Nuala McAllister
North Belfast · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“I have submitted quite a number of questions for written answer on autism services, and the answers, sometimes on the same day from the Department, contradict themselves. The Minister often refers to the emotional health and well-being framework as the idea that will frame all of the uniform services.”
“Absolutely. Everyone is taking my speech; I was going to say that. Of course, it is complex and subjective to the individual person. If we are truly talking about keeping an individual safe and other prisoners safe, we would not do what the amendment proposes; we would carry on in the way that the system already operates, using a risk-bas…”
“I thank the Member for his question. The Assembly Commission is progressing a programme of remedial works to address defects identified in the roof of Parliament Buildings and to protect the long-term integrity of this grade A listed building. The works have been structured in two phases.”
“More often than not, we have conversations in the Chamber or in public about trans women, but that would place a trans man who has been convicted of a violent crime against a woman in a prison with women. It does not make sense, and it is not coming from the perspective of safety; it is coming from ideology.”
“In providing catering services throughout Parliament Buildings, the Assembly Commission strives to meet the differing demands of the special dietary needs of our wide customer base.”
“I support amendment No 96 and oppose amendment No 97. I do not plan to speak to amendment No 96, as there were a number of interventions last night, and I will leave many of the remarks to my party colleague the Minister of Justice. <BR /> <BR />We oppose Timothy Gaston's amendment.”
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“I have said before that, once they have entered the criminal justice system, particularly as a youth offender, society has already failed them. I have confidence in my colleague, the Minister of Justice, Naomi Long, in developing the appropriate ways of meeting needs for all the people in the criminal justice system. In order to do that, we need to ensure that we fund it adequately and properly. <BR /> <BR />I have no doubt that, in the next few months and years, we will see more done to meet training and development needs for everyone in the criminal justice system so that they can reach their full potential.”
“<BR /> <BR />ADHD diagnosis waiting times are drastically long, and the burdens are placed instead on our schools to deal with children who have complex needs and on parents and families who are not able to understand what can best help their child. <BR /> <BR />We cannot overestimate how valuable reading and listening skills are in our young people. We all know how important it is to read to our children every night before they go to bed. That is not just because of a bond; it is about identifying communications needs, because families can highlight when it is that their children might need additional support. <BR /> <BR />It is not just about one Department. I have mentioned Health and Education, but, of course, the motion is relevant to the Justice Minister, because it speaks about people who have entered the criminal justice system.”
“We also need to look at other issues, such as audiology waiting times. We know that a lot of people who have speech and language communication needs also have hearing difficulties. I must point out that my child has been on an audiology waiting list. I got a phone call last week, and I forgot when we first entered the list. It was when he was three; he is now five. If we have children who have speech and language needs and are awaiting audiology appointments for 18 months to two years, they are already being failed, especially in the first 1,000 days of their life, when their minds are like little sponges and they are learning to communicate properly.”
“The reason why I highlight that is this: not only does Sure Start bring much to meet community needs but it has people from professional backgrounds, such as health visitors and those who have previously been midwives. I point that out because it is often health visitors and midwives who help families to assess the needs of their child, on the basis of the individual. We cannot take a general approach; we need to take an individual approach to the child from an early age. Sure Start services can often point families to where people are best placed to meet the needs.”
“We need to see the expansion of Sure Start facilities, however, because not all communities that are in dire need can avail themselves of all its services.”
“I thank the Members who tabled the motion. A lot has been said, particularly about people who are part of the criminal justice system. I want to focus my attention on society as a whole. We all know that people do not suddenly develop a speech and language communication need when they enter the criminal justice system. If they have entered the criminal justice system, particularly as a youth offender, society has already failed them. <BR /> <BR />I will talk about a number of points on which we could focus here and in the Executive. Tackling poverty is one step to ensuring that those in society who are most vulnerable are assisted in the best way possible. We all know about the advantages of Sure Start and the schemes that it runs in our communities.”
“In that case, Minister, may I be cheeky and ask whether you will consider reversing the decision that was made, subject to a business case made to the Department of Finance? It is the most vulnerable in society who continue to be affected.”
“I thank the Minister for his responses so far and wish him good luck in his new role. <BR /> <BR />The Minister will be aware that tackling violence against women and girls requires all Departments to work together. Until the housing allocation scheme is fully implemented, can the Minister commit, in the meantime, to one way to do that: to include domestic violence as a form of intimidation in receiving intimidation points?”
