Connie Egan
North Down · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“As the Minister referenced in her opening remarks, creating a legislative assumption that hate crime victims are to be treated as being eligible for assistance on the grounds of fear and distress will give them deeper assurance that they will not be put into a traumatic and distressing situation in which they are forced to engage with the…”
“Being a victim of or a witness to a crime can be one of the most traumatic and challenging periods in one's life. It is therefore vital that, when entering the justice process and throughout it, people have confidence that it will be as fair, trauma-informed and comprehensive as possible.”
“Minister Long's proactive step to create that role before the legislation was introduced served the dual purpose of giving victims and witnesses as much of a voice as possible in the here and now and testing some of the responsibilities that could end up in primary legislation.”
“When I speak to victims who have engaged with the commissioner's office and ask them about their experience, their answer is always one that is grateful in nature. They highlight the importance of having someone independent who listens to them and engages with their experience.”
“Clause 27 addresses a future legal gap caused by the implementation of direct committal, limiting the power to dismiss charges involving the death or serious physical harm of a child or vulnerable person. <BR /> <BR />Part 3 provides for the creation of regulations and orders, including the commencement of the provisions.”
“Clauses 24 and 25 add offences that involve aggravation by hostility, otherwise known as "hate crimes", to the list for which witnesses are eligible for special measures.”
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“Last Thursday, I attended the launch of the Girlguiding girls' attitudes survey report alongside the Justice Minister, Naomi Long. The report underlines the fact that:”
“Thank you, Minister. Will you commit to continuing to work with Ards and North Down Borough Council to ensure that Cairn Wood is open for everyone in our community?”
“Thank you, Minister. What lessons can be learned from the implementation of Lucy's law in other parts of the UK?”
“When will pre-recorded cross-examination be implemented?”
“Will the Minister's Department prioritise 20 mph speed limits outside those schools where children have previously been involved in road traffic collisions, such as Grange Park Primary School in my constituency?”
“I know that Stephen has contacted many elected representatives in the Chamber to put the issue on our agenda. He has ensured that I, as his MLA, am aware of the impact that ovarian cancer has and what more needs to be done. His efforts and determination in raising awareness are entirely commendable. He works to prevent any other family having to experience what he has gone through. I thank him and the many women and their families who have spoken out about their experiences of ovarian cancer to ensure that others in Northern Ireland have better health outcomes.”
“We all know that early intervention is vital to improving health outcomes, and some myth-busting is needed: 46% of women in Northern Ireland believe that a cervical screening will detect ovarian cancer; that is simply not true. <BR /> <BR />I want to highlight the symptoms that every woman should look out for when it comes to early diagnosis of ovarian cancer: bloating, feeling full, pelvic or abdominal pain and needing to wee more often. I urge every Member around the Chamber today, and anyone who may be listening, to share the information on those symptoms with their loved ones and their communities. <BR /> <BR />Finally, I thank one of my constituents, Stephen, who lost his wife, Julie, to ovarian cancer in June 2024. Every day, he campaigns to help women to ensure that they are aware of what he calls "the sneaky symptoms".”
“I draw Members' attention to ovarian cancer, a disease that is continually overlooked, resulting in its symptoms and diagnostic pathways being incredibly misunderstood. March marks Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. In Northern Ireland, over 200 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year. Like many other diseases and conditions in women's health, ovarian cancer is subject to numerous assumptions and misconceptions about its diagnosis, symptoms and treatment. I recently met the team at Target Ovarian Cancer, which is working to change those views, and I learned a lot from the statistics that they told me about. They are staggering. Thirty-one percent of women in Northern Ireland who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer will not survive one year. Only 39% of women who are diagnosed here are diagnosed at an early stage.”
“Stakeholder involvement, including families who have lost loved ones and users who are themselves in recovery, must play a key role in that. <BR /> <BR />I finish by thanking Sandra Larmour again for putting the matter on MLAs' agendas and for her tireless work to ensure that no other family has to endure the pain of losing their loved one.”
