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“Clearly, however, the regulatory and enforcement regime for all those watercourses and marine environments is way out of date ecologically and, indeed, economically.”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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“No. Consent, apparently, means simply the consent of the DUP. Shameful. Utterly shameful. <BR /> <BR />I hope that, when you leave the Chamber today, having again blocked us from appointing a Speaker, you will hold your heads in shame. People are struggling to heat their homes, struggling to feed their families and worried about their parents or other family members who are on a waiting list. I hope that you can hold your heads high when you face them, because I could not.”
“Do you acknowledge that my party and other parties in the Chamber have an equal objection to Brexit itself?”
“It was not negotiated by the people of Northern Ireland and it was not negotiated by MLAs. Mr Givan mentioned the role of MLAs, but the number of MLAs who support the protocol went up at the last election. The DUP has decided that the people who will be made to pay for its arrogance and intransigence are the people of Northern Ireland. Those are people who cannot heat their homes and whose family members are stuck on waiting lists. It is, as we have discussed, truly appalling. <BR /> <BR />I do not know what else to say about the behaviour of the DUP, but I will say this: you talk about consent. You talk about the failure of the unionist community and the people who elected you to offer consent for the protocol. I acknowledge that your party does not like the protocol.”
“The thing that we should be doing here today is electing, first of all, a Speaker, and then First Ministers, to deal with an appalling cost-of-living crisis and deal with a health service crisis that sees nearly a third of our population — a third of our population — on a waiting list. <BR /> <BR />In relation to the cost-of-living crisis, the SDLP has a Bill ready. We tried to move emergency legislation before the Assembly dissolved for the election, and we will try to move it again should a Speaker be elected, but, in all probability, the party opposite will not let us do that. Why, why, why is the DUP holding the people of Northern Ireland hostage? Why? It says that it is all about the protocol. The protocol is an international treaty signed by the UK and the European Union.”
“We went out and knocked on hundreds and thousands of doors in our constituency and asked people for their vote: a precious, precious thing. Politics is not about politicians. It is not about those of us who stand up and make speeches in the Chamber and seek office; it is about the people whom we serve. That is what a democracy is supposed to be about. <BR /> <BR />To be honest, I do not know how the party opposite can face the people whom it asked for a vote. I do not know how it can face them. Blocking us from even electing a Speaker in order to have debates and to hold shadow Ministers to account is genuinely abhorrent. To breach the trust of people from whom you have sought a vote is unconscionable.”
“He is a former general secretary of the SDLP, and he has been Deputy Speaker of the Assembly since 2016. He is a committed parliamentarian, a sure hand and a fair mind and someone who would be ideal to lead this institution. We nominate him today, and we will keep nominating him until certain parties in the Chamber come to their senses and allow us to get back and to do our jobs. <BR /> <BR />We know in all probability that, today, the DUP will not let us elect a Speaker. Today is another opportunity to elect, first of all, a Speaker and then First and deputy First Ministers to enable the people who were returned here by the electorate, just a few weeks ago, to come in and do their jobs. <BR /> <BR />I want to pause for a minute and reflect on the democratic act that everyone in this room participated in a few weeks ago.”
“Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. As I said before, I hope that you do not have to spend too long in that Chair, but thank you for standing in today to oversee proceedings, such as they are. <BR /> <BR />A couple of weeks ago, when we met, I proudly nominated Patsy McGlone MLA to be Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Today, I nominate Patsy again. I hope, but I do not expect, that our party and the Assembly will be successful today in nominating Patsy for the role. <BR /> <BR />In our view, he is the outstanding candidate to be Speaker of the Assembly. For more than three decades in politics, he has shown his commitment to cross-community politics, to delivery for people and to serving the people of Mid Ulster and across this region. He has been in the Assembly since 2003.”
“Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, and thank you for stepping in in these circumstances to keep us right. I nominate Mr Patsy McGlone MLA to be the next Speaker of the Assembly <BR />.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to make a very brief point of order. I want to put on the record again, on behalf of all the people of Northern Ireland, my deep frustration and disappointment that we are not forming a Government today. <BR /> <BR />Mr Speaker, I ask for your advice on two matters. First, in the absence of even a shadow caretaker Assembly, are MLAs able to ask caretaker Ministers, including many Members on the DUP Benches, who still hold ministerial office, questions for written answer? Is that in order? Can those questions be submitted? Secondly, as my party qualifies to be in opposition, what consideration will be given to allowing parties that qualify for opposition to organise themselves into an Opposition to challenge the caretaker Ministers and hold them to account?”
