Kate Nicholl
South Belfast · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for her humanity and her leadership. Many of the asylum seekers with whom I work do not fit into the illegal immigrant narrative; indeed, one woman with whom I worked was sold as a Daesh bride and was prostituted every day for two years, with her child often present.”
“It is a local number, and it has a chat function that people can use if they do not feel comfortable speaking directly. There is also an amazing charity called the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC).”
“On behalf of the Alliance Party, I recognise the extraordinary and remarkable bravery and courage of the two victims. Yesterday's verdict will not undo the harm that was done to them, but, hopefully, it sends a clear recognition that what happened was wrong and that Jeffrey Donaldson will feel the full weight of the law.”
“I thank the Member for that answer. Recently, we held the national allergy strategy launch in the Long Gallery. I thank the catering team, led by Alan, for how well they dealt with that.”
“They have done so much for so many people in Northern Ireland, and we wish them well. They have gone through a difficult period. We hope that there is healing from this as they go forward.”
“The comments were violent and at a different level from anything that I have seen before. <BR /> <BR />We are in a difficult place right now. This destabilises our democracy. It is easy to believe lies when you are angry, and I am not sure what we do about it.”
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“Members of the voluntary and community sector have fed back to me that they still feel that the situation is similar to last year. It strikes me that there is a lack of confidence in the sector and, in particular, among parents trying to ensure that their children will be placed. There is an inequality, in that children in mainstream schools are placed in April; those with SEN are not.”
“I thank the Minister for his response. I appreciate that there are budgetary constraints. In the work that has been done, is there an intention to address the existing inequalities for distance learners and part-time learners?”
“<BR /> <BR />Congratulations to Luke. I wish him all the best for the performance of his play.”
“<BR /> <BR />Last night, I was at the launch of the Seamus Heaney Centre — I think that you were there too, Mr Speaker — and I was struck by how that new building, which is a tribute to one of Ireland's greatest poets, will not only be a place of learning but inspire the next generation of creatives. On Wednesday, it will have Fighting Words NI, a young creative writing programme. Children from Botanic Primary School will go to the Seamus Heaney Centre and learn about creative writing. It will inspire the next generation. As I was thinking about Luke, Seamus Heaney, Kelly McCaughrain and all the amazing writers in our city, it made me think of how important it is that we have strategic, long-term arts funding. Given that we have been able to produce such talent, imagine what more could be achieved if that funding were in place.”
“Luke Fields is an Aquinas student. He is also a playwright. In the past few months, Luke and a number of students across the UK entered a playwrighting competition, and, out of the 500 entries, Luke was successful. He is a former Youth Lyric pupil and has achieved enormous success. He will go to the National Theatre, where his play will be directed by an in-house director and performed by actors on stage. This is an amazing achievement for Luke — it is also testament to the young, creative talent in south Belfast — and I am incredibly proud of him.”
“Thank you, Minister. It is really heartening to hear your plans to address that. What additional legislation or resources will be needed to carry out that work?”
“What steps are being taken on the safety of drinking water?”
“What impact is the rising population having in prisons?”
“Thank you, Minister. When I receive casework queries from constituents in Carryduff, the number-one issue that is raised is when the Lidl will open, and the second one is whether the Glider scheme will be extended to serve Carryduff. Are you able to answer that question and commit to the Glider service extending to Carryduff?”
“Does the Member agree that it is important to introduce as many Bills as possible before the summer in order to allow time for consultation and to be ready for scrutiny by Committees in the autumn?”
“Thank you, Minister, for your answer. If you are to engage with officials, I urge you to engage with people who are campaigning about bowel cancer. They are the ones with the expertise, not me, and they will be happy to brief you further.”
“Thank you, deputy First Minister. What reassurances can you and your office give to people who are living in fear that the racial equality strategy will be robust, co-designed, co-delivered and brought to the House soon?”
“I thank the deputy First Minister for her answer. Does she agree that Northern Ireland is now a more diverse society and therefore the good relations fund could widen to include newcomer communities, while acknowledging that lots of brilliant work is being done by the voluntary and community sector, which cannot avail itself of that funding because it is so oversubscribed?”