“The 2021 Northern Ireland Executive substance use strategy, 'Preventing Harm, Empowering Recovery: A Strategic Framework to Tackle the Harm from Substance Use', which was led by the Department of Health, highlighted the need for harm reduction, joined-up working, early intervention and support for recovery. <BR /> <BR />I know that the Justice Minister is committed to playing her part in reducing offending, working with the PSNI to respond to community safety concerns and empowering recovery through supporting alternative approaches such as the substance misuse courts. We need to ensure that our approach to drug misuse is as person-focused as possible. The review of reclassification opens up an opportunity to discuss those matters further.”
“<BR /> <BR />If class A status is achieved through the review, it will mean that possession of ketamine will result in seven years of prison time instead of five, but the real change will be lifelong imprisonment for supply and production instead of 14 years. Affected families and stakeholders must be consulted on those changes to affirm public confidence to our UK-wide approach. However, within all that, the Alliance Party position is that the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act is outdated and needs reviewed in the long term. <BR /> <BR />As my party colleague Danny Donnelly MLA and others in the Chamber have outlined, we need to look at other ways of supporting vulnerable people who find themselves addicted to substances.”
“Something that, I thought, would be useful to pull out is that data on users and dealers of ketamine specifically in Northern Ireland is hard to track, and a contributing factor to that is the general class B category it goes under in our reporting systems, instead of having its own specific offence code. In the outworkings of the review, it would be really interesting to explore how, operationally, in Northern Ireland, if it was segmented into a class A substance, we could aggregate police data into a wider, more accurate picture. That would be absolutely vital to producing tangible results, tracking and preventing further use and harm.”
“The opportunity for a review of the classification of ketamine is a welcome one. It is a highly dangerous substance, as my colleague Joanne Bunting pointed out earlier, and it is becoming increasingly popular among our younger communities. It has also often been found in the systems of victims of spiking, which is a legal area where our Justice Minister, Naomi Long, is key to strengthening. <BR /> <BR />There have been record levels of use of ketamine in recent years. Home Office statistics estimate that 269,000 people aged between 16 and 59 used ketamine from March 2023 to March 2024.”
“In fact, I will go further and say that previous users or victims of harm relating to ketamine must also be consulted to ensure a truly wrap-around interventionist and preventionist approach to drug use policy frameworks. <BR /> <BR />As mentioned by others around the Chamber today, legal frameworks relating to the misuse of drugs are a reserved matter, particularly looking at the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. Responsibility for the legislation is for Westminster and the Home Office. However, with that being said, it would be remiss of me not to recognise, as others have done, that all Executive Ministers, including the Justice and Health Ministers, have a responsibility to take any action they can to minimise and end the harm created by drugs.”
“I will start today, as many others have, by paying tribute to Sandra Larmour and her family's campaign to raise awareness on the issue of ketamine, as the motion rightly references. Jeni Larmour, her daughter, sadly passed away after consuming ketamine and alcohol, and Sandra has channelled her grief into tirelessly lobbying and raising awareness. She has publicly said that she does not want Jeni's death to become just another statistic reported on, and I could not agree more. I welcome the opportunity that has been given by the UK Government and the Home Office for a review of the reclassification of ketamine as a class A substance. I agree with the motion. We must facilitate affected families and loved ones being involved in the review.”
“Minister, what is your assessment of the regulation of lawyers, complaints about them and the quality of service?”
“Thank you. That is important research, and I look forward to reading it further. <BR /> <BR />Women in those communities are depicted as a tool in the proscribed activity and objectified as belonging to a member of the criminal gangs. They feel owned and exploited and have no control: that is the true reality for women on the ground. Taking steps to negotiate, via the potential independent facilitator, is nothing less than pandering to the perpetrators of that abuse. <BR /> <BR />I urge all parties to support the motion. We do not need an independent facilitator to tell paramilitaries to disband. The law should apply to those groups in the same way as it does to every other criminal organisation.”