“I will because I mentioned you, but I am running out of time.”
“It needs to be done by leadership from the outside too. <BR /> <BR />I call on all parties, not just those in the Executive but the Opposition parties too, to get behind reform in health care. I understand what the Members in the Opposition said, but when Members such as Justin McNulty stand up at meetings about Daisy Hill Hospital and mock Bengoa, what does that say about the Opposition's credibility in leading on healthcare reform?”
“In fact, the Royal College of Surgeons said that, over the next four years, 91% of surgeons could retire. Where is the succession planning? Where is the workforce training to ensure that there is not a huge gap that will further exacerbate the waiting lists? <BR /> <BR />I want to talk about where we should go. The Alliance Party would like to see policies such as those implemented in some of the Nordic countries. Sweden has the 0-7-90-90 rule for non-emergency care. You see your GP within seven days, a specialist consultant and diagnosis within 90 days and treatment for that within a further 90 days for non-emergency care. That is the long-term vision, and I recognise that there is a lot of work to get there. I recognise that this will not be done just by parties speaking up in the Chamber.”
“I agree, and no doubt the Minister also agrees that the British Government should fund us to our level of need. We will continue, like all Executive parties, to make that case. <BR /> <BR />I was just coming to the issue of the 2023 Audit Office report on tackling waiting lists. A number of Members have mentioned it today, and I hope that the Minister can give us an update on where we are with nine of the recommendations from the report. A number of organisations in Northern Ireland do a lot of work for people in the sector, whether that is Carers NI, the Royal College of General Practitioners or the Royal College of Surgeons, and they all have their thoughts on how we can actually move forward. We need to listen to them. They are the experts who work with people every day.”
“<BR /> <BR />At the Health Committee last week, I raised the options around domiciliary care and where we go with the future, particularly the 15-minute wait. We all know elderly loved ones who do not want to have people come into their home to take care of them, but they need that and so they accept it. However, when they have people coming in, dropping and going — just doing a check, 15 minutes and out — that is not the service that we expect. I raised the issue of the 15-minute visits and whether we can we get to a point where we move on from that. Investing in that service and in the workforce and upskilling people will really help to create that bed capacity and get people off the waiting lists.”
“In recent years, especially around the Christmas period, when times are really tough, families have been asked to come and pick up their loved ones or maybe look after them at home. Really, in this day and age, we should not have to rely on loved ones to take on the care of people who deserve it, whether in hospital or in their home. Why are we at that situation? It is because domiciliary care is not sufficiently funded. Also, how we appreciate that service is not sufficiently tackled. When we pay people the lowest of wages, what do we expect? They are not going to stay. They are going to go elsewhere, further exacerbating the problem. We need to invest in the domiciliary care workforce so that those who can enter, either through short stays at rehabilitation or at home, can be sufficiently targeted to do that.”
“<BR /> <BR />Today, we have heard from many Members that, despite our spending more per head in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK, we have by far the longest waiting lists. Often, those who have the means to pay go private, further exacerbating the problem, as Mr Robinson said. I assume that he was referring to the same consultant who he was waiting to see through the NHS but could pay privately to see them quickly. Where is the equity in that for the people of Northern Ireland? As many Members have said, we really need an NHS that is free at the point of entry, from the cradle to the grave. <BR /> <BR />One of the reasons why the waiting lists are so long that I want to focus on is that there are no spaces in our hospitals, because their bed capacity is maxed out because people cannot be discharged on time.”
“I support the motion and am grateful to the Members who tabled it. Indeed, at our first Health Committee meeting last week, all the members shared this issue. We look forward to having the Minister at the Committee to discuss plans to tackle waiting lists soon enough. As I said last week about the women's health strategy, we recognise, Minister, that you have only been in your post for a number of weeks, but you were the Minister for a number of years before suspension, so I do not doubt that you can really hit the ground running and that you will come back to us, maybe not in six weeks but, hopefully, soon enough, to set out what actions it will take to drive those waiting lists down.”
