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 7 of 23.
“Minister, there is a wee bit of a misconception among the public about the average salary of a barrister. There is also a disparity in the profession, with people from working-class communities, minority communities and women often unable to excel within it. What can the Department do to ensure that people from those under-represented sections of society can enter the profession and progress within it adequately?”
“Minister, if you had listened correctly, you would have heard me asking you to address the wastage. A lot of the time, the problem is cost per journey. <BR /> <BR />Following a request from a school in my constituency — St John Bosco Primary School in Ballynease — I recently wrote to your Department to ask about transport for swimming lessons. That school was advised to use the process form to apply for that transport but was told that there was no further availability. The school then had to pay privately at a cost of £220 for a half-an-hour round trip. After receiving a response from your Department, I was told to use the same booking form that the school had previously used. Will you look at that case to ensure that the pupils at St John Bosco in Ballynease are able to access swimming lessons as per the curriculum?”
“There is a massive piece of cross-departmental work to be done on education and on engaging with young people in particular to have conversations with them about the ramifications of such harmful crimes and of sharing images. We have seen the rise of such behaviour even in our schools, and its long-term impacts are crazy. <BR /> <BR />I commend the bravery of the young person in Armagh who came forward when they were made aware that such an image had been created of them. I encourage all young people affected, instead of suffering shame and, as a result, seeing more harm done, to come forward and talk about it in order to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
“The owners of X, formerly known as Twitter, have removed that function for anyone who is not a paid user, but they need to go further than that. That call has already been made by a range of people. We need to see action from Ofcom and the British Government to criminalise those who have engaged in such behaviour. The Minister of Justice has formally committed to criminalising deepfake technology and the creation of deepfake images. I know that we will want to work with her to ensure that that is done as quickly as possible. <BR /> <BR />There needs to be a united message from the House that the sharing of inappropriate images is illegal and that sharing such images without consent is illegal. As well as that, the creation of such images should be discouraged and made illegal.”
“I speak this afternoon about a deeply disturbing occurrence that we have seen rise in popularity over the past week: the use of AI to invent images that sexualise young women and girls and the real threat that that poses. We talk all the time in the Chamber and, indeed, across society about violence against women and girls, and this is a new way of torturing women. I often think of the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words cannot hurt you": we know, of course, that that is not true. Such images are deeply harmful to the women and young people who have been targeted. <BR /> <BR />We need to see more action in response to the Grok technology that is being used to undress people without their consent or permission.”
“A clear message needs to come from the Assembly today that we do not accept the situation, that we will challenge it and that we want to support people, particularly those who are vulnerable, who may fall prey to those sorts of crimes.”
“We want the Minister to work with the rest of the Executive, the PSNI, the gardaí and the cross-border joint agency task force (JATF) to ensure that we clamp down on the scams and the people who are involved — they are very manipulative; increasingly, it is criminal gangs and groups that carry out such scams — so that more of our constituents do not fall prey to them. There are legislative changes that can be made. In the interim, however, we can send out these messages: "Think twice", "Check, check, check" and, "Ask the question". People contact me as an MLA, as I am sure they do other MLAs, to ask, "Is this right enough?", checking the veracity of a message or an email that they received. I always say, "Ask the question, because you are better to be safe than sorry".”
“It has already been said that scams target our older and more vulnerable people in particular. It is about the shame that comes with it. There are ramifications such as loss of earnings and, a lot of the time, of savings, and the real-life implications that that has for people. As well as that, however, they may be embarrassed to report it or even to tell family and friends. They feel that they have been made fools of. It is the exploitation of people in their most vulnerable moments that makes that type of crime so horrible and nasty. <BR /> <BR />We want to see joint working.”
“We can see a rise in such scams, which are becoming more and more sophisticated, to the point where even those of us who might consider ourselves to be fairly tech-savvy — I assure Members that staff on the fourth floor of the Building would not count me among them — who are familiar with social media and how things should be worded and who, like me, work online every day find ourselves stopping in our tracks and almost getting caught out by some of the messages and emails that come through.”
“I welcome the motion. We have tabled a small amendment to close the gap left by not including the cross-border agencies in the motion and to make sure that there is no scope for criminals to avail themselves of that gap. <BR /> <BR />We often say that crime knows no border. We are currently in a storm that knows no border. Whilst crime might know no border, it definitely exploits the border on this island, and scams are one example of how that can happen. I agree with a lot of what the proposer of the motion said.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.”
“<BR /> <BR />There has been a spate of measures, and the Infrastructure Minister is working on road safety measures. There have been a number of losses on our roads in recent years, and we want to see that reduced. We want all road users to think carefully when they are out and about. The motion is about just a small element of that that should be common sense. It should not even have to be said, but it is important that we all say it clearly today.”
