Danny Donnelly
East Antrim · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for that answer. It will not satisfy the people of the area. The completion of the 3 km distributor road was planned to be a key part of the development, linking hundreds of houses to the wider road network, but, due to a planning issue by her Department in the 1990s, it never happened.”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. Minister, as you mentioned in your statement, the inquiry was highly critical of what it describes as "an adversarial and oppositional approach" by the Belfast Trust to the inquiry.”
“The Minister mentioned the need to reform the health service. In light of the recent startling figures that show that half a billion pounds was spent on locums over the past three years, does he agree that investment in attracting permanent doctors may be a more prudent use of Department of Health resource?”
“<BR /> <BR />As a nurse, I condemn the attacks in the strongest possible terms and highlight the specific impact that they have had on people who care for us when we are at our most vulnerable.”
“Every day, they treat patients with skill, compassion and professionalism. Let us be absolutely clear: when a nurse is intimidated on her way to work and chased by masked men into the Ulster Hospital, that is an attack on our health service.”
“I will speak today about the attacks on our international healthcare staff. I begin by saying that my thoughts are with the victim of the brutal attack in north Belfast and his family. I hope that he recovers well. <BR /> <BR />Violence has no place in our society.”
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“We absolutely must rebuild public trust in our screening services; a point that has come up time and time again. Cervical screening saves lives, but it can do so only if patients have faith that the system is robust and that any errors will be swiftly identified and corrected. Right now, that trust has been deeply eroded. <BR /> <BR />It was not that long ago that we were discussing endometriosis and the almost decade-long wait for diagnosis for women in Northern Ireland and the fact that there is no mother-and-baby unit in Northern Ireland. What about the delays to the maternity hospital? Time and time again, it is being proven that women's health is not a priority. That is a massive concern. Women must be able to place their trust in our health service without reservation. They cannot do so currently, and they are dying because of that.”
“Thank you, Deputy Speaker. First, I thank all Members across the House for their contributions. It has been a sensitive debate, and the contributions from across the House have been very positive. I thank the DUP for its amendment, which we will support. The amendment adds to the motion. <BR /> <BR />Two years have passed since the scandal came to light, yet progress on getting answers has been painfully slow. We have seen a lack of transparency, unacceptable delays and a slow pace of investigation by the Department of Health and the trust. That is simply not good enough. Every woman impacted by the scandal deserves truth and accountability as a bare minimum. While I welcome the recall and review of 17,500 smear tests, it should never have got to that stage.”
“We are all aware that, without reform, this place is only as stable as it was the day before its last collapse. Minister, what impact has the collapse of the institutions had on agriculture?”
“We are all aware that getting a cancer diagnosis is an incredibly stressful time in someone's life and that attending for treatment is incredibly important. How many cancer patients in the past year either missed or had treatment appointments delayed due to transport issues?”
“The issue has impacted on residents for many years. I invite the Minister to accompany me to the site so that she can see it for herself.”
“To me and others, it appears to be a rushed and uncoordinated paper that does not contain much that is new. It was published at short notice on social media before it was even sent to members of the Health Committee. Why did the Minister not think that it was worth taking the time to consult the organisations that represent healthcare workers in Northern Ireland — the very people who will be charged with delivering the actions — before he published the plan?”
“The Minister will be aware that 89% of Northern Ireland's businesses are microenterprises, many of which operate in our town centres. How does the Minister envisage the LEPs supporting town-centre regeneration and the growth of the small businesses that are so vital to the local economy?”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. Minister, you said that the Department did not remove funds from the core grant scheme. The core grant scheme had funding of £3·6 million a year when it was set up, but that was then halved to £1·8 million a year. Many groups and services that deliver vital services across Northern Ireland therefore lost the ability to continue to do their work. <BR /> <BR />We have heard that Northern Ireland has a 25% higher prevalence —.”
“It is so easy to view underfunding and cutting mental health services as budget lines on a spreadsheet, but, for the people who need them, those services are a lifeline, and they prevent so many issues further down the line. If we truly want to tackle Northern Ireland's growing mental health crisis, we must stop treating each service failure as an isolated event and start seeing the bigger picture.”