“Thank you, Minister, for that very comprehensive answer. I know that you are very invested in the issue. As part of the wider childcare strategy, is the Minister considering the introduction of any support through the rates system to support early years and childcare settings?”
“Constituents have raised baby loss certificates with me on a number of occasions. Given that the issue is a legislative priority, has the Minister set aside a budget allocation for baby loss certificates?”
“I welcome that clarification. It is important when we are having these conversations that we understand not only how people are impacted on by the way society is at the moment but how we can put legislation in place that will support them. <BR /> <BR />I am grateful for the motion. I hope that Members support our practical amendment. I hope that when we are discussing these issues, and when we see examples of hate crime in our constituencies, we are all better at calling them out and contacting the people who are victims of those hate crimes and offering our support. I know that it means so much to them, and they are very conscious that, a lot of the time, they feel that they are on their own.”
“As legislators, we need to look at the legislation and take our time to do it properly, but we also need to look at how we lead and what we do in our constituencies. There was talk about virtue signalling. This motion is not virtue signalling. This is a motion about how we can support people who are victims of hate crime, but we also need to address our own position and what we are doing to counter that.”
“I agree, but I was not talking about bad legislation. The reality of the situation is that we did not have an Assembly for the past couple of years. We have not been able to progress really important legislation, and our time in this mandate is truncated. Of course, this will take longer, but I welcome the Minister's commitment. I know how committed she is to it. It has been a priority for her, and she will engage properly on this and make sure that the legislation that is put in place is sound and that it helps people, and it will be consulted on. Judge Desmond Marrinan did brilliant work on this. <BR /> <BR />There is a lot of work that we need to do. The reality is that hate crimes exist in our society, and they should not.”
“<BR /> <BR />We can talk about the legislation — yes, it is so important — but we also have to lead. Our silence on so many of these issues is palpable, and the communities feel it. They know that every time something happens or someone is a victim of hate crime, the same people come out and speak out about that, and there is silence from everyone else. Yes, let us work together. Let us send a strong message as an Assembly that we will legislate and will do what we can, but let us address our own leadership as well. How we behave in these situations is so important.”
“Legislation is absolutely important, and I know that the Minister is committed to this. When the Assembly was down for the past two years, Naomi Long came with me to meet people at the Belfast Islamic Centre and to meet different constituents of mine to discuss what more we can do. If one thing is to be taken from my contribution today, it is that, yes, legislation is important, yes, understanding the lived experience of people is important, but our leadership is so important as well. I wonder how many MLAs have engaged with people who are victims of hate crime in their constituencies, and not just victims of sectarian hate crime but people who are victims of racist hate crime. How many MLAs have engaged with asylum seekers who live in fear every day?”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. I agree. I had the privilege of working for Anna Lo, the first and only minority-ethnic MLA the Assembly has ever had, shamefully. Anna was outspoken on how racism and sectarianism are two sides of the same coin. That is where I was directing my comments, because, whether it is Mohammed, who had his office burnt down, or Takura, who had to move, or the trans father who had two small children attacked in the playground, I sometimes fear that there is a tolerance in our society for hate and othering.”
“A Sudanese father of four who arrived here as a refugee, trying to start a new and better life for him and his family, set up a business and was providing a really important service in the community and had that business burnt down after a series of threats. The impact of that cannot be overstated. I met women who live in contingency accommodation and who are subjected to regular abuse because they wear a hijab. They live in fear.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion. There have been discussions around the impact of hate crime, but I want to take the opportunity talk about the lived reality. I want to talk not about people who do not take vaccines or who throw eggs but about what is happening in my constituency. Takura Makoni from the African and Caribbean Support Organisation Northern Ireland (ACSONI) has been brave in speaking out about the experience of having racist graffiti put on his home. He spoke about the fear that that caused for him and for his children and about having to relocate. I have worked with two businesses that have been forced out.”
“There will be research gardens, allotments and community space. If you then turn left and walk up Rugby Road, you will get to Wildflower Alley, where the community and residents have created something extraordinary down the alleyway. If you go down Donegall Pass, you will pass some beautiful community gardens. If you keep going straight into the city centre, you will come across Brink!, which is based at the Belfast Stories site and is growing food in the city centre. <BR /> <BR />Our city and Northern Ireland are filled with groups and organisations that are doing amazing work to protect and enhance our future generations' birthright. Ahead of World Environment Day, I pay tribute to the people who are doing that important work. They are making our places better and inspiring us to be better. I thank them for that.”