“Many of them simply want to live in a society that is at peace with itself and with a functioning Government delivering on their needs. If the DUP seeks the constitutional status quo, as, it says, it does, I say to it, "Why are you so determined to make the status quo so unappealing?". <BR /> <BR />When we finally have a functioning Assembly, I hope to nominate again the outstanding candidate for the job, Mr Patsy McGlone MLA, when the DUP decides to finally stop holding the people of Northern Ireland to ransom.”
“I would like to ask the leader of the DUP — a man who sought election to this place but now has not taken his seat — but I cannot. <BR /> <BR />In stifling not just the creation of an Executive but even the appointment of a Speaker to allow us to have basic debates and hold caretaker Ministers to account, the DUP has demeaned the entire democratic process. Shame on them. I say this to the DUP: "Do not blame the protocol. Do not blame the EU, the Irish Government or Remain-supporting parties. This is your doing and your responsibility". <BR /> <BR />I designated today as a social democrat and a nationalist, because my party has always been more than just a constitutional party. There are many people whose view on the constitution has evolved.”
“A woman in Carryduff who described herself to me as a small "u" unionist told me that she would not vote because the DUP in particular had destroyed her trust. She also told me the story of her 90-year-old mother who had waited for hours in an ambulance. I urged her, if she wanted something done about it, to please take the time to vote for people who wanted to do something about the state of the health service. Like others in the Chamber, I am sure, when people tell me that they are not going to vote, I always take the time to convince them to cast that vote. That woman is now not just a voter but my constituent. What do I tell her about the shameful spectacle that the DUP is inflicting on her and all of us today?”
“In a sense, however, all of my words today are largely in vain because the DUP, a party that has the word "Democratic" in its name, has decided to thwart democracy today. Not only is it thwarting democracy; it is demeaning democracy. It is demeaning the entire process that all of us have spent the past six weeks engaging in — all of us who knocked on a door, went to a hustings and made our case to our constituents. <BR /> <BR />During the six weeks of campaigning, I had countless people from all backgrounds telling me that they were considering not voting. They had become so alienated from politics here and were so tired of gridlock and dysfunction that they simply did not want to hear about politics or the democratic process.”
“Over the past three decades, he has embodied social democratic politics and constitutional Irish nationalism but also, critically, cross-community politics. He is a fluent Gaeilgeoir, he has been a Member of the Assembly for nearly 20 years and he is a former Chair of Cookstown council.”
“As well as overseeing the Chamber, including the Executive and private Members' business, the Speaker acts as a representative for the whole institution in all our diversity. We believe that Patsy is uniquely qualified to act as our Speaker at this moment. I have lots in my speech about why Patsy is qualified, and everyone in the Chamber and everyone who has served with Patsy knows how qualified he is.”
“First of all, on behalf of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, I welcome all newly elected MLAs to the Chamber. I also thank you, Mr Speaker, for your work over the past two and a half years. I hope that you are able to finish it soon, because you worked hard for all of us over the past two and a half years and deserve your retirement. The choice for us today is whether we allow you to retire and elect a successor. <BR /> <BR />There is nothing more profound in public life than being entrusted with the responsibility of service by the electorate. My first act in the new Assembly is to proudly nominate our colleague and friend Patsy McGlone for the role of Speaker. The role of Speaker is one of enormous importance to the functioning of the Assembly.”
“I propose Patsy McGlone MLA to be Speaker.”
“<BR /> <BR />I want people out there who are concerned about the epidemic of domestic abuse that Women's Aid and other organisations have been reporting to know that the Assembly is today doing what it can to make things better for people in that appalling situation. I am proud to have served on the Committee that scrutinised the Bill. I am proud that we will pass the legislation today. In a cross-party way, I again say, "Well done" to Rachel Woods on introducing the Bill. You should be extremely proud. It is a positive step forward. I am pleased to support it.”