“I do not doubt the intention or sincerity in his words or his desire to improve the system. However, understanding the challenge is not the same as confronting it. If every Health Minister for the next 100 years stands in this Chamber, admits their faults and empathises with the people but continues to tackle each crisis as it comes, nothing will ever change. Without funding mental health strategies, setting aside pay provision for healthcare workers or changing policy to allow better career progression for nurses, nothing will ever change. We will face nothing but failure and disappointment from one generation to the next, Minister after Minister. <BR /> <BR />The mental health crisis is about more than a cost with no context on a budget document. The cost of not preventing it is arguably much greater, and that needs to be addressed.”
“When we fail to fund intervention and we ignore prevention, the pressure does not disappear; it grows. That is not the fault of crisis services, which provide invaluable care and are a lifeline to many, but of a succession of Ministers and years of political instability in this place in which there has been a failure to address the deep-rooted problems. That is reflective of the health system as a whole in Northern Ireland: although the Department gets the lion's share of the Budget, it is a system that so blatantly ignores prevention that it buckles under the weight of its own inaction. Those are not unavoidable tragedies; they are a predictable consequence of years of short-sighted policy. <BR /> <BR />I understand that the Minister has a limited budget, and I understand the pressure that he faces.”
“We have had a mental health strategy, launched in 2021, that promised genuine transformation, yet, just last week, on World Mental Health Day, it was announced that 80% of the strategy is now effectively shelved and only 16% of its planned funding has been delivered. Is it any wonder that our mental health services remain in a state of eternal crisis? <BR /> <BR />The Department has placed regional crisis services among some of its better-funded actions, yet here we are watching a key regional crisis service collapse due to lack of funds. It is ironic in a sad way that most resources are put into crisis and firefighting while neglecting the very services that could prevent the crisis in the first place, allowing pressures to build up to the point where resources can no longer cope with the demand of patients in crisis.”
“The closure of Extern's community crisis intervention service in Foyle is another symptom of a system that is entrenched in reactive policymaking, lurching from crisis to crisis without ever addressing the deeper issues. The services that Mark mentioned, many of them out of hours, represent many people who have been helped, and, undoubtedly, lives have been saved. <BR /> <BR />We need a cross-cutting, person-centred approach to the Health budget. We also need the Minister to move beyond words and into actioned interventions to address the mental health crisis that we are facing.”
“I thank the Minister for her answer. Will she provide an assessment of the impact that budgetary pressures are having on justice system transformation?”
“I thank the Member for giving way. She will be aware that this issue has been raised at joint North/South Health Committee meetings here and down south, at which she spoke very well, and at the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association, where we had a day's worth of debate about it. There is certainly interest down south in working together on a shared solution. I hope that the Minister will take forward the view that that avenue is not shut off, and that we can explore it.”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. Obviously, this is a serious issue. How can the spread of disease be minimised?”
“The resulting excess deaths and dangerous delays cannot be dismissed as just a late policy paper. This is not about paperwork or process, as the delay has real and hard-hitting consequences for our health service, our healthcare workers, our patients and the people whom we are here to represent. Every week without a plan means that patients are waiting longer and that staff are being pushed further, and that is resulting in unnecessary loss of life. Something needs to change, and I encourage the Minister to act with urgency.”
“Does he really believe that leaving staff without a plan by publishing it late is not adding to the already crippling pressures on the workforce and pushing nurses and other healthcare staff out of the service? It may be just one issue from a long list of issues, but it still has a very real and damaging impact that should not be dismissed. <BR /> <BR />Perhaps the Minister does not believe that the delay impacts on staff, but what about the impact on loss of life? The Royal College of Emergency Medicine estimated that 818 excess deaths in Scotland last year were linked to long A&E waits. For Northern Ireland in 2022, it suggested that more than 1,400 excess deaths had occurred. We are two years behind on the data, and Scotland has three times our population, yet excess deaths here are approaching double what Scotland's are now.”
“Can we really trust the Department's commitments when that is the case, or are those commitments just vague promises that are designed to give the illusion of progress, when, in truth, targets are being missed and people are being harmed? <BR /> <BR />The Minister disagreed with me yesterday when I said that delays in publishing the plan will have an impact on workforce retention. As a nurse, I must wholeheartedly disagree with him. Every consultation, every review and every report highlights the same challenges, and workforce is always one of the biggest ones, coming up again and again. Does the Minister really believe that the delay is not contributing to the problem?”