“We want to ensure that those facing the front-line pressures, whether in justice, health or education, are not the first people to be withdrawn across Northern Ireland. We can do that only if we have a Budget that is a vision for the entirety of Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />As I said when I made my first remarks, we are not where we wanted to be, but, unfortunately, given where we have landed, we need to ensure that we have a safety net for the Departments moving towards the end of the financial year. For that reason, we support the Budget Bill today, but we look forward to working with the Minister of Finance to ensure that we can realise the potential for the entirety of Northern Ireland moving forward.”
“In the past 12 years, the health budget has grown by 70% and the education budget by 45%, yet the justice budget has seen just an increase of a little over 3%. The policing budget takes up 70% of the justice budget, but it is just one element of the criminal justice system. If we are to have a fair and expeditious justice system, we need to fund it in its entirety. Mr Deputy Speaker, you and I know from sitting on the Policing Board that there are inescapable pressures when funding the justice system, but if we are to see a true and fair allocation of the entirety of the justice budget, we need to see that happen across the board.”
“The British Medical Association (BMA) has said, "We are frustrated by the slow pace of transformation and reform of health and social care in Northern Ireland. Plans have been made, but implementation has not followed". Cancer Research UK, while waiting for the full funding and implementation of the cancer strategy, has said that it has been disheartened, and much more, for so many people affected by cancer that, two years on, so little has been progressed. <BR /> <BR />When we speak today in the Chamber, it is not just about us as MLAs representing our constituencies. We are representing the entirety of Northern Ireland and the many allied health professionals and organisations that do their work, day in, day out, and know just what is right for the health service. <BR /> <BR />I will now speak a little bit about the justice budget.”
“I understand and can see that we cannot go entirely in the direction in which every single worker and union wants us to today, but, by ensuring that we progress this Bill and outline our vision for the future, we can lay down the right marker to be on that forward trajectory. <BR /> <BR />It is not just me, as Alliance spokesperson, or Members right across the Chamber who speak about the capacity of the health sector and the pressures that it is facing. That is coming from the sector itself. Many organisations out there speak directly to us about what they want to see when it comes to our health service's finances. The Royal College of Surgeons has said time and again, "We need three-year budgets. Recurrent funding is critical. We need £200 million every year for five years if we are to cut long waiting lists for good".”
“We need to ensure that we can rely on our workers by not driving them out of jobs, by paying them correctly and by valuing the work that they do in the service by ensuring that there is adequate provision in each of our disciplines. <BR /> <BR />Last month, I stood on the picket lines with many of our healthcare workers, education workers and Fire and Rescue Service workers. Those people chose their vocation because it is something that they are passionate about. If we want to ensure that people who are passionate about their role stay in that role, we need to pay them correctly.”
“When we do not have mitigations in place, we see waiting lists increase across health and education, more families in distress and more pressures on our statutory services. <BR /> <BR />Despite having the youngest population, Northern Ireland spends more per head on health and social care than anywhere else in the UK, yet our system is crumbling. It is not getting any better. It is overly bureaucratic and delivers by far the worst outcomes for waiting times, for diagnosis as well as for treatment. We want to ensure that what we spend is not spent on a failing system but on a system that is transformed, but we cannot achieve that transformation without ensuring that we have sustainability in the immediate future. That is why we need to ensure that, moving forward, our health service is put front and centre of that transformation.”
“As an example, I will talk about holiday hunger. The two-child cap on households in Northern Ireland has plunged so many families into poverty. In North Belfast, my constituency, over 1,000 households are affected by the cap. So many of those families relied on the holiday hunger programme in order to feed their children. We are talking about feeding children in 2024. Now that they do not have that safety net, those families have had to rely on other services in our community. When we did not see further expansion of multidisciplinary teams or Sure Start, more and more families were put on waiting lists and so turned to other statutory and community organisations. Again, it is not just about cutting services but about shifting the burden elsewhere.”
“We also had the Engage programme. A number of programmes in the Executive Office could not be fulfilled, not just because of the lack of an Assembly but because of the funding allocations. <BR /> <BR />When we have cut funds to non-statutory obligations, we have essentially shifted the burden. In the Chamber last week, I spoke on the issue of mental health in particular. When we cut the community and voluntary sector, the burden is placed back on the statutory sector.”
