue, such as the fact that women in the most deprived communities are living 14 fewer years in good health; it is about all the issues that we are talking about. That is what transformation and health inequalities are about.”
“<BR /> <BR />Minister, we heard from your officials at the Health Committee last week about some really great examples of transformation that are in action at the moment, including elective care centres, rapid diagnosis centres and the mega clinics, but, like those clinics, longer-term reform must continue. Central to that reform is addressing the health inequalities and trying to improve our health through primary care and care in the community. <BR /> <BR />I am really pleased that the Minister has stated previously and publicly that his prime area of focus is health inequalities, but we need to see additional investment and physical interventions to really help to tackle them. We talk about health inequalities very often in the Chamber.”
“I thank Diane and Alan for tabling the motion and the Alliance Party for the amendment that it has submitted. As we know, tackling hospital waiting times and the backlog of patients awaiting care requires long-term solutions, including the training and recruitment of more doctors, nurses and specialists, and, most importantly, tackling health inequalities and helping people to live healthier lives. However, how are we going to do that when, essentially, at the moment, the entire Health budget is spent on acute services and time-critical cases? If we want to move towards preventing illness rather than treating it, we need to invest in primary and community care.”
“I thank the deputy First Minister for her response. What work is ongoing to ensure that there is a whole-government approach to tackling violence against girls and women?”
“I thank the Minister for that answer. Did any of the funding that was announced yesterday include additional funding that was secured as a result of the fiscal framework agreement?”
“The Minister touched on the positive allocation for the increase in pay for education workers. Will she comment further on the funding that has been provided to the Department of Education?”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. He said that there may be some potential for all-island cooperation on future suicide prevention initiatives. Will the Minister detail some of the current initiatives? I will write to him this week about a private Member's Bill on suicide prevention training that I hope to bring to the House. It may be something to explore at the autumn meeting.”
“I thank the Minister for that response. Has he any sense of the numbers? If the consultation is successful — the hope is that we will get additional provision; the school is in West Belfast but will take in kids from across the area — how many places might this piece of land provide?”
“— in a postcode lottery, where one GP surgery has an MDT and the other does not. Hopefully, with today's motion and the amendment, we will see some progress on those issues.”
“There is also the problem of all of the GPs who are leaving. As we know, a lot of them are going South for better pay and conditions. The arguments that have been made in the debate are ones that we receive directly from the general practices and GPs. I am sure that the Minister is across all of the detail already. It is about what we can do to help the situation. <BR /> <BR />Everyone has touched on the MDTs issue. It is a really worrying postcode lottery. The fact is that, of the 17 federations, only one has the full complement of staff. The intention is there to expand on that, but it is not good enough to expand it from one GP federation to three: it needs to be across all 17. I know that, in an ideal world, with an ideal budget, the Minister would do that, but it is so unfair to leave certain people —”
“It is really worrying that a third of all of the practices that we have in the small place that we live in are getting crisis support from that specialised team.”
“Those are the same issues that cut right across all the problems that we have across the health system at the moment. <BR /> <BR />There is no point in listing the Members, but Alan, Colin, Danny and most of the Members who have spoken mentioned the number of practices that have closed. There is the really stark statistic that one third of practices are in receipt of additional support and intervention from the crisis team. That is a really high number.”
“<BR /> <BR />Over the past number of weeks, we have received briefings at the Health Committee, and MLAs have been receiving emails from GP surgeries and practices from right across the North. To be fair, from the emails that we are getting, we can sense the stress and exhaustion that exists: they have highlighted the different pressures that they are genuinely under. The Minister will be aware of all that. Some of the emails tell us, in their own words, that primary care and general practice are at the point of failure and are failing because of the strain that they are under. They talk about widespread destabilisation and, as we have heard, the increasing number of practices that have had to hand back their contracts, which is linked to there not being enough investment in the workforce.”
“However, I am conscious that not everyone has had the same experience. Given the pressures outlined in the motion and the amendment, different GP practices, pharmacies, health visitors and all the rest will feel different types of pressure. That will have an impact in that not everyone will have the same experience when it comes to how many phone calls it takes to get through to the local surgery or how long they have to wait to see a GP or a health professional. It is important to note the positive experiences that people are having. It has been said by all the Members who have spoken that no one is taking away from all the brilliant work that GPs and health professionals in primary care carry out. However, no one is in denial over the massive pressure that they are under. Hopefully, we can help to support them.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I am happy to support the motion and the SDLP's amendment. It is important to acknowledge at the outset that, as mentioned by other Members, primary care includes community pharmacists as well as our GPs, nurses, mental health practitioners, social workers and health visitors, who all play such a crucial part in providing healthcare for the public in our local communities. <BR /> <BR />I cannot complain about the care that I have received from my local GP surgery in west Belfast, Ballyowen, or my local pharmacy, Coopers. They have been dealing with me and my family for years, and I do not have any complaints. I had my wee son Torin a year-and-a-half ago, so the health visitor has been coming and going to visit us, and I cannot fault any of the care that I have received.”
“That is at the heart of the debate. Yes, we need the strategy, we need to prepare and we need all Departments to be involved, but, as Colin said, we need to treat each other like humans and look out for and support one another. If you see someone who is lonely or isolated, try to intervene early so that they do not end up with chronic loneliness.”