“The notion of sending an independent facilitator to engage and negotiate with those crime gangs is a slap in the face to the people who, to this day, put themselves at risk to help our constituents find peace in their homes and on our streets. <BR /> <BR />It would be remiss of me, as my party's spokesperson on ending violence against women and girls, not to mention paramilitary-related, gendered coercive control. The recent 'When you know what they are capable of’ research report explores the connection between intimate partner violence and community-based paramilitary social control. Its findings show clearly that women live with double the fear.”
“However, paramilitary activity is, unfortunately, not limited to those two areas. I have heard reports from constituents about their reality of living with paramilitary influence in their community. I have heard from parents who are worried about their children's futures; from survivors of domestic abuse who cannot access community support without being threatened by local gangs; and from small businesses that pay out so-called protection money to the groups that inflict the harm on them in the first place. It is the community networks, women's shelters and local agencies that are left to pick up the pieces.”
“The coercive control of organised crime gang leaders over young people, whether it is forcing them to deliver drugs or into other dangerous situations, is not to be tolerated. <BR /> <BR />The methodology in the Executive programme on paramilitarism and organised crime provides a path to transform our communities via an evolved public health approach to violence reduction. It is an approach that has been endorsed and co-produced by the people at the interface. It works alongside a robust justice system response and enables the work of the voluntary and community sector, which has worked tirelessly to end the glorification and influence of the groups locally. <BR /> <BR />In my constituency of North Down, we have two areas — Kilcooley and Rathgill — that are part of the Communities in Transition programme.”
“It is not just me saying that: that is what people from our local areas and communities who experience paramilitary control have told me. <BR /> <BR />The scourge of criminal activity is holding hostage the potential of our future. I am one of the younger members of the Assembly. I was not even born when the ceasefires were announced, yet here we are, 30 years later, still debating paramilitary activity in our communities and discussing their place in our society. Across Northern Ireland, an average of 45% of young people are still affected by paramilitary-linked harm; in some areas, the figure is as high as 80%. Those are the futures that we put at risk by legitimising proscribed organisations.”
“<BR /> <BR />I say respectfully to colleagues in other parties that we will not support the amendments. While there is much in them with which we agree, such as paramilitaries having no place in our society, we want the message from the House to be that we reject the proposals from the UK and Irish Governments. That is why we will support the amendments. <BR /> <BR />Paramilitary activity is criminal activity. Leaders of paramilitaries are leaders of criminal gangs and perpetrators of organised crime. In any other context, in any other place, it would be unthinkable to negotiate with them in 2025. The proposal to scope out a new process of engagement actively legitimises their presence on the ground in our local communities.”
“I support my party's motion calling for the Assembly's opposition to proposals from the UK and Irish Governments to appoint an independent expert to scope out a new process of engagement to bring about paramilitary group transition and disbandment, which have come about following recommendations in the seventh report of the Independent Reporting Commission. Alliance has put on record its opposition to the recommendation many times over, including Justice Minister Naomi Long, who called the proposal "absolutely flawed". <BR /> <BR />Proscribed organisations still have a chokehold on many people across Northern Ireland. They continue to limit the ambitions of this place 27 years after the Good Friday Agreement. Their methods may look different, but the chill factor that they create across all our communities is undeniable.”
“My party and I are dedicated to ensuring that women from all backgrounds have the support needed to succeed, and we are keen to work with as many people and parties around the Chamber as possible to ensure that that happens.”
“We need to work with colleagues from other nations to ensure its regulation. All of that reinforces the responsibility on us as legislators and the need for intervention and prevention work across all sections of society. <BR /> <BR />I see trailblazers leading the way in my constituency and community of North Down, working in a personal capacity to economically empower women to live to their fullest potential. I think of North Down and Ards Women's Aid and Kilcooley Women's Centre, which support women in crisis and those who need access to multiple agencies to secure their safety. I also think of our local leaders and the women in arts venues, churches, community groups and schools who consistently show up and make spaces more inclusive every day.”
