Matthew O'Toole
South Belfast · Social Democratic and Labour Party · Northern Ireland
“I appreciate my colleague's giving way. Unfortunately, I was not here for all of the Minister's remarks — like her, I have been in the Chamber for a lot of today, so I had to pop out and attend to some other business. I presume that the Member will agree that these provisions could be more properly included in the Sentencing Bill.”
“Clearly, however, the regulatory and enforcement regime for all those watercourses and marine environments is way out of date ecologically and, indeed, economically.”
“We learned about the antics of Jeffrey Donaldson that were not criminal — so far — only after his conviction. Reporters have been able to go and find that information and people have been able to speak — felt able to speak — because Mr Donaldson has been sent to prison, convicted of appalling crimes, and is therefore less likely to seek r…”
“We are pleased, in broad terms, to support it at Second Stage. We welcome the move towards an approach to fisheries management that is ecosystem-based rather than narrowly species-based.”
“We were robust in opposing those who were not willing to deal with the nutrients action plan, for example, which should have been a core part of dealing with Lough Neagh. Of course, the farming industry needed to be engaged, and the Minister has been doing a lot of that work recently.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In just a few hours' time, the House will go into recess for more than two months. There are two outstanding and grave matters that the public in Northern Ireland want us to deal with, but we are walking away, so I want your advice on Standing Orders.”
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“Given that it looks as though — we do not yet know — our party will be the only one in opposition, I gently point out to you, Mr Speaker, that there are eight of us-uns and 80 of them-uns, so give us a fair crack of the whip when you are in the Chair. I repeat my congratulations, Mr Speaker. Notwithstanding the fact that we supported another candidate today, we are very pleased to see you in the Chair. We wish you well.”
“Although we did not vote for you, Mr Speaker, we are delighted to see you in the Chair. Many congratulations. It is now, after six or seven times of asking, an immense relief to all of us to finally elect a new Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Like Mr Blair, I have had, over the last few years, many political differences with you, the new Speaker, but there has always been an acknowledgement of your seriousness, your commitment to Northern Ireland and, indeed, your pragmatism when it comes to the issues that face us. I hope that you bring those same qualities to the Chair. <BR /> <BR />Might I say something, with a little special pleading, if you will permit me?”
“I say that notwithstanding the quality of the other candidates. We will not be supporting them; we will be supporting Patsy. However, whoever is elected to the Chair, we look forward to working with them positively.”
“He has been a Member of the Assembly for more than 21 years. He has done that role with diligence, commitment to cross-community politics and commitment to the kind of progressive, pro-reconciliation values that have always marked my party out. He would be the first fluent Gaeilgeoir to take a seat in the Speaker's Chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Given that we are now in a Chamber that, for the first time, can do simultaneous translation for Irish speakers and given that the Irish-speaking community is moving forward and expanding into new communities and new speakers in a way that we are all excited about, it would mark a really profound moment to elect Patsy, a fluent Gaeilgeoir, to the Chair.”
“I think that he and I were both slightly nonplussed by being there, but Alex, as always, stood up to the moment and did himself and his party proud. He has now been on the longest farewell tour since Springsteen, and I hope that he enjoys a retirement now that the tour is coming to an end. <BR /> <BR />This is now the sixth or seventh time that I have moved a nomination for Patsy McGlone, and I am proud to do so today. Notwithstanding the quality of the other candidates, I am sure — many others will agree with me — that Patsy McGlone is the most qualified candidate to be Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He is the most experienced Chair that we have. He has been an elected representative for more than 30 years, proudly serving the people of Mid Ulster in south Derry and east Tyrone.”
“Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. Before I get on to moving the nomination of my friend Patsy McGlone, let me first pay tribute to you. You are a very experienced retailer, and you have had to do quite a lot of minding the shop in this place over the past while. You have done it with good grace and competence. <BR /> <BR />As others have done, I would like to pay real, sincere tribute to Alex Maskey, the outgoing Speaker. Alex was a fine Speaker who had a brilliant record of acting with impartiality, robustness and fairness in the Chair. As others have said, as a republican, he made real progress in his outreach around cross-community work. Just last year, he and I had a somewhat surreal moment chatting to one another in Hillsborough Castle while we were waiting for the new King to arrive.”
“On behalf of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, I nominate Patsy McGlone for the office of Speaker.”