“Even while we wait for legislation to be put in place — we know that implementing it properly and policing it will be complex and that it needs to be thorough and well thought out — and work towards that, we can send a clear message from the Chamber today, asking people to think in the wake of a road traffic accident and not to take pictures or videos of people in their most vulnerable moments. Doing that adds absolutely nothing in such a situation; no one adds any value by taking photos or videos of that. People need to cop on a bit and to think carefully before they start filming something like that. The message that we need to send today, even while we wait for legislation to be put in place, is this: everyone needs to think seriously about how their actions can impact on a family in their worst moments.”
“This is an example of something that causes untold damage and harm; that is completely unnecessary; and that feeds into a culture of people seeing likes, hits and other forms of attention as more important than basic human decency and kindness.”
“Every life lost on our roads is a tragedy, and that hurt, pain and grief is compounded and exacerbated by the unnecessary sharing of images and videos on social media. I approach the conversation almost with disbelief. I cannot really believe that we need legislation to stop people doing that. I want to believe that it is a lack of awareness — ignorance — rather than malice that causes someone to whip out their phone when they come upon a road accident to do anything other than call emergency services. Unfortunately, however, we too often see circumstances in which that happens. <BR /> <BR />We talk an awful lot in the Chamber about the dangers of social media and about how toxic it can be when it is not used for good.”
“I support the motion and thank my constituency colleague for moving it. As Mr McGlone outlined, motions have been passed with cross-party support by a number of councils, including our own Mid Ulster District Council. We hope to see that replicated here today, because it would be important legislation. I commend the campaigners, particularly the O'Brien family, some of whom, I know, have travelled here today. Their quest to see the harm caused to them as a family not repeated for others is admirable. They should be commended for their work. <BR /> <BR />As we will hear throughout the debate, road traffic accidents and fatalities are all too regular an occurrence. We are coming into a time of the year when we seem to hear about more and more accidents on our roads.”
“Minister, you will know that the Communities in Transition programme made a significant contribution to building communities that are equipped to deal with paramilitarism and organised crime. Can you set out how the Communities in Transition programme is currently being delivered to achieve that outcome?”
“An aontaíonn an Comhalta go léiríonn an ceart gnó an Tí seo a dhéanamh trí Ghaeilge aitheantas fíorthábhachtach ar chearta phobal na Gaeilge dul i mbun gnó i dteanga dhúchais na hÉireann?”
“Ba mhaith liom mo cheist a chur as Gaeilge.”
“I rise this morning, in what is becoming an annual tradition, to congratulate Robert Emmet's GAC Slaughtneil on its retention of the Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship title, having won the final on Sunday past. That is its sixth title in nine years, which is an amazing feat for the small south Derry club. I congratulate the club following its emphatic 13-point victory over St John's of Antrim and wish it all the very best in its next game against Galway champions, Loughrea. I know that the people of Slaughtneil are very proud of their team and their club. Their success is the result of an awful amount of commitment and hard work over the past year. I mention in particular my friends the McMullans from Moneysharvan — Patrick, Myra and Jimmy — who will, no doubt, be shouting, "Up the Robbies" for many weeks to come.”
“First Minister, do you agree that all elected reps have a responsibility to human rights and equality and that the language and tone that elected representatives use, in the Chamber and in the media, should be accurate and responsible in terms of human rights and equality, rather than promoting fear?”
“During the previous mandate, the sector welcomed the passing of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act, but, as I understand it, not all elements of that have been implemented, particularly around coercive control and how incidents are often treated as single incidents, which is leading to a delay in perpetrators being brought to justice. Can you advise on what you are doing to implement all the elements of the Act?”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht a freagraí.”
“<BR /> <BR />Victim blaming is rife on social media as well, and until we deal with that, we will see a continuation of the problem of online bullying, abuse targeted at women and the post-mortems that see them as being responsible for their own deaths. Until we deal with our words, we will keep losing women. That is something that we all need to address.”
“We are teaching our young women that they are lesser and that their value is measured by their appearance, and then online trolls and bullies attack women when they make an effort with their appearance. It is in that context that the abuse of women is allowed to flourish. Women are deemed to be subhuman, lesser, disposable and expendable. That mindset murders women. In the past five and half years, it has murdered 37 women here in the North. Most of those women met their deaths at the hands of someone that they knew, whether it was a partner or an ex-partner. None of those women sat down during a first or second date and accepted terms that would see them killed, but, going by the online commentary, you would think that they had.”