“It looks like transforming our healthcare system so that, no matter your gender, you can receive the healthcare that you need. It is elevating women's achievements in sports and actively bringing them into sectors that are hard to break into. It is also making sure that the environments that women are in are safe and are adaptable to them. <BR /> <BR />We need to challenge the pervasive culture of misogyny that is rife in our society. In a Secondary Students' Union report in 2022, 70·6% of pupils said that they did not believe that sexism was taken seriously enough in our schools. These are children who are trying to grow, learn and become who they want to be, but they are faced with yet another barrier to doing that. The online space is constantly growing and uncontrollable.”
“<BR /> <BR />The theme of this year's International Women's Day rings true. We cannot stagnate, become complacent or pause our progress when there are still so many challenges ahead. We must accelerate our action and keep going. This is not a job for women alone; it is a job for everyone across society. It is not a job for the justice system alone: whilst ensuring that justice is delivered when harm occurs is integral, every Minister, Department and elected representative has a role in preventing sexism, abuse and misogyny from even happening in the first place. Everyone in society has a responsibility and can play a role in shifting culture and leading change. <BR /> <BR />"Accelerate action" looks like supporting women and girls into leadership, decision-making, business and STEM, all areas of society where they are under-represented.”
“Recent research from Ulster University found that 98% of women here have experienced at least one form of gender-based violence or abuse in their lifetime. That is entirely despicable and needs to change. How can we expect women to live and thrive when they are trying so hard just to survive? The Chamber has not shied away from those challenges, and the launch of the strategic framework to end violence against women and girls in September 2024, alongside the domestic and sexual abuse prevention strategy, is very welcome progress. That said, we can all agree that there is so much more to do, and we cannot lose the momentum behind those goals. That is why tackling gender-based violence remaining a core priority of the Northern Ireland Executive in the finalised Programme for Government, published just this week, was so welcome.”
“Ahead of International Women's Day on Saturday — the theme this year is "Accelerate action"— I join women around the Chamber in support of the motion. It highlights the absolute necessity of taking decisive steps to achieve gender equality and the need to address systemic barriers that exclude women from reaching their full potential. I am glad that we tabled the motion on an all-party basis and that we can come together for International Women's Day with a call to action. <BR /> <BR />Women play an absolutely vital role in our society, all whilst living in one of the most dangerous places to be a woman in western Europe. Since 2020, there have been 20 domestic homicides in Northern Ireland with a female victim.”
“Thank you, Minister, for your statement. As a member of the Justice Committee, I welcome the investment in the Department of Justice. What is the Minister's assessment of the composition and effectiveness of the interim board, and do you envisage that it will be made permanent before the second round?”
“We welcome the Programme for Government and look forward to delivering on it — and more — together.”
“Not only do I have concerns about those comments but the women's sector and our LGBTQ+ sector will have concerns about them, especially as they were from the Minister who is responsible for social inclusion strategies. I thank the Member for his intervention. <BR /> <BR />I think about my constituents in North Down, from whom I hear every day. Like, I am sure, so many of your constituents, they want us to focus on bread-and-butter issues, such as good-quality housing, affordable food, fulfilling jobs and an Executive that will protect them from being in harm's way. The document is a road map and pathway, but it is only the baseline of what we should achieve. I know that the public will hold us to account in that regard. Alliance is all in on doing what is right.”
“Ending violence against women and girls and, more broadly, across our society means everyone working together and staying together. That goes for so much of this. We need to get on with it now and do what is needed, including transforming our public services.”
“Part of that is about ensuring that we have a justice system that recognises harm beyond physical violence and that looks beyond the outworkings. We so often focus on what happens after someone has been hurt that we forget to look behind us and learn the lessons of how we could have stopped it in the first place. Northern Ireland is still one of the most dangerous places in western Europe to live as a woman, with the victim being female in 20 domestic homicides since 2020. That is despicable, and I wish that I could say that it is unbelievable. If you speak to any community and voluntary organisation that spends time on the ground every day with victims and offenders, it will tell you that actions that are rooted in prevention to shift our culture away from misogyny and into progression and equity are the way forward.”