“The Member talks about power-sharing and the protocol and why the protocol is the barrier to power-sharing. Will he confirm that he opposed power-sharing and the Good Friday Agreement long before the protocol existed, before Brexit was a twinkle in his and other people's eyes?”
“— to rebuild trust in our public services and in our politics.”
“<BR /> <BR />I say this to the DUP: do not utter one word or one syllable of complaint when people start to talk about fundamental change in this place, whether it is ending tribal vetoes, a role for the Irish Government, if we cannot have devolution, or fundamental constitutional change. More immediately, let me say this to DUP colleagues, and I say it honestly and sincerely: you have a choice — Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has a choice — to start to do our job again, honour the people who elected us and treat decently the public servants who will stand in the cold tomorrow so that we can start finally — please, honestly —”
“Chris Heaton-Harris and the British Government could settle the pay dispute today — now — if they wanted. The fact that they will not and are using workers for crude political purpose is yet another damning indictment of the Tory Government. Who gave them that power? Who continues to give them that power? It is, I am afraid, the DUP. The Chamber and the institutions matter only to the extent that they serve the public. They serve no one at the minute, other than the narrow self-interest and self-obsession of a few hard-line, usually online, voices. Tomorrow, true public servants will stand in the cold. They deserve so much better.”
“By the way, I know what the demands of the workers who will be striking tomorrow are. I do not know what the demands of the DUP are, and I am happy to give way to anyone in the DUP who wants to give me a clear account of why its boycott continues and what it is waiting for. <BR /> <BR />On Monday, I spoke to a teaching union rep outside Hillsborough Castle. They told me about international schools, including some in the Middle East, where teachers' pay is much higher and taxes are much lower, specifically targeting new teaching graduates from Stranmillis University College and St Mary's University College with the blunt line that teachers in Northern Ireland are paid badly and treated terribly. It is not simply a question of fair pay: it is ultimately a question of the survival and sustainability of public services here.”
“They are the train and bus drivers who keep our economy and society moving and the teachers who educate our kids. Few of them do it for the money, but they have a basic right to expect to be paid a fair wage that allows them a decent quality of life, keeping pace with the cost of living. <BR /> <BR />Workers here have not just been let down; they have been used as pawns in a game to apply pressure to the DUP to end its boycott. Not only is that wrong but it demeans those workers and public servants. It demeans yet again their public service. Paperwork for some goods moving across the Irish Sea is, apparently, enough to create chaos in public services and governance here for years on end, but a widening sea border in basic pay for essential workers is, apparently, fine.”
“Let us talk for a moment about public service and public trust. Tomorrow, true public servants — up to 170,000 of them — will forgo a day's pay that they can ill afford in order to stand in freezing temperatures not for an exorbitant pay rise but for the modest deal that was already promised to them but not delivered. The SDLP stands with them today, and we will be out standing with them tomorrow. They are real public servants. Unlike some in the Chamber and elsewhere who stand for election, they take seriously the trust that is placed in them and the service that they perform. They are the nurses and other health professionals who save lives and provide the care that we all need at some point in our life and that all of us will need in the future.”
“What is our job, ultimately? It is supposed to be serving the public. As elected representatives, we ask the public, who elect us, to place their trust in us that we will argue for their interests and prioritise their needs. However, those concepts of public trust and service have been abused and damaged beyond recognition in this place and are possibly beyond repair.”
“<BR /> <BR />As I said, I think that this is now the seventh time in nearly two years that the Assembly has been recalled to attempt to elect a Speaker, nominate Ministers and allow us all to do our jobs. We all know why we have been prevented from doing so: the actions of one party.”
“Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, for once again stepping into the Chair. I add my and my party's condolences on the passing of David Hilditch, both to his family and his DUP party colleagues. I served on the Public Accounts Committee with David. He was a gentleman and a dedicated elected representative. <BR /> <BR />Today, for the sixth or seventh time, I stand to nominate Patsy McGlone for the role of Speaker. Let me say that, although we believe that Patsy is an eminently qualified candidate, so too is Mr Nesbitt, and, indeed, our priority is getting a Speaker elected. We will not be a barrier to the election of a Speaker, notwithstanding the nomination of the excellent Patsy McGlone.”
“For the sixth or seventh time now, I nominate Patsy McGlone MLA.”