“The commencement is not just realistic but generous, in a responsible way, to the Department, giving it the space to draft the regulations and make them workable. It cannot be said by anyone who might be looking at this that the legislation is happening quickly in order to impose a burden on business. First, it is no burden to give your worker safe leave in such appalling circumstances. The rights of the worker to have leave outweigh any concern on the other side. For any business that thinks that it is happening quickly, I say this: it is not happening quickly. We are passing the legislation so that it is on the statute book, but, as I said, there will be a period in which the Department will have space to make the regulations and get them right.”
“The truth is that one reason that we will be able to pass the Bill in pretty quick time is that the Bill sponsor and her researcher brought to us robust and mature legislation that was ambitious in its provisions and realistic about how those provisions would be met. I think that one of the first lines of the Bill states that the Department must make regulations to provide for paid leave in these circumstances. Credit to the Minister and his officials for engaging on the Bill productively, as did the Committee in its scrutiny. We gave it pretty rigorous scrutiny, albeit in an abbreviated time. The Bill sponsor worked with the Department to ensure that the Bill was workable from its perspective.”
“To go back to my earlier remarks, it is also true to say that we are offering an antidote to the idea that this place cannot change. As we all put ourselves forward for election, given how bad the reputation of this institution has been at times, not just for party political reasons but because of people's lack of trust that we can make laws and deliver things that make their lives better, legislation like this will be part of being able to prove to people on the doorsteps that we can. Of course, I do not want Miss Woods to think that I will steal her thunder. I will happily give her credit for the legislation, but we all need to cast our vote in favour of it. <BR /> <BR />The Assembly will be a world leader when the Bill is passed, because not too many jurisdictions — Australia is one example — have passed such legislation.”
“People in those extremely difficult circumstances need to understand that they will not be relying just on the goodwill of their employer — I certainly hope that most employers in Northern Ireland are decent and ethical; the vast majority, of course, are and would be understanding and supportive, should their employee find themselves in such a situation — and that, today, we are putting that right in statute and guaranteeing that someone who finds themselves in that appalling situation will be guaranteed at least 10 days of paid leave.”
“As politicians and people in society here, we all live with the pernicious sense that this society cannot get better, that things cannot be improved and that progress cannot be achieved. However, with the previous Bill, this Bill and other legislation that will come later, including the Bill from Rachel Woods's party colleague, we are today proving that people in this place can have the courage, the will and the intelligence to pass progressive legislation that will make things better for people here. <BR /> <BR />The Bill is not only progressive and ethical but timely. It is timely because we know that, tragically, there has been an increase in domestic abuse over the past two years in the context of the pandemic. We know that, at times and in a certain context, there is an epidemic of domestic abuse.”
“I am delighted to again speak at the Final Stage of a progressive piece of legislation that will make people's lives better. It is worth saying, of course, that the people who need to make use of the legislation that we are passing today are in difficult circumstances. As the previous Member said, this is, in a sense, legislation that you never want to be used. The truth is, however, that this is why most legislation in relation to protection for workers and individuals has to be passed: for the eventuality that people find themselves in difficult circumstances. That was also the case with the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act that passed earlier this year. <BR /> <BR />I commend the Bill sponsor, Rachel Woods, in the strongest possible terms for introducing the Bill.”
“The Alliance Party Education Committee Chair, who will be a huge loss to the Assembly, helped to shepherd the Bill through when he had his own private Member's legislation and other private Members' legislation to scrutinise, so credit must go to him today as well and to some Members from other parties. The DUP and the UUP have both spoken in support of the Bill today. <BR /> <BR />The Bill is a hugely positive step forward. I am genuinely delighted. I think that most of us will have a smile on our face when the Bill passes because we are proving that this place can do important things for people when we put our minds to it. I am so proud of my friend, the indefatigable and amazing Pat Catney, and I am proud of the Assembly for passing the legislation today.”
“We are more than just colleagues; we have become very good friends. To say that Pat has a big heart would be a crude understatement: Pat Catney is a giant of a man with a big heart. He wanted to use his mandate to do something positive for people, and this is positive for all women and girls and those who menstruate. The legislation is testament to what good people can do when they come here. <BR /> <BR />It is also worth acknowledging and celebrating the fact that the Bill will be passed by parties from across the House and that a Sinn Féin Minister will implement it. That is important to acknowledge.”