“Out of the previous seven years, we have had too many years where we have not been able to make decisions for the benefit of all of the people of Northern Ireland. However, moving forward, I look forward to the Minister highlighting the case with the Treasury and with our Departments for how we can realise that vision for the benefit of everyone in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />I want to move on to talk about how we landed in this position. Over the past two years, we have placed our permanent secretaries and civil servants in untenable positions, where they have had to take decisions that they, frankly, should not have taken. Unfortunately, we landed in a place where it seemed that everything that was not placed on a statutory footing was up for the chop. A number of MLAs have spoken about Happy Healthy Minds and about holiday hunger.”
“Thank you, Deputy Speaker. This is the first time that I have been in the Chamber when you have been in the Chair, so I congratulate you on taking your role. <BR /> <BR />I will try to keep my remarks short, but there are a number of areas on which I want to speak in particular as health spokesperson for Alliance and as a member of the Policing Board, as well as in my capacity as an Alliance MLA. I recognise that today's debate is not a vision for the future, and we must be clear on that when we make our representations to the public. None of us in the Chamber would want to be here today if this were the vision for the future, but, unfortunately, after more than a decade of Tory austerity, we are where we are and must deal with the public finances as they stand. They were obviously not helped by two years of the Assembly's not sitting.”
“Minister, I, too, congratulate you on taking up the role. In some of your answers, you briefly touched on the benefits of an independent environmental protection agency. Will the Minister outline some of those benefits?”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. I am conscious that he mentioned the budgetary situation, and we recognise that. However, not progressing the mother-and-baby unit, given the number of women who will need it, would actually increase budgetary pressures elsewhere. That initial spend — yes, of course, we recognise that it would mean initial spend — would save in the long term because those who go without the care that is desperately needed will impact on the health service elsewhere.”
“There is a clear need for a gendered approach to tackling the prevalence of heart disease and the disadvantage that women face at every stage of the patient pathway. <BR /> <BR />I was glad to see that the Minister referenced the need for a women's health action plan in his remarks when returning to office last week. That work is long overdue. Work had begun in the Department but, unfortunately, was delayed by the pandemic and the collapse of the Assembly. It is important that any such action plan takes on board a co-design approach with the many organisations and practitioners who are experts in the field. It is crucial that work resumes as soon as possible on the strategy to ensure that women in Northern Ireland can have confidence that their health is a priority for the new Executive.”
“There are clear disparities in health outcomes and life expectancy between the most and least economically prosperous areas of Northern Ireland. Research has also clearly shown that women from ethnic minorities face additional barriers when accessing healthcare, with particular challenges presenting in maternity care. If we are to properly address that, there must be an intersectional approach. <BR /> <BR />I welcome the amendment submitted by Linda Dillon and Liz Kimmins. It asks for a reduction in the gender gap in cardiovascular outcomes to be included, and we will support it today. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in Northern Ireland, with, according to the British Heart Foundation, around 26,000 women here living with heart disease.”
“<BR /> <BR />I thank the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy for highlighting the crucial role that physiotherapy can play in addressing many of the health inequalities that women face by providing tailored care for women throughout their lifespan. From prenatal care to post-partum rehabilitation, pelvic health, menstrual health, menopausal health, breast health and preventative care, physiotherapy can offer comprehensive support for women's unique health needs. That is just one example of how the strategy can and must take a holistic approach. <BR /> <BR />It is also important to note that any strategy must take account of the additional issues that women from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds face.”
“<BR /> <BR />The motion also discusses the importance of the inclusion of menopause services. We need to see specialist menopause clinics and a distinct menopause strategy in the action plan, because, too often, education and awareness around that has been lacking, with women left unprepared for the realities of menopause. I was glad to see that so many of our male MLAs took the opportunity to wear the MenoVest last week with Over The Bloody Moon and get a taste of what women experiencing menopause will go through. That is important, and any other MLA who would like to avail themselves of that service should do so to get a taste of what it is like for older Members.”
“The healthier women are at the start of their pregnancies, the better the chances of a more straightforward pregnancy and birth. Pregnancy is an opportunity for women to avail themselves of health services that may impact on and improve their health overall. It is a period of several months in which women will be in contact with healthcare professionals. They are usually younger women, and, therefore, they are at a time in their life when they can change unhealthy habits before those habits have taken an irreversible toll on their bodies. Importantly, maternity care is a moment to spot mental health issues and get them treated. The importance of perinatal mental health cannot be overstated. However, in a women's health strategy, those maternity services, including mental health services, should be part and parcel of a holistic approach.”
