Emma Sheerin
Mid Ulster · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“Given what we have seen unfold across the North in recent weeks, it is important that we acknowledge that they are people with particular vulnerabilities who are particularly sensitive and, with that in mind, consider our language.”
“No, I will not give way. You have rambled on for long enough in this place. <BR /> <BR />When it comes to the early clauses of the Bill, I, like others, put on the record our appreciation of the work of Geraldine Hanna and our support for the intent of Part 1 of the Bill, which puts the role that she has been carrying out impeccably thus…”
“I thank the Minister for clarifying that immigration is an excepted matter, which means that it is the responsibility of the British Government and nothing to do with the House.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Members will be aware that the DUP and some of its lackeys in the UUP cynically used petitions of concern, two weeks ago, to block rights for children.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak at the Second Stage of the Victims and Witnesses of Crime Bill. I am proud to be from a party that consistently supports the best available human rights advice on all matters.”
“For many years, Donaldson used his position of power to abuse and to escape justice. He presented himself as a role model. We now know that that was bogus and that his public persona was a deception.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,123 lines we hold for Emma Sheerin, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 14 of 23.
“We woke this morning to news of another missed opportunity: Israel has rejected another opportuniyy for a ceasefire. We know that that is because Israel does not want a ceasefire; Israel does not want peace. We know that Israel wants to continue this, and that is why it is incumbent on us, why there is a moral duty and an obligation on all of us to bring them to that space, force them to do the right thing and put enough pressure and shame on them to make them do what is morally correct and stop the slaughter of innocent civilians. <BR /> <BR />In Ireland, we know what colonial oppression does. We know what occupation does. We had forced starvation in this country, and they called it "famine" here too. We know the intergenerational trauma that that has left us with.”
“Those people have been oppressed, forced to move and living in open air jails for decades, and the world has watched on. The world has endorsed it. That should bring shame to us all.”
“If you click on Instagram, you see a story from a friend who is updating you about their running journey and then, boom, there is another graphic picture of something that is happening in Gaza — babies on life support machines, with the hospital being bombed around them; journalists being murdered for speaking the truth; people fleeing on advice, only to be bombed again — and the next story is about a competition for a spa break or somebody who is out at the weekend. The conflict is being live-streamed; we have been watching it for seven months. <BR /> <BR />We know the statistics. We hear them: 35,000 people murdered; 10,000 people missing; 15,000 children killed since October; over 80,000 people injured in Gaza alone. This is just the latest phase. It has been going on for decades.”
“Obviously, I support the motion. I say that it is obvious, because Sinn Féin has been unequivocal in calling for an end to the trauma that is being inflicted on the people in Gaza. We have been unequivocal for decades in our support for the Palestinian people. <BR /> <BR />Words, really, are hard to find to describe what we are seeing. We are now almost desensitised to the violence.”
“— being applied to ensure that those children can get to school safely.”
“— not as the crow flies and thus are refused a bus pass and other people who are just outside the route. I would like to see common sense —”
“In the interim, while we await any new review, will the Minister commit to working with the officials in the transport section of the EA to apply a bit of common sense to some of the decisions about transport for children? I am inundated every summer with requests from parents who live just within the two- or three-mile criterion, parents whose children live three miles from their school but —”
“First Minister, it is important that we acknowledge the 25th anniversary of the North/South institutions. Our peace agreement here in the North is the envy of the poor people across the world who are suffering as a result of conflict. What is being done to mark that anniversary?”
“Does the First Minister agree that to end violence against women and girls will take a whole-of-government approach?”
“I thank the Minister for that answer. In the absence of a bill of rights for the North, we are obviously in a rights deficit here, and that is particularly true of groups, such as the LGBTQIA+ community, who suffer that vividly. Does the Minister agree with me on the importance of the strategy, in the first instance, and will he commit to liaising with the sector on the specifics of the strategy?”