“It will potentially lead to loss of life and to a loss of workforce. That is real. <BR /> <BR />Last year, the winter preparedness plan was not published until mid-November, and the Minister will be well aware that pressures had started long before then. At the time, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine judged it as being "too little, too late". Publishing a plan at that stage of the year is simply inadequate. How can one claim to be preparing for a storm when already standing in the eye of it? We were promised a winter preparedness plan in August, then in September. It is now into October, and still there is no plan.”
“All Members should agree that a winter preparedness plan published on 31 December 2025 is not just slightly delayed but a complete failure, yet, by the Department's own metric, according to the business plan that it presented to the Committee for Health last week, publishing the plan on the very last day of the year will still be marked amber and considered to be experiencing some delays but still on track to be met for the end of the year. That is a system that is designed to tick boxes, not to save lives. I know that the Minister of Health is probably sick of hearing me raise this, and, to some, it may sound inconsequential, as it is just another delayed plan, but I have lived the impacts. I have seen them at first hand, and I am telling him that it is not just a delay on paper.”
“Thank you, Minister. I am sure that you will agree that workforce retention is at the heart of safe care. Do you accept that the ongoing delay in the winter preparedness plan will have an impact on staff retention levels? Can you commit to when that plan will be published, given that it was promised in August, then September, and we are now well into October?”
“There is real frustration among healthcare workers, who are left out of pocket again. Will the Minister commit to prioritising pay awards in his budget for 2026-27 to avoid the repeated delays in healthcare workers receiving their money?”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. Does he think that, if there were on-site testing facilities and people knew that they were going somewhere where they could get the substance tested and make an informed decision, that could encourage them not to imbibe substances before they went to a festival?”
“There is a lot to be said about that response. Essentially, it is not about morality; it is about protecting life. Drug checking is health-centred and evidence-based, and it deserves serious consideration here in Northern Ireland. If even one life can be saved, it is worth it.”
“Thank you. Yes, I absolutely agree, and I will add that rapidly getting the alarms out and getting the information to the public can save lives. The quicker that those messages can be put into circulation, the quicker that people can be informed to avoid making the wrong decisions. <BR /> <BR />Jason Kew, from Thames Valley Police, said:”
“That service not only helps individuals to avoid immediate harm but collects intelligence that can inform wider public health responses. Even the police, who are experienced in drug crime, back that stance. Jason Kew, the former violence reduction unit, drugs, exploitation and harm reduction lead —”
“It provides people, especially young people, with the chance to make informed decisions. Education about risks will always be vital, but so, too, is empathy and honesty. Drugs are easily available across all our communities, whether rural or urban. They are imported into Northern Ireland in huge amounts every week and are taken by many people across our society. There is a huge black market industry here; ultimately, if there were no market for drugs, that would not exist. I encourage young people in particular to seek out reliable information on drugs, and I highlight Talk to Frank as a confidential website on which to do so. Initiatives such as The Loop, the UK's first systematic drug-checking service, have shown what can be achieved by analysing substances and providing tailored advice.”
“<BR /> <BR />Research by Queen's University has made it clear that there is an urgent need for enhanced services, including immediate access to drug testing. Preventative measures such as that are health-centred rather than punishment-centred and are based on evidence rather than fear. In a survey of nearly 1,200 Irish festivalgoers that was conducted by the Irish Journal of Medical Science, 87% admitted to using more than one substance. Strikingly, 93% said that they would be willing to use independent drug-checking services. That willingness tells us something important, which is that people are open to making safer choices when they are given the tools and the information to do so. <BR /> <BR />Drug checking acknowledges the reality that people take drugs and that young people will experiment.”
“While I agree that there is no safe way of taking drugs, and I urge anyone who is considering taking drugs never to do so, I recognise that it is easy for us to say those words and consider our moral slate clean without taking real and holistic steps to address the wider issues in society. <BR /> <BR />Without testing, you can never be sure of what is in a substance or be sure of its strength. That is the point of testing: it is done so that people can make an informed decision. No one deserves to die because they have made a mistake or a bad decision. This is not about international drug gangs and the mass supply of illegal drugs; it is about young people at festivals who are not educated on the harm of drug use and who, if they spoke to someone in a safe environment, free from judgement and harm, may make a more informed decision.”