“I am glad that the focus of this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is on online abuse. We will all agree that that conversation is needed. Social media has become a platform for torturing women. That causes emotional harm to every victim, but I argue that the lessons that it teaches our young people are even more harmful in the long term. It is not just on social media; it has been mainstreamed. We recently elected a new president in Ireland. In the days following her inauguration, the national broadcaster thought it appropriate to run a piece on what she was wearing. What does that teach the young girls of Ireland? You can literally become president, and, still, all that they will care about is what you look like.”
“Tá Lá Idirnáisiúnta um Dhíothú an Fhoréigin in aghaidh na mBan ann inniu. Ar an drochuair, tá ár sáith taithí againn ar an fhoréigean in aghaidh na mban sa Tuaisceart. Tá an fhadhb chomh forleathan sin gurbh éigean lá aitheantais domhanda a thiomnú di. Rinne na Náisiúin Aontaithe amach díriú ar an fhoréigean in aghaidh na mban agus thug siad tiomantas deireadh a chur leis, agus aird ar leith á tabhairt acu ar mhí-úsáid dhigiteach, agus ba chóir dó sin uchtach a thabhairt dúinn uilig. Tá mé cinnte go dtig le gach duine sa tSeomra tacú leis sin.”
“Minister, will you outline how the winter preparedness plan ensures that people who live with dementia have a clear pathway to avoid unnecessary hospital placements?”
“Other parties have tabled amendments: one could be seen as being slightly constructive, while the other, unfortunately, has probably missed the point. I welcome the debate.”
“We can point to many reasons for our problems in the North, including the fact that we do not have a sovereign Parliament, are still at the behest of the British Government and have had Tory austerity for the past 14 years, which has caused innumerable problems for and damage to our public services. Still and all, our people have the determination, spirit and grit to excel beyond what has been set out for them. My constituency, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the North, is a shining example of that. Infrastructure was not widely available and we did not see investment in our roads and electricity network, yet we have the most successful engineering sector in Ireland and produce well above our means in that area. <BR /> <BR />I commend the motion to the House and hope that it passes.”
“That indicates the strength of feeling in the Twenty-six Counties around the NHS and that there is not a reticence amongst our friends and colleagues in the South about public services. I think that that is heartening and is something that we should look at and draw attention to. <BR /> <BR />To make progress on anything, you have to have the information available to you, and we in the North know how damaging partition was. We know that it was particularly impactful on the border areas. That is seen very clearly through the fact that, to this day, unemployment figures are highest in the border regions of Louth in the Twenty-six Counties and Derry and Strabane in the North. That shows once again the impact and the consequences of that border infrastructure and how disruptive and damaging it has been for the communities living beside it.”
“<BR /> <BR />One of the key statistics that jumps out from the 2021-22 joint census is the increase from the previous census in cross-border workers. Over 4,000 people have begun working cross-border since the previous census was carried out, and we can see, particularly in the border region, that people go north and south daily for their work. That, again, speaks to one of the misconceptions about Irish unity. We hear a lot of scaremongering about what a potential united Ireland could mean for our health system. Obviously, people hold the NHS very dearly, but, when you look at the cohort of workers that is crossing the border for work, you see that the majority of people coming from the South to the North are working in health and social care settings.”
“However, any of us who are involved in the conversation in a real way know that that is not what we want. From our perspective in Sinn Féin, we have many issues and concerns about how both states and jurisdictions have been run since partition was implemented in this country. The joint census goes some way in highlighting that there are problems north of the border and that there are also problems south of the border and that there are things that we are doing really well in the North and things that are being done better in the Twenty-six Counties. We would like collaboration and joint working to learn from each other and to make both states better in the here and now and, obviously, for future planning.”
“We tabled today's motion to bring focus to another example of cross-border collaboration, which is so important for the trajectory that we find ourselves on in the North of Ireland, with people feeling passionately, as I do, about the concept of Irish unity coming towards us. We know that that conversation is alive and is finding its way into more homes and spaces daily. To make preparations for a new and united Ireland, we have to have an understanding of the situation that we are currently in and the facts and figures. The joint census went an awful distance in doing that. <BR /> <BR />There is a common misconception that those of us who advocate for a new and united Ireland would just like to rub away the border, join the two states and leave it at that, going home to put our feet up.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.”
“I will carry those stories with me and continue to be a voice for the Palestinian people who seemingly cannot be heard by the rest of the Western world.”
“I met families who have never left the country because they are not allowed to. We then got to the university where we were having our congress, and I heard from students who had already been arrested and detained without trial, because getting educated in the West Bank is an act of resistance. I heard that they had buried five students from their one university in the past four years. Again, they said, "It is not that bad here". In Gaza, they knocked all their schools and universities to the ground, and yet such was the determination of those people that they walked for miles, set up school camps and educated their young people in the face of a genocide. We spoke to young people who told us how planting crops, as the Israelis steal the land from under them, is an act of resistance.”