“Such work is work to relieve pressure on the Justice Department many years from now. Prevention means working to dismantle a cause or issue before it takes form. That is incredibly relevant for so many different areas of work for the Executive, be it embedding preventative healthcare to ensure that people are healthier for longer, an accessible education system to ensure pupils' success and prevent a lacklustre economy, or preventative measures to shape culture and reduce crime and offending so that people across our communities do not just feel safer but are safer. <BR /> <BR />I am extremely proud to be my party's spokesperson on ending violence against women and girls, and I welcome the integral place that that has in the programme.”
“<BR /> <BR />Looking forward, now that we have a Programme for Government, we need to increase and stabilise our policing numbers, deliver on a domestic and sexual abuse strategy, ensure a trauma-informed welfare system, including legal aid availability, and speed up justice so that those who seek it are not left waiting years without closure and the ability to move forward. That includes transformation and exploring solutions outside the courtroom. Those issues cut across Health, Education, the Executive Office, Economy and other agencies. I could go on. As the programme highlights, it will be an all-hands-on-deck effort. <BR /> <BR />That brings me to my second point. Work on prevention and recognition of its importance is vital for us to achieve many, if not all, of the goals that we have set out.”
“Our Justice Minister has shown throughout multiple mandates, that, with or without a Programme for Government, she will lead, do her part and deliver. She will deliver on legislation to increase protections for those who are experiencing domestic abuse, deliver on doing all that she can to tackle organised crime and paramilitarism and deliver by doing her best for victims and the extremely hard-working people right across our criminal legal system who prop it up every day. She will do all that while her Department remains historically underfunded.”
“The document should certainly not be the ceiling of our ambitions; it certainly is not that for the Alliance Party. <BR /> <BR />The programme is rightly titled 'Doing What Matters Most'. For our communities to succeed, they need to be able to do that by feeling and being safe. That means safe physically and safe to live as themselves without fear. That is the key to ensuring that people can be fulfilled and reach their potential. The commitment across our Executive to "Safer Communities", by including it as a core priority, is incredibly welcome. <BR /> <BR />I will take this opportunity to run through some of that and pull out two extremely pertinent points. First, the responsibility for building safer communities cannot fall to our Justice Minister alone.”
“Today is an important milestone for the mandate, with the publication of a finalised Programme for Government, which is something that the Assembly and our public have not seen in 13 years. Cooperation and collaboration across our Executive are the very least that those who voted for us, and those who did not, should be able to expect. <BR /> <BR />That said, this is a milestone, but purely capturing words of ambition on a page cannot be our Assembly's end destination. We need to ensure continued progress and delivery. The document is not perfect by any means, but it is a foundation for progress — a foundation to build upon, build homes, build a workable healthcare system, build our nature recovery, build an increasingly improved education system and build safer communities.”
“I hope that the Minister appreciates that this is really frustrating for people in Bangor. Does the Minister have a timeline for when building at Queen's Parade will start?”
“It would be an incredibly worthwhile exercise to extend the scope of the pending independent public inquiry to include Northern Ireland, as well as Scotland and Wales, so that we can collaboratively develop a holistic approach to those major challenges. Alliance's MP, Sorcha Eastwood, wrote to the Home Secretary last week to make that clear, and I reiterate that call today.”
“The online world is constantly growing and uncontrollable, filtering in extremism and facilitating actions of violence across all our communities. Entrenched attitudes of racial hatred and social media misinformation have reached the phones of our young people. There are no borders in online spaces, and very few ways to police and stop the spread of such toxic content. <BR /> <BR />Youth violence and extremism have unique characteristics in Northern Ireland, where we see our local young people being groomed into violence and wider criminality by paramilitary gangs. It is also incredibly relevant to the Executive's strategic framework on ending violence against women and girls as the online world is driving the very violence that we are all dedicated to tackling.”