“We cannot deny that, so, if we want to save lives, we need to give serious consideration to how models such as drug checking can be adapted and introduced in Northern Ireland in a meaningful way to tackle the crisis that we face. <BR /> <BR />We need to face facts. Northern Ireland has the second-highest rate of drug-related deaths in the UK after Scotland. Young adults aged 25 to 34 account for the largest share of drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland, and the death rate in that age group has more than doubled in the past decade. We cannot ignore the fact that that is happening.”
“I thank Órlaithí and the other Sinn Féin MLAs for tabling this important motion. We have attended many events at which we have spoken to people who have lost loved ones to drugs and substance overdose. It is a serious issue across our society, so it is good that we are debating it today and thinking about what we can do about it. I also thank the DUP for tabling its amendment, which we will support as well. <BR /> <BR />We all know that illegal drugs should be condemned. I unequivocally believe that the first approach should be to recognise their harm and not partake. That is the ideal. The reality, however, is that drug use happens no matter how much we disagree with it.”
“Locally, Castle, which is one of the biggest clubs on the island, has struggled to get facilities for years, and newer clubs such as Glens need support to get equipment. Clubs such as Carnlough, which has been around since the 1800s, need support to retain their legacy and heritage. <BR /> <BR />The success of this year should not be the exception, nor should it take another 12 years for the championships to come back. With the chance that it may come back in 2027, we need to use the time to invest in the sport and our clubs, especially when they can offer our communities so much and bring so much positive recognition to our coastline through such events. I thank everyone who made it happen. Our local community did us proud. I have no doubt that the legacy of the championships will last for many years.”
“Castle Rowing Club made history this year as the largest club in the competition, entering a record number of crews and taking home 13 medals. The Whitehead Coastal Rowing Club crews added seven more medals, with Carnlough Rowing Club securing three and Glens Coastal Rowing Club and Glenarm Rowing Club getting two each. Clubs have already told me that the event has generated a huge increase in interest for next season, which is an amazingly positive result for our community. <BR /> <BR />This year's efforts were supported by a Mid and East Antrim Borough Council grant that made a real difference but did not cover all the costs. Ongoing support is essential, if we want to see such volunteer-led events, with real community impact, return.”
“<BR /> <BR />The scale of the event also drew significant media attention, with two featured pieces on BBC News; coverage across local and regional press; and pieces on Radio Foyle and Radio Ulster. The Department for Communities featured the occasion on social media and in two promotional videos that were full of positive reflections from members of the clubs who had travelled. They praised the organisation, the setting and the welcome that they had received, and they promised to return. Every local business felt it. Accommodation was booked out all along the coast, and there was a real buzz from the first race until the final medal. <BR /> <BR />The impact goes way beyond money and promotion and right to the heart of communities, not just in my constituency but across the island. Local clubs were central to that success.”
“It really was a summer for sport on the Antrim coast. In my East Antrim constituency, Glenarm held the thirty-third All-Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships. The event returned to the North for the first time in 12 years and delivered one of the most successful weekends in memory. It was entirely volunteer-led, delivered by the Antrim Coast Rowing Association and the Irish Coastal Rowing Federation, both of which put in over a year of work to make it happen. Five hundred and fifty crews from 36 clubs travelled from across the island, bringing with them their families, supporters and spectators. Ten thousand people attended across the weekend. The impact was felt throughout the village and along the coast.”
“That is something of a theme: we have heard it again and again today. <BR /> <BR />On endometriosis:”
“That is another clear example of why we need the women's health action plan to include cardiac issues as well as menopause and fertility. The idea that women, rather than men, die from a heart attack because one is treated differently from the other for the condition is horrendous. <BR /> <BR />I will finish by giving some women's experiences in their own words. On menopause:”
“<BR /> <BR />I recognise that there is a need to speak out, but I also recognise my position. I do not know what it is like to live with the health issues that we are discussing. As a man and a healthcare professional, my role in the debate is to listen, support and make space for the women who know. <BR /> <BR />I will mention another issue that the British Heart Foundation has raised recently. The Minister is probably aware of its report 'Bias and Biology: The Heart Attack Gender Gap', which highlights the gender inequalities for women who have heart attacks. Women are more likely than men to receive a delayed diagnosis following a heart attack and are less likely than men to receive timely, guideline-indicated treatments following a heart attack. Women thus have a higher mortality rate.”