“<BR /> <BR />Often, in this place, people think that positive things cannot happen. Positive, progressive things are for someone else; they are for another place. We are proving with this legislation and with other legislation that will go through today and has gone through in recent days that that is not true. This can be a place where progressive change happens, and we do not have to wait for other people to do it for us. We will now be, I think, the second place to introduce ambitious period poverty legislation. We have been able to do that because people with a big heart and generosity who were determined to use their mandate to improve the lives of people came here and did that. That is what Pat Catney is. Over the past couple of years, I have got to know Pat fairly well.”
“<BR /> <BR />It is important to acknowledge some of the extraordinary campaign groups that have put pressure on us as legislators and on legislators in other places to remove the stigma around menstruation, to use our power as legislators to do what we can to make access to period products universal and routine and, hopefully, to do something else, which is to start making it much more normal for all of us to talk about issues like menstruation that, for too long, have been shrouded in euphemism and awkwardness. Too often, that has caused not just discomfort for women but shame, embarrassment and a huge range of other difficulties. Those campaign groups — EqualityPeriod, Homeless Period Belfast, the Red Box Project and a huge number of others — deserve so much credit for moving the issue forward.”
“A few SDLP Members have spoken today, as people will have noticed, but so have Members from across the House, which is testament to how important and popular the Bill is. The Bill sponsor is also popular, and he is popular for good reason. His party colleagues and Members from across the House are proud of him for a reason: the Bill is a hugely positive step forward. It will pass today, which is wonderful.”
“They are fundamentally different, and the average punter in the street would recognise that they are fundamentally different. There is, of course, a range of areas of civil and commercial law where it is very unlikely that the matters will ever get near a jury. The reform is not unprecedented. <BR /> <BR />In closing, I am very pleased that the Bill will pass into law. Of the things that I have done over the past couple of years as a legislator in the Assembly, my work on this Bill has been really important. Mr Nesbitt can be proud of the Bill and I very much hope that it secures safe passage.”
“That is perhaps the most chilling bit of all. I was made aware of a conversation between an editor and a journalist after which an important piece of reporting did not happen because of caution that was, frankly, not unrelated to the defamation law regime that we have in this place. We are doing something today to make that a little bit more manageable so that the balance is weighted in favour of freedom of expression and a free media. Given the issues that we know that our defamation law regime has created in this place for those areas, that is a positive step forward. <BR /> <BR />As I said, the Bill does not totally remove the right to jury trial for defamation law cases. It makes the threshold higher. It is important that we do not conflate jury trials in this matter with jury trials in criminal matters.”
“Creating a higher threshold for jury trial in defamation proceedings has been talked about, including by Dr Scott and Mark Hanna, as being particularly critical to removing the baleful impact that our current defamation law regime has on the free press and freedom of expression. <BR /> <BR />It is important to make again another point that I have repeatedly made in the debates on the Bill. Something that has come out as we have debated the Bill is how much we do not and cannot know, because the overwhelming amount of our defamation law has been in the common law and a huge amount of custom and practice in how defamation law operates is about conversations that happen before writs are issued. Those conversations happen between libel lawyers and legal departments, or, even before we get to that stage, between editors and journalists.”
“I very much echo Mr Nesbitt's call for the review to look at what happens in the South of Ireland, because, as in many other areas, there is both an east-west and a North/South component to defamation law. We are a media market that consumes content from across the water and from across the border, as it were, so we need to ensure that our defamation law interacts properly with that. Another area that has been mentioned is strategic lawsuits against public participation. That is really important. We now have the review clause, and that has answered some of the concerns on that. <BR /> <BR />I would rather that the serious harm test had not come out. It has, but there are still many positive things, such as putting truth and honest opinion defences in statute.”