“Of course, contraception is a vital element, and it is imperative that any women's health strategy includes raising awareness of the various forms of contraception and the effects that they have on our bodies. Too often, young girls are pointed to specific contraception without knowledge of what is on offer and what may be best suited to their bodies. <BR /> <BR />Fertility treatment, pregnancy health and post-partum health are also key components of a women's health strategy. I have recently been engaging with the Royal College of Midwives, an organisation that has provided vital representation for midwives and advocacy around maternity issues for years. It highlights the impact of a woman's health on maternity services.”
“We are talking about a cancer that could be eliminated within the lifetime of today's young girls. I am sure that everyone in the Chamber will agree that we all felt the angst around the current issues with the trusts' review of cervical cancer, with some probing back as far as 2008. Any strategy must include lessons learned from those reviews and ways in which we can mitigate late diagnosis in a cancer that we can eliminate. <BR /> <BR />It is Sexual Health Week, and, through proper factual health and sexual health education, young girls can equip themselves with the proper information about their bodies, their health and how their life can impact on their health.”
“Therefore, if we are to tackle the health inequalities facing women, we must take a holistic approach that encompasses all aspects of healthcare. It must begin with ensuring that there is proper health education for women. From puberty to pregnancy and from menopause to mental health, we must ensure that everyone is equipped, not just women, with the facts around the health challenges that specifically impact on women throughout our lives. <BR /> <BR />Proper screening and early diagnosis is crucial to ensuring improved health outcomes. That includes the need for improved screening for gynaecological cancers. The current delay in smear test results, which can sometimes be up to six months, undoubtedly causes anxiety and could have a devastating impact on a patient's prognosis.”
“<BR /> <BR />I move on to the motion. It is an unfortunate reality that women often face additional barriers in accessing proper healthcare. Health concerns presented by women are still too frequently dismissed or incorrectly attributed to mental health or menstruation and the monthly cycle. Women are more likely to receive incorrect diagnoses for conditions such as strokes or heart attacks, and that leads to a delay in treatment and worse outcomes. Evidence has shown that a lack of research into conditions that specifically affect women can lead to poor health advice, missed diagnoses, delayed or ineffective treatment and overall worse outcomes. <BR /> <BR />Conditions such as endometriosis often go undiagnosed for years, further exacerbating women's health disparities.”
“The motion calls for the creation of a fully budgeted women's health strategy, addressing every aspect of a woman's life from birth as a priority. Many women's organisations, medical organisations and lobby groups have been in touch over the past week but also over the past decade to lobby us and to ensure that we highlight the issue and that we can get support across the Chamber for a women's health strategy. There are many issues that we can talk about today, and each of those organisations has highlighted the matter to me and, I am sure, other MLAs in the Chamber. I pay tribute to one such group, members of which are in the Public Gallery behind me today. Members of Nothing About Us Without Us have been working on the issue for years to ensure that their voices as women are heard when it comes to the commissioning of such a strategy.”
“I thank the Minister for coming today, and I recognise that he has been in post for only little over a week. We do not want to start apportioning blame today; we want to work constructively. I note that, in his responses, to Colin McGrath and originally, he talked about longer-term solutions, not just for the Children's Hospice but for all the hospice organisations. Does he agree, though, that the Department of Health has a larger role to play in the long-term solutions, particularly around discussions on the sustainability of the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice as a whole? What action, including plans, will he take with the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice to address its future sustainability?”
“Absolutely, I agree, and I thank my colleague for raising the issue. It would go a long way if the Assembly, behind the Minister of Education, called for a raise in the tax-free allowance. It goes some way in helping, but it is simply not enough. <BR /> <BR />I have said everything that, I think, needs to be said, particularly about ensuring that we have that proper bespoke childcare strategy here. Let us not dupe parents. Let us fix the system and ensure that we get it right from day 1.”
“<BR /> <BR />We need to think about it from birth up until the point where your child is allowed to and is able to stay at home alone, and we all know that it is different for every child. I implore the Minister to ensure that, when we implement the childcare strategy — I hope that we see it soon — we think about it in a holistic way.”