“The article highlights the fact that 74% of women saw five or more doctors before diagnosis; 47% saw 10 or more; and 78% said that "their concerns were minimised" as "making a fuss". The article reflects on the broader pattern of women's symptoms being downplayed by healthcare professionals as "just normal women's problems". Sit with that for a second: debilitating pain, infertility, internal scarring and organ damage are not "just normal women's problems". <BR /> <BR />The fact that a person facing a health issue is a woman cannot be used as a reason for delaying care and causing lasting harm. Pain or health concerns should not be considered less because it is a woman who is facing them. That fact, which is out in the open and so often seems prevalent now, shows that there is deeply ingrained medical misogyny. That needs to change.”
“I was struck by the lack of regard for women's autonomy over their healthcare. In that case, a woman making a personal medical decision was denied the opportunity to choose. On the other side, women with endometriosis, many of whom want children, are denied autonomy by a failing system that ignores them and leaves them untreated for nearly a decade, causing infertility and robbing them of that choice. <BR /> <BR />The system as it stands robs women of autonomy over their health, simply because they are women. That is again cemented in the article "Misdiagnosis: The Overlooked Crisis In Women's Health", which speaks of the dismissal of women's pain being widespread and points to endometriosis as being the most frequently misdiagnosed gynaecological condition.”
“Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Between 2020 and 2023, the average length of time for an endometriosis diagnosis in Northern Ireland increased from eight years and six months to nine years and five months. Women here sit for almost a decade in, as we have heard, debilitating pain and with an increased risk of infertility, internal scarring and organ damage. Nothing is being learned, and the situation is getting worse. Again and again, the Assembly fails women, leaving them behind in comparison with their counterparts elsewhere on these islands. <BR /> <BR />I was struck by one report, in which a woman was quoted as saying:”
“The Minister will be aware that the importance of reading is promoted through the Sure Start programme. Does he have any plans to expand that provision further in Northern Ireland as part of the forthcoming early learning and childcare strategy?”
“Will the Minister develop further how peatlands can help to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis?”
“I ask the Minister for an update on the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) veterinary agreement between the UK and the EU.”
“If we do, when they come for you or me, there will be no one left to speak for us.”
“They are like the friend's daughter who moved to Australia, the son working in America, the cousin in Canada, the uncle in England or the neighbour who retired to Spain. They are all immigrants too. <BR /> <BR />Let us be honest with ourselves. It is not foreigners who are pushing families into hardship but underinvestment in public services, housing shortages and low wages. It is not migrants who make women unsafe but abusers and a system that has, historically, looked the other way. It is not immigrants who burn leisure centres but people who believe lies and prey on others' frustrations in order to spread their own agenda. People who come to live and work here should be able to do so in safety and without any threat. I hope that we do not allow history to repeat itself.”
“People say that they are taking our jobs, yet our health service, which is already on its knees, would collapse overnight without the migrants in our workforce. Many workers in the health service and elsewhere across Northern Ireland, along with their families, are now living in fear in our constituencies. That is unacceptable. People talk about protecting families and keeping women and children safe, yet Northern Ireland is the most dangerous place in Europe in which to be a woman. Almost all the 28 women who have been killed here since 2020 were killed by a man whom they knew. <BR /> <BR />You do not commit crimes or cause harm because of the colour of your skin. Those who choose to call this country their home are ordinary people like you and me.”
“Those people do not represent the vast majority of people in the town who have contacted me in their droves, disgusted by what happened. <BR /> <BR />The reputation of our town took a real hit. I will take a minute to commend those council staff who were in Larne leisure centre that night who stayed to the very end to ensure that everybody who was there was safe. That included very young children, who were escorted out of the building under fire from bricks, mortar and whatever else. <BR /> <BR />I am sick of hearing the same vicious rhetoric about foreigners taking homes or jobs or being a threat to our families. People say that foreigners are taking social housing from those who are most in need, yet a family in my constituency was forced out of a home that they owned and into social housing because of racist attacks.”
“<BR /> <BR />There are clearly those who want you to believe that all the problems in your life lie at the feet of migrants, but they are just the current scapegoat. Do we really think that it will stop with migrants? I have seen racist violence with my own eyes. I was in Larne leisure centre on the night in June when it was attacked and burned by a racist mob. Those who attacked the police with bricks, burned part of my community and threatened the lives of those inside the leisure centre were not satisfied with the destruction that they had caused and went hunting for foreigners who were housed in the town. Thankfully, they were not successful, largely due to the actions of the police. Those events were a disaster for the town, and it is a miracle that there was no loss of life.”