Timothy Gaston
North Antrim · Traditional Unionist Voice · Northern Ireland
“I begin my remarks by putting on record, once again, my thanks to the victims and survivors who have campaigned for many years to bring us to this point today, where the Bill will pass its Final Stage.”
“There is an onus on the Assembly in the next mandate to ensure that the work continues, with a second phase of redress that will consider individualised acknowledgement of the harm and trauma that the birth mothers and adult adoptees experienced.”
“I trust that those who have worked diligently in the background on the terms of reference will reflect the requests of the Committee and those who have given evidence to ensure that they are victim-centred and that truth and justice will be pursued.”
“Throughout the process, the Committee has taken steps to ensure that victims and survivors of religious institutions, state homes and private homes see themselves reflected in the Bill.”
“At a recent meeting of the Committee for the Executive Office, the Migrants' Rights Network complained that, in the second half of 2025, the UK Government increased raids focused on illegal working. When raids increased by 76%, arrests increased by 169%.”
“The revelations that have come to light since dirty Donaldson's conviction and the red flags that his colleagues ignored raise profound and troubling questions for the DUP, but for Sinn Féin generally and Deirdre Hargey in particular to come to the Chamber and pontificate about safeguarding is utter hypocrisy.”
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“The motion has certainly brought out the best in some of us today. When I say "best", I mean the "best actors". First prize must go to Newry and Armagh MLA Cathal Boylan, who has been sent to try to defend the Sinn Féin position and to spin, twist and deflect from a health and safety issue that is a hazard for road users. It was, "He said"; "She said"; "What about you?"; "What about me?". What about taking some ownership for your party and what it has done at the Egyptian Arch? First prize goes to you for your comedy display. Indeed, I noticed that you did not take any interventions, so you were not that brave in delivering your party piece. <BR /> <BR />Next up was Alliance's Mr McMurray. I have sympathy for some of the things that he said but not for a lot of it.”
“There is something wrong with the policy, and that needs to be addressed today.”
“She told the House that she had received a message that the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was about to call a critical state and that there were 160 emergency and critical calls from those waiting for ambulances that could not be answered. <BR />Minister, it is time for you to get a grip on the issue. It is time for you to sort it out once and for all. Our constituents deserve better than they are getting. It is not the fault of the Ambulance Service. It is not the fault of the crews.”
“The Member makes a good point. If staff are told a category 2 call has come in — for example, a man with chest pains who has a history of heart problems — I have no doubt that the crew will go out, but the problem is that the crew is not being told that such a call has come in. That is a failing, and it is something that should have been put right nine months ago. I believe that it still has not been put right today. I ask the Health Minister to tell us — I will even allow him an intervention — whether he has put that right. It should be addressed today and not months in the future. As I said, the policy has been fatal in the past, and it will be fatal again if we do not get it right. <BR /> <BR />Last week, the Member for Upper Bann Diane Dodds raised directly with the Minister the deeply troubling stats on emergency and critical calls.”
“— will prove fatal again. I am happy to give way.”
“What measures are now in place to ensure that ambulance crews are informed when emergency calls are logged but not responded to? Not everyone is in the union. A policy of not advising crews that a category 2 call has come in has been fatal in the past and, if the situation is not addressed —”
“<BR /> <BR />Recently, I asked a narrow operational question about whether crews are at least being made aware that a category 2 call has been logged within the last hour of their shift. Instead of addressing the issue, the response was a vague, waffly answer about winter plans, flu trends and hospital discharge pressures. It did not say a word about ambulance call-handling procedures, notification protocols, industrial action constraints or whether any system change had been made to alert crews that a category 2 call is sitting waiting. Nine months on, it appears that no progress has been made and that no lessons have been learnt. The Minister may be on notice, but he is in his place today. I trust that he will give the Assembly a clear and direct answer about whether any progress has been made on that critical and crucial issue.”
“Often, when the ambulance comes, it can be too late. I think today of the Darragh family. Willy Darragh sadly passed away in December 2024 after having chest pains in his home. His wife rang 999 only to be advised that the quickest way that she could get her husband to A&E was to take him in the car. Sadly, Mr Darragh never made it to hospital: he took a heart attack in a lay-by on his way there. In April 2025, the Ambulance Service confirmed that an ambulance was, indeed, sitting in the Ballymena depot but that, due to being within the last hour of shift, the crew could not be assigned. As Willy Darragh was classed as a category 2 case, that crew could not be assigned, because of action short of strike. Let that sink in.”
“I submitted a freedom of information request to ask when he received the draft answers to those and other questions, and I was told in a response that I received just last week that the Department is in such a state of chaos that it cannot even tell me when the Minister received those draft answers. It is not political theatre, Mr Chambers; it is the reality that MLAs face in this place. It is no surprise that patients face the same chaos when they try to get medical care. <BR /> <BR />When Mr Donnelly proposed the motion, he said that he was speaking on behalf of patients on waiting lists, patients on trolleys and patients waiting in A&E departments or in ambulances. I want to give a voice to the families who have dialled 999 to call an ambulance and have waited with anxiety in their house.”
“When I come to the Chamber and raise specific issues, it is often because members of the public have asked me to raise those issues on their behalf. The Health Department has been by far the most frustrating Department for me during my 19 months in office. It is disappointing that, on many occasions, I have had to send constituents recordings of what has taken place in the Chamber or extracts from Hansard and tell them that I raised the issue but the Minister, in his summing-up, simply ignored the points that I had made. Similarly, when it comes to questions for written answer, the Minister knows that some of my questions have been sitting with his Department for nine months but should have been answered within 10 days.”