“<BR /> <BR />I hope that both points of order will find some agreement across the Assembly.”
“On a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker. I hope that this is a genuine point of order. In the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2022, which recently received Royal Assent at Westminster and which delays an election and gives the power to cut MLAs' pay, there is specific reference to consultation between elected Members of the Assembly and the British Government about the operation of powers in this interim period. Is it in order for the Speaker's Office to give clarity to Members as to what exactly it understands that provision in the new legislation to mean? Further to that, is it be order for the Speaker's Office to write to the UK Government asking them to provide Members of this duly elected Assembly — it still exists; we are still MLAs — with an urgent update on the progress of discussions between the UK and EU?”
“The Member will have noted, like I did, the remarks of Mr Poots across the Chamber on double standards. Will he have seen, like I did, the reports of the correspondence that Mr Poots sent to the British Government while he was still Agriculture Minister saying that he wanted parts of the protocol to be retained for the benefit of farmers? Does the Member think that he should account for that double standard over the protocol that the DUP so bemoans today?”
“<BR /> <BR />This institution is about common endeavour, working together and serving the people who we asked for a vote from in May. I am afraid that, if we keep going down this road and bringing this place down in order to assert a tribal veto, all we do is fundamentally damage people's trust in the status quo, not just the constitutional status quo but the ability of democracy to deliver for people. That is an extraordinarily damaging and dangerous thing to do. Therefore, sincerely, genuinely and honestly, I say this to DUP colleagues across the Chamber, who I genuinely think, in their heart of hearts, do care about their constituents: you want power, you have got it; now, please, take responsibility.”
“This institution was created and founded on the basis of common endeavour: putting aside differences to work together for the common good. That is what I want to do. When bills arrive in the post or meters tick towards zero, they do not say unionist, nationalist or other on them. People are in cold homes. Those homes are not unionist, nationalist or other. Operating a tribal veto or trying to achieve a tribal victory is not a way to help people through this crisis. I appeal to the DUP, sincerely — even as I do that, I am getting sceptical looks and chuntering from DUP Members — genuinely and sincerely, this is not a game. This really is not a game, I am afraid, Mr Lyons. As a Minister, he promised people some months ago that they would have money. They do not have it, and they are in cold homes. This is not a game.”
“Well, when life gives you them-uns, chuck it back across the Chamber. People's cold homes and public services do not matter because them-uns did it — them-uns did it.”
“I gave way for precisely this reason, Mr Acting Speaker: so that the DUP representative could assert exactly that. It is tribal one-upmanship. It is always about that. It is always like the old saying from the movies, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."”
“I will happily give way, for the sake of debate, to Mr Buckley.”
“There will be debates about the precise chronology between 2017 and 2020, but that was wrong then. It was wrong for exactly the same reasons as what you are doing is wrong now, even though the circumstances are slightly different.”
“The tragedy is that the DUP is addicted to power but hates responsibility. The DUP wants the power to assert a tribal veto over progress in this place and of being able to say, "Unless this happens on our terms, it will not happen at all." They seek that power and assert that power, as they have done in the Chamber today. Multiple DUP Members have asked, "What about our mandate? What about the power that we got from the electorate?" However, they refuse to take responsibility for leading people and helping people in a cost-of-living emergency. It is absolutely disgraceful. They are always shirking and deflecting. It is always someone else's fault. I am sure that, later today, multiple DUP Members will say, "Well, for three years, Sinn Féin brought the Executive down".”
“With power has to come responsibility. When you seek power and when you seek election, you do so, hopefully, to make people's lives better. You take responsibility for leading them, for ensuring that they have proper governance, for ensuring that they have public services that work and for ensuring that, at a time of a cost-of-living emergency in which inflation is at double-digit levels and in which people — my constituents and everyone else's constituents, including the DUP's — are sitting in cold homes, those people can have a modicum of support.”
“Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, for once again taking the Chair as we seek — it looks like, once again, in vain — to elect a Speaker. I nominated Patsy McGlone. He has accepted that nomination although he is not here in person because of a prior commitment. <BR /> <BR />I have a five-year-old child, who I helped get packed up for school today. Like lots of other parents, we are using the fact that Christmas is approaching as a tool to help teach our children responsibility. When you are trying to teach responsibility, one of the key things is trying to get your child to take accountability and responsibility for their actions. Surely, people who should be willing to take responsibility and accountability for their actions more than anyone else are those of us who walk to people's doors and ask for power.”