“Tomorrow is World Environment Day, which is a day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. Ahead of it, I pay tribute to some of the groups and organisations in South Belfast that are doing just that. If you go into Botanic Gardens, you will find, just behind the tropical ravine, the medicine garden, which was created by the Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens. You can tour the different continents and see a beautiful garden that it has spent many years putting together. <BR /> <BR />If you keep walking through Botanic Gardens, you will get to a field just behind the Physical Education Centre (PEC), where the Friends of the Field, along with Belfast City Council and Queen's University Belfast, has somehow managed to create something extraordinary.”
“Minister, my son was delighted that the boss of all schools visited his nursery last week. When does the Minister hope that building work will begin at Millennium Integrated Primary School, which was part of the capital builds announcement for 2024-25?”
“The Minister will be aware of the alarming figures for school attendance. I am curious to know how the RAISE programme will address attendance rates.”
“Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. <BR /> <BR />First Minister, will that legislation include the ability to enforce redress payments from religious orders that are still refusing to make such payments?”
“The cross-departmental task and finish group, which was vaunted as looking at interim support and identifying how people could be helped in advance of the childcare strategy being developed, has only met twice. I got a response to a question for written answer saying that it has only met twice since its inception. That does not instil confidence that this is being dealt with with the required urgency. We look forward to an announcement from the Minister soon, and I hope that that announcement focuses on a bespoke model for Northern Ireland that really puts child development at the centre.”
“We need to ensure that we have a subsidy that invests in providers, with stipulations that it will improve quality, affordability and flexibility for all children. <BR /> <BR />I wanted to raise, yet again, the fact that parents and families and providers are on their knees.”
“Last week, in my constituency of South Belfast, we received the sad news that Play Den is closing. Yet another childcare provider has been forced to close due to the lack of a childcare strategy and a lack of investment in childcare. I have made numerous statements in the House about childcare, the fact that it is crucial economic and social infrastructure and how it is so important that we invest in it accordingly. <BR /> <BR />We are hearing murmurings that some movement on that may be coming soon, so I take the opportunity to reiterate the need for a bespoke model for Northern Ireland. When we look across the water, we see that the free-hours model is not working. That model is purely based on parental employment, but we need to look at it as child development.”
“How has the Minister addressed the four recommendations from the Northern Ireland Audit Office that relate to police injury on duty?”
“Will the Minister provide a progress update on the environmental improvement plan (EIP)? Have there been any complaints about the failure to adopt the plan?”
“I welcome your commitment to childcare being in the Programme for Government. Deputy First Minister, will you confirm that preschool is not childcare and that any schemes that are developed will take learnings from the failed three-hours model in the UK?”
“Our Programme for Government must come forward at pace and set out a clear and comprehensive vision for the future transformation of public services in Northern Ireland.”
“If we are serious about improving outcomes and delivering for a better Northern Ireland, we need to get serious about investing in our children. That includes delivering ambitious programmes for high-quality, accessible and affordable childcare. <BR /> <BR />I firmly believe that, if we are to make a success of the time remaining in the mandate, we need to place a renewed focus on areas in which we can have the most significant impact. Investment in genuine collaborative working for the sake of our children and young people will not only deliver better value for money but, the research suggests, improve outcomes for the next generation. If our Programme for Government is to be ambitious about anything, it should be about creating a better society in which our children and young people can grow, learn and thrive.”
“It further states that we have a duty to see investment in early years as:”
“That means collaborative working on policy development, service delivery and funding. The Children's Services Co-operation Act 2015 can be activated and utilised to pool resources and funding for the purpose of delivering children's services. The legislation is there, but its potential has never been realised, and that is shameful. The Act includes a requirement for the Programme for Government to consider the issues raised in the report on the operation of the Act. That must be part of the incoming Programme for Government. <BR /> <BR />The independent review of education states:”
“I see that most clearly in my work every day on education and on delivery for our children and young people. That is particularly clear when we look at early years education, childcare and the ongoing crisis for children with SEND. The independent review of education states:”
“Our Programme for Government cannot be simply about putting more money into every Department. While it is essential that we see services funded according to need and that the UK Government live up to their analysis of the lack of funding received by Northern Ireland, we need to see serious plans for the long-term transformation of services across government. <BR /> <BR />Connected to that, we must become much more serious about ending silo working. Government by silo has failed us all and must be brought to an end. We must be bolder and more ambitious about the cross-departmental working and collaboration that is possible. To be truly outcomes-driven and genuinely focused on delivering the best results for Northern Ireland, we must be able to step outside the narrow confines of our Departments and see the bigger picture.”