“It is a really desperate situation. Their family is obviously experiencing massive stress, strife and anxiety over the head of it, and there is little we can do to offer a solution. <BR /> <BR />Another family contacted me just over the weekend. Their elderly mother, at 80 years of age, fell and broke her hip. She had her surgery eventually and will soon be ready to be discharged to ward 6, but she cannot because there is no capacity. <BR /> <BR />I raise the issue here in the hope that the Northern Trust and Minister can do something to increase capacity for that vital service in our area.”
“It is both a cause and effect of our enduring crisis in domiciliary care in south Derry, which means that people who should be at home but cannot be because of the lack of a care package end up in the rehab unit for longer than they need to be, and people who are in hospital cannot get into the rehab unit when they are ready because there is no space for them. <BR /> <BR />Recently, I dealt with two families who brought this to my attention. Last week, I was told about a husband and wife who both had falls at home recently. The wife, who is a dementia patient, has been in the rehab unit and made great progress, but she cannot return home because there is no domiciliary care package for her. Her husband is in the Antrim Area Hospital and ready to be discharged to ward 6, but he cannot get there because there is no bed for him.”
“I rise to draw attention to the deepening concern felt in my area about the lack of capacity in ward 6 of the Thompson House unit in the Mid Ulster Hospital site, or, as it is still commonly known at home in south Derry, "the old maternity end". The rehab unit is a brilliant facility, but there is a massive issue with capacity there. It is used predominantly by patients who are ready for discharge from the hospital but are not quite ready to go home following a fall or some other incident.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. You said that you would review some of the comments made during the debate. Will you rule on whether it was appropriate, following Mr Tennyson's very brave sharing of his own lived experience, in which he told us that he felt indoctrinated at school, for the Minister to comment that it clearly did not work?”
“No, thank you. I have finished. <BR /> <BR />I endorse the motion and hope that it will be passed today.”
“I thank the Member for her intervention. I agree. All of us have opportunities to learn. All of us will have our own standardised thoughts challenged at times and have opportunities to see things in a different light. That is healthy, and it is to be welcomed.”
“Our young people deserve better. We have to give the next generation a better chance. There are societal norms that we all have to unlearn. Let us give our young people the chance to learn the proper norms about proper, healthy relationships and what is right. There is a duty on all of us to do that. <BR /> <BR />This is something positive, and I hope that it will be endorsed today. I congratulate those who tabled the motion.”
“We have all attended the vigils and sent thoughts and prayers. We have all stood with families who have been grieving the loss of a mother, daughter, sister or niece at the hands of some violent individual who did not respect women. We know that the cause of violence against women and girls is sexism at its most extreme. <BR /> <BR />If we are serious about ending violence against women and girls, we have to be serious in dealing with this subject, and we have to discuss it. That means education, dialogue, talking about this and giving our young people a better chance. If we do not implement standardised relationships and sexuality education across our schools, we are damning another generation to the same vigils, thoughts and prayers, hashtags and sorry stories on social media. I do not want to be a part of that.”
“I endorse the motion and amendment, and I thank the proposers of both. This is a really good conversation to have, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss this again, because I believe, as I have said before in the Chamber, that any opportunity that we take to talk about this issue in broad terms is to break down the stigma and help in solving the problem of unhealthy relationships and domestic and gender-based violence in its entirety. I thank you all for that. <BR /> <BR />Since this place came back up at the beginning of February, we have heard all parties say that ending violence against women and girls is a priority. Indeed, all Members have stated that very clearly. We all know that violence against women and girls — domestic violence — is at epidemic level in the North of Ireland.”
“— in Rathmena House in Ballyclare, and they live in Bellaghy. Can you outline what support is available, particularly for those who need more than four visits a day, le do thoil?”
“I have just had a Teams meeting with a lady whose father has been in hospital for 11 months. He is ready for discharge, but he cannot get a care package because he has complex needs. The trust has basically said that the only option available is a placement —”
“Minister, I appreciate the update. I have done a lot of work with the trust. At the end of January, when one of the new providers was first announced, in south Derry, it was a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul because another provider had just left the area.”