“On a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker. Can you advise whether it is in order for Members who do not want the Assembly to sit and do not want Ministers to take office to list pressures on public services from a ministerial answer, when there is no way of those being dealt with because they refuse to allow this place to sit? Is that in order?”
“I want to serve the people of South Belfast and all of Northern Ireland. The SDLP wants to be a constructive Opposition to those who have been given the right to serve in government and ministerial office. However, if we are all forced simply to live amid the ruins of one party's destructive and self-destructive urges, our attention and that of others will turn inevitably to building something new and better for all the people of this place.”
“It would stretch the elastic of public confidence and public patience beyond breaking point. <BR /> <BR />Unionism used to say that it wanted nationalists to make Northern Ireland work. If only we were allowed. If only they would do the same. The DUP seems set on turning this place into an ungoverned and ungovernable mess. That is a tragedy for everyone who lives here, but it is a huge strategic error for unionism because the result would not be safe direct rule from London, which would be untenable and unacceptable, not least from this wholly discredited Tory Government; the result would be an inevitable increase in the number of people, including fairly moderates ones, who would ask whether the real way to make Northern Ireland work is to seek a new North in a new Ireland inside Europe. <BR /> <BR />I want the Assembly to sit.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is true to say that the Chamber does not have much influence on EU-UK relations and the protocol. If we were sitting in an Assembly and there was a functioning Executive, we might, at least, be able to try to find a common voice on what we want from our post-Brexit arrangements. People here are not just losing faith in politics and democracy; they are losing interest. What we are doing today is a farce, but it is also a tragedy. It is completely removed from the needs of real people who are suffering. To the Members opposite, I say this: your constituents are suffering, too. Another election would be a farce. It should not happen. An election to what? It would serve simply to polarise people and waste millions of pounds at a time when people are in need and public services are collapsing.”
“All that is compounded by the fact that we have the lowest disposable income in these islands and our healthcare crisis and the crises in various public services deepen by the day. <BR /> <BR />To say, as the party opposite has done, that devolved government can do little in these circumstances is as nihilistic as it is untrue. There may not be limitless resources to make everything better, but, without Ministers, things will unquestionably get worse. Budgets will not rise. Nurses and doctors will not be recruited. Plans will not be made. Investment will be stalled. The previous collapse in 2017 is sometimes cited as justification for this collapse. Let me be clear: that was wrong, too. It damaged our economy and harmed public services. Two wrongs do not make a right.”
“In May, we asked people to vote for us and our parties on the basis that we would come here to represent their interests and to try to make their lives better. Since then, the cost-of-living crisis has deepened and been intensified by the actions of the Conservative Government in pursuing kamikaze economic policies that are designed to make rich people richer but, in fact, make everyone poorer. Headline inflation is at a 40-year high. The cost of budget food items has risen by 17%. Energy costs have multiplied, as we all know. Gas and electricity bill payers here await reductions to their bills. People on pre-payment meters do not know when they will get support. For home heating oil users, which is most people in Northern Ireland, all that they have is the vague promise of a paltry £100.”
“I am ashamed of this place because, unlike others in the Chamber, I am capable of shame.”
“First of all, in nominating Patsy McGlone, I welcome the passage of the culture and language Bill at Westminster. Patsy would be a fine Speaker, and, as the most fluent Gaeilgeoir in the Chamber, he would be the perfect person in this era. <BR /> <BR />In July, we met to pay tribute to David Trimble, one of the key builders of the institutions. At the time, I said that many of us had lost the ability or the willingness to build things and that some of us simply wanted to tear things down. Three months on, and, sadly, that has not changed. While the Assembly has sat mothballed and silent, people's homes have got colder, their trust in politics has fallen even further, and their lives have got harder. My party is not responsible for that mess, but I am ashamed by it.”
“I nominate Patsy McGlone to be Speaker of the Assembly.”
“On a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker. I note that both Questions on the election of a Speaker have fallen. I also note that DUP Ministers on the Front Bench and some of their colleagues were quick to give explanations for and defences of decisions that they have or have not made in office. Will the Speaker's Office consider what steps can be taken to offer MLAs in the Chamber the opportunity to hold serving caretaker Ministers to account for decisions that are being made? As it stands, there is no further sitting day in the Business Diary and, therefore, no opportunity for anybody to ask Assembly questions. I ask that the Speaker's Office look at that so that we can have further detail on how Members can hold caretaker Ministers to account. It is clear that some of the caretaker Ministers are happy to give answers when they are pressed.”