“The BBC said that Northern Ireland's defamation law regime has a chilling impact on its reporting or that it is an area in which it is particularly aware of the risks to its reporting. <BR /> <BR />It was vital that we did something. The argument has been made that the Bill was a rushed job. Mr Nesbitt spoke previously and again today about how it took nearly a decade to get to this Final Stage, so that argument simply does not stand up. Indeed, the idea that we might be legislating in haste is answered in part by the review clause that is now in the Bill, which will allow the Assembly — we can assume and hope that people come back here to do their jobs after the election — and the Finance Department to review how it is working.”
“Those organisations ranged from the small local weekly titles, selling a few thousand copies in rural areas of the region, to the BBC, which is one of the biggest journalism organisations in the world. A senior news executive from the BBC who gave evidence to the Finance Committee on the Defamation Bill was clear that Northern Ireland is a particular area of concern and that the law has a chilling effect on BBC reporting. That is not just on the reporting of a small weekly newspaper, although that is important too, because those newspapers hold to account all of us in the Chamber and in courtrooms and council chambers and, indeed, those local businesses that are engaging in sharp practices, but on what is, by some measures, the largest media organisation in the world.”
“Once the Defamation Act 2013 went through in England and Wales and there were reforms in the Republic and in Scotland, it was fairly clear that we had become an outlier, frankly, in that we had a defamation law regime that relied almost exclusively on the common law and on interpretations of the common law that, according to an overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence, academic testimony and industry experience — this is a critical part — had come to have a chilling effect on the operation of a free media in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />This is the important point when we come to discuss these matters: virtually every media organisation that I have spoken to — our all-party group took evidence from some last year on the state of local media and areas for reform — talked about the effect of Northern Ireland's defamation law regime.”
“I start by declaring an interest as the chair of the all-party group on press freedom and media sustainability, which has done some work in this mandate, although not as much in recent months as we would have liked. Hopefully, it will be re-established in the new mandate. <BR /> <BR />I am pleased that the Defamation Bill has moved to Final Stage, and I sincerely and wholeheartedly commend and congratulate my colleague on the all-party group Mike Nesbitt, who has championed this for a decade. The Bill is testament to his consistency and to his dedication to bring about reform in this area. It has been clear for a number of years that Northern Ireland's defamation regime was not fit for purpose, and, basically, that was the finding of Dr Scott's review.”
“On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. During Question Time, the Minister asked for an apology from me for something. I am not sure what it was for, but I put on record my delight at hearing that he has no objections to Invest NI's selling Northern Ireland's unique dual market access at the crossroads of the UK and EU market of half a billion people. I look forward, should the Minister still be in post in the new mandate, to his beating that drum and helping us to sell that benefit.”
“Minister, most tourists who come to Northern Ireland from overseas do so via the South of Ireland. Dublin Airport is the biggest point of entry into Northern Ireland. With that in mind, did your Department respond to the all-island strategic rail review in order to explore how rebuilding the rail network, which has, unfortunately, been devastated over the past century on this island — we have only one cross-border rail link — could contribute to growing tourism in Northern Ireland?”
“Thank you, Minister, for that update. In the last hour, we have learned from Irish Government Ministers that more than 10,000 Ukrainian refugees are already on the island of Ireland. Given some of the lurid comments on the soft border on the island of Ireland, which we all treasure or which most of us do, is the Minister alive to the risk from Priti Patel's Home Office that there could be a move towards trying to impose some kind of hard border for Ukrainian refugees? Given the challenges that, we know, people of colour face on both sides of the border, frankly, with immigration rules and officials, is the Minister alive to that risk? Will she engage with the Home Office to ensure that that does not happen?”
“I thank the Chair for giving way. If we accept that the Comptroller and Auditor General looked at the disciplinary processes and said that they were followed properly, given what the Chair has just said correctly about the public expectations and the statements that have been made about the seriousness of the issues, does the Member agree that the lack of disciplinary proceedings puts an even greater emphasis on proving to the public that a broader reform programme is being delivered?”
“I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I agree with a lot of what he says. There are clearly big issues in the Department for the Economy, and I see those issues because I sit on the Economy Committee. <BR /> <BR />Will the Minister agree that there is, as yet, a lack of clarity around broad Civil Service reform? I do not want to call it a dispute, but there seems to be a complication between Finance and the head of the Civil Service over who is responsible for delivering the big programme of Civil Service reform. Does he agree that that might be an issue? Does he have any views on how it might be resolved?”