“We are all best served when all the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are operating in full, and that means the North/South bodies as well as the east-west bodies. As such, I welcome last week's meeting of the NSMC. Will the deputy First Minister outline some of the topics that were discussed at last Monday's NSMC plenary meeting?”
“The regulations will go some way to delivering that, so I commend them and congratulate everyone who has been involved.”
“I welcome the regulations. It would be remiss not to mention, as the Minister did, the work of Pat Catney, who is no longer in the House but did an awful lot of work to bring the legislation forward. <BR /> <BR />Periods are difficult enough — as a woman, I know that — and we know that period poverty is a serious, cross-cutting issue. Women across the North who are living with low incomes have enough challenges without having to consider a money element of menstruation. <BR /> <BR />The regulations are to be welcomed. It is progressive, positive legislation. It is a brilliant example of what we can do when we work together, and I wholeheartedly welcome the introduction of free period products in public spaces. They are not luxury items; they are healthcare, and we have to ensure that people have the right to healthcare and to dignity.”
“First Minister, will you provide an update on the support for people who are avoiding the war in Ukraine?”
“<BR /> <BR />I congratulate the proposers of the motion. I hope to see it receive cross-party support. It is a good basis on which we can all work together for all the people whom we represent.”
“Where I come from, when a cow was sick during calving or somebody needed help with lambing a sheep, it did not matter what their background was. Nobody asked at the gate, "Where did you go on Sunday?". Everybody chipped in. That is still the situation at home. We need to see an increase in that and reflect on the fact that, although people may have different cultural practices, political beliefs and views about the constitutional position of the North of Ireland, that does not mean that they do not have the same worries and concerns. We all want to see the same thing for ourselves, our families, our friends and our constituents. We want to see people being able to have a full and proper life and to access healthcare. We all have the same struggles. At the end of the day, that is what life is about.”
“When people participate in other people's cultures, embrace the fact that we all have differences and take the opportunity to enjoy things that we may not have been brought up with, it is a richer experience for everyone. Nobody is hurt by that. That needs to be perpetuated and built on during the mandate. I hope to see more of that. I congratulate the First Minister and deputy First Minister for their example of doing that thus far, because we need to see an end to segregation in our hearts and minds. <BR /> <BR />Other Members, particularly those from different parts of this city, have referred to the peace walls and the real divisions in their communities. As I have said before in the Chamber, I am from a farming family in the country.”
“I refer the Member to a body of evidence on the Assembly website that clearly points to the meeting at which your colleague Alan Chambers provided a document and said that he did not believe that a bill of rights was necessary for the North. You can reflect on the Hansard report, which will show that clearly. <BR /> <BR />My point is that we have to govern for everybody, and ensuring rights for everybody is helpful. That is the space that we need to be in and the conversation that we need to have. The inclusion of everybody, regardless of their background, is important, as is acknowledging those differences and that we all have different lived experiences. As others have referred to, there has been a change in attitude during this mandate. That is welcome.”
“<BR /> <BR />We know that the costs of division are multiple, visceral, visible and tangible. They are very real. Unfortunately, in the past, people have paid the ultimate price because of division and sectarianism. We are not in that place any more, but we want to move very much away from it. Today's motion and this conversation are helpful in that, because we need to govern for everybody. <BR /> <BR />I note that Ms Egan referred to the bill of rights, on which we did a lot of work in the previous mandate. I chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on a Bill of Rights, and it was regrettable that, at that point, the two unionist parties blocked the delivery of a bill of rights. I would like to see that —”
“I support the motion, and I congratulate the Alliance Party on tabling it. It is a really important conversation, and, as Members have said, it is useful that we take stock of where we are in the North, as we are a post-colonial, post-conflict society. We have to acknowledge that sectarianism exists and that we will deal with it only if we have a conversation about it, so I totally support the motion. <BR /> <BR />Unity and unification are, obviously, fundamental to my politics; I am an Irish republican. We have just celebrated Easter, and at Easter we reflect on the words of the proclamation to the Irish people of 1916, which clearly stated that the Irish nation was for Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. That is the politics to which I align myself, the basis of my political activism and the reason why I am here in the Chamber.”