“You have the opportunity to speak afterwards. Three months after the election, we, the SDLP and others, want to do our jobs. We are a constructive Opposition who want to get back to this place and do our jobs.”
“It is interesting that the Member wants to debate. If he wants to debate properly, allow us to appoint a Speaker and debate properly. Otherwise, he can make remarks after I have finished. <BR /> <BR />It is a preposterous position to seek a vote from people and then, for three months, in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in most people's lifetimes, sit on your hands while money goes unspent. It is unacceptable and unconscionable. They do not have a good explanation for it. As the protocol Bill passes through Parliament, which, they said, hinted and implied, might lead us to at least appoint a Speaker so that we could hold to account caretaker Ministers, like the Economy, Agriculture and Education Ministers, who take decisions at the minute without any accountability. However, they will not do that. Three months on —”
“I will not give way to his party because —.”
“I will not give way, because your colleague did not give way to me and I need to make some progress. I am afraid that I have very little time in the Chamber because your party will not allow us to do our jobs. <BR /> <BR />According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a UK economic forecaster, the protocol is one of the reasons why Northern Ireland is outperforming the rest of the UK economically. The Economy Minister shakes his head at me. He will know, because his officials can tell him, that the protocol is a benefit to our exporters rather than a hindrance. Are there issues around —”
“Is the Education Minister, who apparently will cut teachers' pay if they go on strike, unwilling to get back into government and spend money to help families with the cost of school uniforms? Is that seriously the position that the DUP are taking? If it is, it is frankly unconscionable. They talk about the protocol, and I have talked about the protocol Bill. The protocol was no one's first choice in the Chamber or anywhere in Northern Ireland, but it was necessary because of the hard Brexit. The hard Brexit that the Tories pushed through with the support and cheerleading of the Democratic Unionist Party”
“We know that there are projections out there that energy costs for families could be £500 a month — £500 a month — which is unprecedented in the lifetimes of many people not just in the Chamber but across Northern Ireland. Is the DUP seriously saying that we do not need a Government, that hundreds of millions of pounds can sit unspent at Stormont and that people can go without support while the cost-of-living crisis bites? That is frankly unconscionable.”
“How long do they have to wait, struggling to put food on the table and to afford the cost of school uniforms and apprehensive about the winter? The DUP said that the protocol Bill's passage would lead to a graduated response. It has passed the Commons. What now? Explain to us. Are we to wait, as Mr Kingston said, for the verdict of Tory Party members in order to get a Government in Northern Ireland, a vote for the leader of the Conservative Party in which, I think I am right in saying, less than 0·03% of the population of this place has a vote? What a preposterous position to be in. <BR /> <BR />The cost-of-living-crisis has got worse since the last time we met. Inflation is nearly in double digits. It is at 9·4% in the UK.”
“There are three specific reasons why the SDLP recalled the Assembly today, and I am grateful that we had the support of Sinn Féin and the Alliance Party for that. The DUP said that it would veto the operation of our institutions until it had progress on the protocol. The protocol Bill, which we object to and which a majority of the parties in the Assembly and, indeed, it appears from all available evidence, most people in Northern Ireland object to, has progressed through the House of Commons. Jeffrey Donaldson told us that the party would take a graduated response to the passage of that Bill. Well, it has passed the House of Commons, I am afraid to say. What now? How long do people in Northern Ireland have to wait?”
“Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, for taking the Chair again today in these unusual circumstances: third time lucky or not, as the case may be. The DUP appears again to be set on blocking the outcome of the election from taking hold and a Government from being formed. Today, I am proud to once again nominate Patsy McGlone — clearly and demonstrably the most able and qualified candidate — to be Speaker. <BR /> <BR />Three months ago, we all sought election to this place. Why did we seek election? We sought election on the basis of putting in place policies to make better the lives of the people we serve. Today, the leader of the DUP, Jeffrey Donaldson, accused the SDLP of stunt politics. His message was reinforced today by Mr Kingston from North Belfast.”
“I nominate Mr Patsy McGlone MLA for the post of Speaker.”