“From my experience of the Jordanian border crossing, unpleasant as that was, it is not the hostility of the Israeli officials that I will remember, and not the dry heat, but the warmth and kindness and spirit of young Palestinians who went out of their way to make our experience easier, lifting our suitcases, pointing us in the right direction and trying to ease my obvious apprehension at being faced with a border crossing that I had no knowledge of prior to going through it. We then got into Ramallah and were told, "It's not that bad here". How twisted a world we live in when the barometer for suffering is babies starving to death in a place where the water is turned on once a week, where you can only go to work through border checkpoints and where you cannot leave the country.”
“Last week, I visited the West Bank as part of an international delegation to discuss what is happening in Palestine. The West Bank is often referred to as the "normal" part of Palestine. Of course, there is nothing normal about a place where the Israeli settlers grade people as if they were meat. There is nothing normal about a system that determines your value on your identity. Even before we got there, in Jordan, I met Palestinians who had never been in their own country because they are not allowed.”
“— in this jurisdiction — something that I object to. The British Government have shown us that they will always prioritise weapons over workers. They prioritise warfare — not in any of our names. They contribute to famine in a foreign land, as opposed to contributing to families here at home. We want to see a common voice coming from the Assembly, and we want to work together to mitigate those worst impacts and support the families and workers whom we all represent.”
“We watch as the British Government tell us, very proudly, that they are increasing their defence spending, year-on-year, and that they aim to spend 2·5% of GDP on defence by 2027. How disgusting is that? Today, we had DUP Member after DUP Member question a Minister who attempts to prevent public funding going towards the creation of Israeli genocidal war weapons —”
“We have also seen the cliff edge that has come about due to the replacement of the European social fund and the European regional development fund, which helped local groups and people who needed support to get into the workplace; the pressure that has been heaped upon working people by the threat of the inheritance tax on our farming families, which compounds the pressures that they are already under; and the planned rise to the pension age, which has seen the elderly and most vulnerable worrying about how they are going to fund the last years of their life. At the same time, there is always money to fund billionaires' interests; there is always money for capitalist projects. That is what we object to.”
“We see the impact of our having been pulled out of the EU and the loss of all the EU funding from which we were able to benefit previously, particularly in such areas as mine in Mid Ulster. There has been the loss of CAP funding, which supported working farmers and their families, and the rural development programme, which has had an impact on our local community groups and small communities across the North.”
“I am glad to hear a somewhat united voice in response to the motion that we tabled, because we want everyone to work together in support of the workers and families whom we all represent. As has been said by others throughout the debate, poverty is, indeed, a political choice. At the heart of my politics and the reason for my getting involved in political life is my rejection of the fact that we in the North are forever at the whim of whatever British Government are in office, and, as a result of their decisions, the people whom we represent often suffer. We call on the Minister to work with colleagues in order to mitigate the worst impacts of the latest British Government and the decisions that they make.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle.”
“Minister, will you provide an update on the new leadership team?”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht a freagra.”
“They do not want to hear another debate in this place on why the DUP did not get the Brexit that it wanted, which is due to its following the TUV and being afraid of that party in the polls. That is what this is about. We have to be realistic when we have conversations like this. We are here to govern and to work for all people across the North. I am really sorry that the British Government have let you down again, but that is where we are at.”
“Of course, we want to do anything that we can to aid those businesses to secure their recommendations on the easing of paperwork, bureaucracy and burdens. However, the proportion of businesses that are affected by that is the 100 respondents to the survey out of 130,000 businesses across the North. To present that in a way that suggests that it is a massive problem for the vast majority of our business sector is being disingenuous. It is not a massive problem. <BR /> <BR />The motion refers to Marks and Spencer. In bringing the motion to the Chamber, the Members have displayed just how out of touch they are at a time when most of our constituents are in a cost-of-living crisis, and some are relying on food banks. As we come towards Christmas, we have people across our communities who are in genuine hardship and face real difficulties.”
“I laughed at Mr O'Toole's comments, comparing the debate to a Bob Dylan record. Now, I would not insult Bob Dylan with that particular analogy, but I see the Member's point, and I have to agree with it. <BR /> <BR />The proposer's premise was that he did not want the debate to be a rehashing of the benefits or negatives of Brexit but that he wants to have a conversation about the part of it that he does not like. Look, we all make mistakes. You made a mistake, and we are where we are now. There are parts of it that you do not like. That is fair enough. However, we have to be realistic and pragmatic in how we deal with the problems that some businesses are encountering. People have referred to the FSB report. I sat through Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee and Economy Committee sessions where we dealt with that sector.”