“It is the second most dangerous place in Europe to be a woman, so I am glad that all parties have committed, as a priority, to delivering and fully implementing the violence against women and girls strategy. That is a particular priority for my party. We are all united in delivering the childcare strategy: we know that childcare disproportionately impacts on women. With the crisis in domiciliary care and respite services, again, it is the women in most homes who pick up the burden of that care. If we work together to prioritise gender equality, fixing those problems will come about naturally. Therefore, I welcome the motion and urge you all to support it.”
“All of that is to be welcomed, but we still have problems, and there is still work to be done. <BR /> <BR />We still have a pay gap. We still see women held to a higher standard than men, and we still see misogyny and sexism normalised every day. Across the world, we have a presidential hopeful with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him, and yet he is still deemed a worthy candidate for the presidency, and women are supporting him. In the North, I am delighted that we are going in a different direction: we are going in the right direction. Some of the first commitments in this new mandate go to the very heart of what you would consider to be women's issues. <BR /> <BR />Domestic violence is endemic in the North.”
“<BR /> <BR />This weekend was an opportunity not just to celebrate ourselves and our mothers, sisters and friends but to acknowledge the work of those who came before us and those who worked so hard to achieve gender equality, from Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney to Rosa Parks and Angela Davis and women across the world united in that struggle. The Assembly reflects the change that we see across wider society. In Sinn Féin, we have more female representatives than we have ever had. We are led by two brilliant women in Michelle O'Neill and Mary Lou McDonald, and a majority of our MLA team are women. It is the same across society: we see women taking top jobs across all sectors in the North, and that brings a perspective to the table that previously was not there.”
“I am delighted to support this cross-party motion celebrating International Women's Day, the theme of which this year was to inspire inclusion. When you think of what "inspiring inclusion" means, it is to involve everyone and include everybody to ensure that we can all access prosperity and that nobody is excluded from that — no woman or girl left behind, regardless of background. That means including our rural women, our women of colour, our LGBT women and our disabled women. The glass ceiling is not really broken if it is just cracked for some.”
“What plans does the Minister have to address accessibility problems on the existing fleet? He referred to replacing some vehicles with low-floor vehicles. Are there things such as access steps that could be added to the existing high-floor vehicles?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Aire, as an fhreagra sin.”
“— but cannot avail themselves of it because they do not have the Dexcom device. Can you advise whether the decision to commission these devices in the North will be reconsidered?”
“Minister, you will recall that, during the previous mandate, I wrote to you and, subsequently, the permanent secretary about the commissioning of Dexcom continuous blood-monitoring devices that have been described to me as revolutionary for people with type 1 diabetes. They work in conjunction with a pump. I have constituents who are entitled to a new pump —”
“Will the deputy First Minister outline the measures that will be put in place to prioritise effective delivery of the Programme for Government?”
“That is another example of the efforts of state agencies to obstruct the process. My party deplores that. We join the family in their call for a public inquiry. We stand in full solidarity with them, as, I am sure, will all the people of Ireland.”
“I rise this afternoon as the Sinn Féin Member elected in south Derry to stand in solidarity with and in full support of the family of Sean Brown. Sean Brown was a proud Gael who was murdered outside the gate of his club, Bellaghy Wolfe Tones Gaelic Athletic Club (GAC), in May 1997. Since then, his family have shown absolutely incredible strength and dignity in their fight to get truth and justice following his cruel murder. Indeed, the people of south Derry, those across Ireland and particularly the GAA fraternity across Ireland stand with them. <BR /> <BR />The family was dealt another cruel blow this morning when the inquest into Sean's murder had to be stopped, given the amount of redaction that is in the files.”