“I will draw my remarks to a close. Five minutes is nowhere near long enough to reflect on the depth of the crisis of confidence that we face in our Civil Service. Those in the new mandate will have to come up with a broad-based plan to deal with that. It goes much broader than simply the findings of the RHI inquiry; it goes right to the heart of how we deliver public services and provide government for people here.”
“<BR /> <BR />Even after the RHI programme, we had the scandal of being unable to appoint a head of the Civil Service, and then we appointed one in a slightly strange way through the Strategic Investment Board. Now we finally have a new head of the Civil Service.”
“<BR /> <BR />Our Civil Service has done a remarkable job in many ways over the last couple of years in dealing with the pandemic, but there are fundamental structural issues about how it works. We cannot turn our face from those issues. We cannot pretend that they do not exist. Too often, the service is hermetically sealed. As well as yesterday's report on the update on RHI implementation, the report on capacity and capability, which came out from the Northern Ireland Audit Office, was, frankly, damning, not only on capacity and capability but on age profile. More than 80% of our senior civil servants are over the age of 50, so we face a succession crisis. That is why party has published a plan — the Make Change Programme — to deal with that.”
“<BR /> <BR />I want to talk in brief about one of the things that I have been harping on about over the past two years: Civil Service reform. There was a line in 'New Decade, New Approach' that called for a programme of Civil Service reform. We barely know what that means. When I have repeatedly asked the Department of Finance — both civil servants and at ministerial level — what that means, I have got a diffuse set of answers. At the Finance Committee not so long ago, we had the then acting permanent secretary of the Department of Finance. I asked who was the senior responsible owner for the programme of Civil Service reform, and what I got back was, frankly, a sort of verbal organigram that may have made sense organisationally but made no sense there. Therefore, it is impossible to reassure the public that the service is being improved.”
“Where the disciplinary process is concerned, as has been said, just one member of staff was formally disciplined over a scheme that put at risk half a billion pounds of public money and was a generationally enormous scandal — just one person. I do not want to dwell on the disciplinary side of things for a number of reasons, but it is worth acknowledging that, in a situation where you are disciplining or giving a written warning to only one person, that puts the emphasis on the broader reform piece, so that the Civil Service and government here more broadly can illustrate to the public the significant actions being taken to radically improve the way that business is done. I am afraid that we simply have not achieved that.”
“It is perhaps understandable that there has not been the political focus on dealing with RHI that there might otherwise have been. <BR /> <BR />What has happened? There have been multiple statements from the Finance Minister. There was a commitment in 'New Decade, New Approach' (NDNA) to broadly implement what Sir Patrick Coghlin came back with. A working group was set up in the Civil Service, and some of the 44 recommendations were delivered — in reality, less than half. As the Northern Ireland Audit Office said yesterday, only 18 of the 44 recommendations have been implemented in full, so that is significantly less than half of them.”
“<BR /> <BR />If a constituent were to ask me whether I thought, in my role on the Finance Committee or as an MLA generally, that the issues raised in the RHI scandal had been dealt with effectively, could I honestly tell them that that was the case? The answer is, "No, I could not". Therefore, today's motion is important, but it is equally important that, in the new mandate, we are focused on the issues that were raised by the RHI inquiry. <BR /> <BR />It would be impossible to go through those issues in detail. I have only two of the volumes here, almost as a prop to remind people how big and substantive they are. Sir Patrick Coghlin delivered that report upstairs in the Long Gallery just as the COVID pandemic was biting and days before we introduced a general lockdown in Northern Ireland.”
“I do not have long to speak. We have only five minutes each, but this is an extremely important debate. I am glad that it is happening at the end of the mandate. As the Chair of the Finance Committee said, it is a very appropriate bookend to the mandate. The only reason why the institutions fell for three years and the reason why there was an election in March 2017 was, initially at least, the RHI scandal. <BR /> <BR />The RHI scandal was about poor governance. It was about poor decision making at political and Civil Service levels. It was about a poorly executed and implemented scheme that, at times, bordered on corruption. However, more often than not, it was actually about poor governance and poor project management.”