“I implore the Minister: while that might be a quick win, it will not work for the majority of parents. We need to standardise the preschool day, and we need to have childcare on top of that. We need to ensure that, no matter what we do going forward, it is fixed permanently. We may have delay in implementing this, but we want to get it right and make sure that whatever we do for parents means that more parents, especially women, can go back into the workforce and that, when their child turns four and is in school, they still have that childcare to rely on and do not have to think, "What do I do now?", and pay for after-school clubs, send them to swimming or football and rack up the costs there because it cannot be done anywhere else.”
“Then the grandparents come in. We all rely on our parents — our children's grandparents — to pick that up, but not everybody has that flexibility and that support, and that is why it falls on us in the Assembly and the Minister to help those families. <BR /> <BR />Wrap-around care is key. There is a lot of talk, particularly from the DUP Benches, about focusing on that standardisation for three- to four-year-olds, but I want to be clear, as the sector has been clear: preschool provision is not childcare. We absolutely should standardise preschool hours, but we cannot expect parents to top up with vouchers for the extra to make it to 30 hours. What childcare setting will take a child for an extra hour one day and two hours another day? It simply does not work. We need that bespoke reality for Northern Ireland.”
“We know that families have changed, that more women are in the workplace and that families may consist of one mum and one dad, two dads or two mums. Families are all different, and that is why we need to implement a childcare strategy that suits the needs of every family and every child. <BR /> <BR />I want to speak a little about school-age children. When we speak about childcare, we often focus on the nought-to-four age group, but, actually, it is the school-age children who can sometimes be forgotten. I am conscious that, just before the debate, I was trying to sort out childcare for my two children. Day care closes at 6.00 pm, but the Assembly will potentially not rise until after 6.00 pm. Many parents across Northern Ireland, whether they are working in hospitals or schools, just do not have that flexibility of childcare.”
“I want to focus on issues around childcare, which starts at birth. The reason I say that it starts at birth is that we need to think about maternity, paternity and adoption leave provision. Many parents, after three months, move onto quite low incomes because they are on maternity, paternity or adoption leave, and then, when they go back into work, they are immediately thrust into high-priced childcare. It just does not stack up. Before you have even given birth or adopted, you are already thinking, "What am I going to do? Do I return to work or not?". <BR /> <BR />Let us face it: we are where we are because of the patriarchy. For hundreds of years, society has been designed for men going to work and women staying at home, but it is not like that any more.”
“It is really frustrating to think that, here we are, 13 years later, and we are no further on.”
“I will focus on a number of issues that some Members across the Chamber have raised, but I am very conscious that, as I do, I am reminded of when I started working at the Assembly in 2011. One of the first things that I heard in the Chamber was Chris Lyttle, who was an MLA at that time, ask the Minister of Education a question for oral answer on the childcare strategy.”
“In North Belfast, we feel that squeeze just as much as any other constituency in which boots are being pulled from front-line policing. <BR /> <BR />Mr Speaker, I am glad that you indulged my slight sidetrack into North Belfast, but it is important that we highlight the fact that the Executive approach to public finances is about all our constituencies and all our people benefiting. For that, I hope that every party and every Member can support the motion.”
“If we do not pay fair wages, we will literally drive away those dedicated workers. <BR /> <BR />We feel the impact not only on our health and education system but on our economy. In the past two years, our people have not been able to reap the benefits of any new Barnett consequentials and the impact any additional finances could have on our economy. We could have had a bespoke affordable childcare system implemented so that parents in all our constituencies are helped back into the workforce. More money in parents' pockets means a more thriving local economy. <BR /> <BR />Our public finances must also enable safer communities. We need to properly fund our police service so that we can protect neighbourhood policing, which is fundamental to our communities.”
“PIPS on the Antrim Road, for example, provides outstanding mental health support services from counselling to crisis support to people in North Belfast and beyond. However, that crucial support should not fall solely to an under-pressure and underfunded community and voluntary sector. Our health service, including mental health support, must be sufficiently funded. It is literally a matter of life and death. <BR /> <BR />Our health services have been crippled by the dire financial circumstances that we find ourselves in. I took the opportunity to join public-sector workers on the picket lines in North Belfast a few weeks ago. I spoke to workers from the Mater Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital, and their commitment to our health and social care services was undeniable.”