“Minister, do you agree that, as well as creating opportunities to attract high-quality inward investment, the Windsor framework provides opportunities for local firms to grow their exports?”
“However, over time, those things build up to the point where the situation gets so extreme that there is an act of violence, and that is when we all react. <BR /> <BR />This is not about demonising anyone. The issue affects everyone across society. The victims are men and women. We know about its impact on families, particularly in situations of domestic violence, where children suffer and that has an impact on their relationships later in life. We know that it is intergenerational: hurt people hurt people. We have seen that time and again. The studies all reflect that. We have to address it to stop it getting that far. <BR /> <BR />I urge everyone to support the motion. I want to see us all working together to call out gender-based violence and to stop that phenomenon.”
“One of the statistics that really shocked me was in the 2022 life and times survey, which showed that 75% of the 16-year-olds surveyed had experienced street harassment. I read that and said, "Oh my God, three quarters of our teenage girls have already been harassed on the street". Then I said to myself, "Why am I shocked at that? I was a 16-year-old girl. I have friends, a sister, a mother. We have all experienced that, and we all know what it feels like". The overwhelming emotions that you have are shame and embarrassment, so you do not call it out. It has become completely normalised to the point where, an awful lot of the time, those remarks are made or you are harassed and, 10 minutes later, you are back to getting a cup of coffee or talking to a friend, and it does not even have an impact on you.”
“It is the reason why women who present to their GP with what is clearly the menopause are told that they are just a bit stressed and are prescribed antidepressants. It is the reason why it takes about eight years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis or PCOS. It is the reason why, if a female politician wears a dress, it is the subject of news articles, yet a male politician will never face the same criticism for a suit that he wears. It is the reason why our dresses do not have pockets. That is the reality, and it is the reason why women are being murdered. We have to get to the root of that to stop it happening. <BR /> <BR />Over the weekend, in preparation for today's debate, I re-familiarised myself with some of the statistics. Some of the facts and figures that have been gathered on the issue are totally depressing and shocking.”
“We see an extreme act of violence against a woman, in that a woman is murdered, and then there is an outpouring of grief. We all stand at vigils, and everybody is so sorry that it happened. However, further back in the chain, when the beliefs were first being issued, we did not challenge them. That is what we have to do and what the strategy has to do. It has to address it at the root. I am pleased to see that the framework sets it out clearly that this is about addressing cultural norms and challenging the structural inequalities that lead, ultimately, to someone losing a mother, a daughter, a sister or a friend as a result of gender-based violence. <BR /> <BR />Misogyny is the cause of so many problems across society.”
“We have to start the conversation. Hopefully, the debate today will serve that end. <BR /> <BR />We know that misogyny is the root cause of gender-based violence. Misogyny, in its simplest terms, is the belief that women are lesser. Just like any discriminatory mindset, it manifests itself, breeds and festers in a vacuum, in a situation in which there is no conversation, no information being shared and no myth-busting, where people are allowed to spread disinformation, fear and hatred. That is how misogyny has taken shape. An awful lot of the time, we do not even recognise it. Those thoughts are so internalised that we do not sometimes call it out. <BR /> <BR />We know about it and have seen it all too often, even in recent years. There were 42 women murdered between January 2013 and June 2023.”
“It has to be a priority for all parties, and we all must work together on that. We want to set this at the top of the agenda to ensure that it is a priority and that the framework is implemented in full. We will support the amendment, because it is totally in line with the spirit of our motion. We know that it has to be funded to be implemented fully, and we want to see that happening. <BR /> <BR />The reason for moving the motion today is to start the conversation about this and to bring it in to the public discourse. Gender-based violence has happened for centuries in Ireland and has been facilitated by silence: people knowing deep down that something was wrong but not having the courage to call it out. That is how it has been allowed to manifest itself in the way in which it has. We have to break the silence and call it out.”