“For Alliance, the fact that we are only 100 days into the mandate further underlines the need for reform of our institutions, as my colleague outlined. We must never again find ourselves in the position of having been without a Government for five of the past seven years. That was totally unacceptable and has created a challenging environment for all Ministers, given that decision-making was put on hold for the past two years. Nobody in this place is under any illusions. We cannot do everything that we would like to do, especially in a shortened mandate, with two years of wasted time already behind us. <BR /> <BR />There is hope, however, if we can take the serious steps that are required to transform services and deliver real impact for the people whom we serve.”
“Had we been able to form a Government in the days following the 2022 Assembly election, when this mandate should have begun, we would have been two years into a functioning Government — two years further into making the transformative change that our public services require and that our constituents deserve, and two years further into delivery on a wide range of very important issues. <BR /> <BR />On that, the amendment lists a range of issues that urgently need to be progressed, but there are also a huge range of other issues that must be prioritised, including adequate funding for DAERA to deliver on the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 and the significant underfunding of Justice relative to other Departments for many years.”
“I thank the Opposition for tabling this important motion. A Programme for Government is not just desirable but vital. It allows the Executive to set out their future vision, to establish a set of key priorities and to give the public and MLAs a basis on which to judge the success or otherwise of the Executive. <BR /> <BR />In a shortened mandate, it must be acknowledged that there have been a wide range of immediate pressures and challenges for all Executive Ministers in the first 100 days since restoration. However, it is deeply regrettable that we are only into the first 100 days of this place being up and running.”
“People are losing faith in our institutions. It is so important that we give them information and something deliverable soon.”
“However, more than anything else, we need urgent interim support for parents and providers, who are, frankly, on their knees. I wanted to bring the voice of that parent into the Chamber today, because there are so many more like her. <BR /> <BR />I will finish with the comments of another concerned parent, who wrote:”
“It has been said time and time again in the Chamber that childcare is in crisis. We have all reiterated our support for it and the need for investment in it. Parents' expectations have been raised, and they expected delivery. I have heard anecdotally from people who expanded their family in the hope that more support would be coming, only to be left wondering how they will ever be able to afford it. We made promises, and we need to deliver on them. We need to see the detail of what the £25 million for childcare will entail. We need a timeline for the childcare strategy. We need detail on the cross-departmental task and finish group: we need to know who is involved in that and what has been discussed around interim measures. We need costings for an affordable childcare scheme.”
“Nora, a mother of one, wrote this on the Melted Parents NI social media site:”
“Thank you for that. I completely agree. Especially as parents, you just cannot get your head around how it is being allowed to happen and the international silence and hypocrisy around it. <BR /> <BR />We stand by a two-state solution. There is a mountain to climb, but there is no sustainable alternative that respects human rights. Alliance wants a just future for every Israeli and Palestinian, and for them to live in peace, safety and dignity, with equal rights. We have the opportunity to send a message from this Assembly. I support the motion.”
“On 4 April, Save the Children reported that nearly 26,000 children — just over 2% of Gaza's child population — have been killed or injured in six months. Children are dying from starvation and disease at the highest rate that the world has ever seen — the highest rate that the world has ever seen.”
“It is deeply concerning. <BR /> <BR />I made my very first Member's statement on this matter, when I talked about Hind Rajab. I keep thinking about that girl, who was six years old. I think about her every day. She was six years old, and she was sitting in a car with her relatives around her who were dead. She was talking on the phone and asking for someone to come and get her soon, because she was scared of the dark. She was saying, "Please come and help me", and you just think of a six-year-old child. They are not statistics: they are human beings. There is a problem in the media with the dehumanisation and — I think they call it — adultification of children in Gaza. What is the number?”