“I rise to speak of the absolute necessity of expanding the scope of the pending Southport public inquiry to include in its terms of reference Northern Ireland and other nations across the UK. What happened in Southport last summer was evil, senseless and incomprehensible. We all must learn lessons to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. Three little girls, Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe, were horrifically murdered, and 10 more were injured by an individual who had previously been referred three times to the anti-extremism programme, Prevent. It is clear that there were failings, and a public inquiry is needed. <BR /> <BR />As well as looking at that individual case, the inquiry will examine the wider issue of youth violence and extremism. That is a challenge that is, sadly, common across the UK.”
“What will happen in the next phase of Operation Encompass, and how will that evolve?”
“That work speaks to the dignity and strength with which the Dorrian family has campaigned for truth and justice. It is remarkable. <BR /> <BR />Today, I appeal to anyone with information to come forward to the PSNI. Twenty years on, we know that there are people in our community who know what happened to Lisa. I urge them to search their conscience and do the right thing. It is not too late: "Let's find Lisa".”
“Tragically, Lisa's mother, Patricia, passed in 2015, having never got answers, justice or a proper burial for her daughter. The family have been campaigning now for 20 years with the simple message "Let's find Lisa". Incredibly, they have used their grief to help others. The Dorrian family has been outspoken in calling for the introduction of Charlotte's law in Northern Ireland, which would increase the sentence for murderers here who do not disclose the location of their victim's body. The family has worked with the Minister of Justice and the family of Charlotte Murray to ensure that that law will be delivered. <BR /> <BR />Lisa's sister Joanne is the chair of K9 Search and Rescue, a charity based in north Down that conducts search-and-rescue missions to help families who have missing loved ones.”
“This week marks 20 years since Lisa Dorrian went missing. Lisa was from Bangor, and she was 25 years old when she went missing on 28 February 2005. She was last seen in a caravan park in Ballyhalbert, where she had been at a party. Lisa went missing that evening, and the police believe her to be dead, but her body has never been located. Lisa's disappearance shocked people not just from the area but from across Northern Ireland. A beautiful young woman, with her whole life ahead of her, just disappeared. It is a travesty that she has still not been found, 20 years later. <BR /> <BR />Lisa left behind her parents, Patricia and John, and her siblings Joanne, Michelle and Ciara. It is hard to imagine the pain and torment that they have had to endure.”
“<BR /> <BR />My party and I will vote in favour of the motions. I look forward to engaging in Budget debates in the future — a future in which Justice must be prioritised so that we can continue to protect and support the people whom we are here to serve.”
“<BR /> <BR />Much of the work in the Department of Justice is demand-led, whether that is from the growing prison population or legal aid allocations. We accept that, and the Justice funding must reflect that. We in the Chamber often warn against duplication and advocate for cross-departmental working and multi-agency approaches that are victim-centred and trauma-informed. Justice is central to the solutions, acting where others will not: it comes into contact with the most vulnerable in our society and works to protect them. I hope that everyone in the Chamber will recognise two things: the essential work of the Department and the fact that its services are stretched. To see that, all you need to do is look at the backlog in the courts system or the ongoing pressures on policing.”
“It is unclear when those will crystallise, but it is clear that they cannot be absorbed into the Department's general Budget allocation. A solution must be found in collaboration with the Finance Minister. <BR /> <BR />During a year in which the Executive looked to renegotiate our financial package from Westminster, Alliance's Justice Minister, Naomi Long, leaned into the mission at hand and ensured sustainable and responsible spending by a Department that has been historically underfunded. The Department of Justice funds access to justice, building safer communities, our Prison Service, reducing offending rates, support for our Courts and Tribunals Service and the PSNI. It deals with prevention, protection and the aftermath of much of what we deal with as a society. That is all vital work.”