“Page 34 of the strategy, under "Pollution", states that 30% of water pollution incidents are traced to a farm source. It goes on to state that Northern Ireland Water is responsible for 10% of them. It is reported that more than seven million tons of untreated raw sewage enter our waterways each year, yet that is the only time that Northern Ireland Water is mentioned in your strategy. Where in your strategy or its supporting documents can I read about the specific actions, targets and timescales that you are setting Northern Ireland Water to limit the amount that it is discharging into our waterways, or is this another opportunity for you to give Northern Ireland Water a bye ball and kick the farmer?”
“Is the Minister satisfied that Waterways Ireland's people strategy and commitment to staff well-being, referenced in her statement, are compatible with a staffing profile in Northern Ireland in which 61 out of 98 staff are Roman Catholic and only 31 are Protestant?”
“Women, whether concerned about privacy, religious conscience and/or fundamental rights, are left without legal protections that are enjoyed elsewhere in our United Kingdom. Those rights are flouted in this Building. That is not compassionate or inclusive. I trust that common sense will prevail in 2026, that that obscenity will be put right and that the policy that we have for toilets in this place will be scrapped. It is time, in this Building, for you to be allowed to use only the toilet that reflects your biological reality.”
“That includes permitting biological males to use women's toilets based simply on a self-declaration of gender. The policy that we have reads as though it were drafted by the most extreme of trans activists, and, in practice, it was: Stonewall was consulted on the issue, and, going by the resultant document, it effectively wrote the policy. <BR /> <BR />The local Equality Commission defends its stalling on the issue on the basis that there can be no reduction in rights. In adopting that position, it has trashed the rights of women — rights that are recognised in countries that, unlike Northern Ireland, are full member states of the EU, such as Poland. Women and girls in Northern Ireland have no statutory guarantee of single-sex spaces.”
“Last week in England, an employment tribunal ruled that the dignity and rights of seven female nurses were violated because a hospital policy allowed a male identifying as female to use women's changing facilities. The judge found that the employer had exposed ordinary working women to a "hostile, humiliating and degrading environment." The judge also found that the employer breached health and safety obligations and engaged in "indirect sex discrimination" by failing to address their "legitimate concerns" about privacy and dignity. <BR /> <BR />It is correct for Members in the House to highlight that obscenity. However, in this very Building at Stormont, we operate a self-identification policy for toilets and facilities on the basis of gender identity.”
“— through getting our waste water infrastructure right.”
“Absolutely, Mr Deputy Speaker. As I said in my last breath, that reckless mismanagement shrinks housing supply, drives up rents and fuels tensions. Instead of confronting that reality, Members opposite want to impose so-called third-generation rent controls on people. <BR /> <BR />Where does the SDLP also want to take us? Would we be better off under Dublin? That is its long-term goal. The average rent south of the border in Dublin is now €2,000 a month. House prices are currently beyond the reach of ordinary working people. We absolutely have challenges here, but we need to confront the reality. Unless we get our waste water infrastructure right, we are always going to have that problem. Demand is greater than supply. We need to get supply right, and that can come about only —”
“— supply, drives up rents and fuels tensions.”
“I am coming to that, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is the case that the company at the centre of that is Mears, which is a government contractor that is hoovering up housing stock right across Northern Ireland. That has led to an issue with supply and demand once again. The more houses that Mears hoovers up, the fewer houses that there are for local people to avail themselves of. That, in turn, pushes up rents in other areas. Last May, the Executive Office told me that 288 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels. That is not compassionate policy but, rather, reckless mismanagement that shrinks housing —”
“In essence, that area in my constituency is closed, and the Minister does not want to know. That is a major problem that adds to the backlog. <BR /> <BR />The next issue that I will cover is HMOs, which are adding further strain to supply and demand. Members may not want to face up to the fact, but houses in multiple occupation are pushing up rents in working-class areas and hollowing out settled communities. The current centralised system is outdated and detached from local reality. Councils must own the responsibility for HMOs in their area. <BR /> <BR />There is another issue that the motion avoids, and it is that of asylum accommodation. We are housing asylum seekers in hotels and private properties at taxpayers' expense while failing to build enough social houses for our own people.”
“I acknowledge that fact, Mr Durkan, and I intend to use my time to reinforce that point. I acknowledge that the Opposition have previously tabled motions on the subject. <BR /> <BR />We heard the Sinn Féin contributor blame the Brits, just like her Minister, but she ignored the reality that her Minister presides over the failure of Northern Ireland Water. Currently, 73 waste water treatment works are at capacity. Developers are now paying out of their own pockets for makeshift engineering fixes just to free up capacity. When those efforts fall short, ordinary people are left in the lurch. <BR /> <BR />Let us look at a real, live case that I have in North Antrim. Back in July 2025, in response to a question for written answer, the Minister for Infrastructure said that Cullybackey is served by Ballymena waste water treatment works:”
“No one in the House can deny that rents are rising sharply and that families across Northern Ireland are being squeezed. In my constituency, young couples cannot get started, families are stuck in temporary accommodation and working people are spending an even greater share of their wages just to keep a roof over their heads. The motion, however, completely misdiagnoses the main cause of rents being driven up. <BR /> <BR />It comes down to supply and demand. One of the main reasons that we cannot build in Northern Ireland is the failure of Northern Ireland Water. That creates the demand. We simply do not have the supply to meet the demand.”
“Across the UK, Departments, and even the BBC, have withdrawn money from Stonewall's scheme, citing concerns about impartiality and value for money. The organisation is now reported to be in financial difficulty. In response to a question for written answer, the Executive Office confirmed to me that £875 of public money had been paid to Stonewall since the restoration of devolution. First Minister, will you give a clear commitment and assurance that neither your Department nor its arm's-length bodies will make any further payments to that discredited organisation?”
“— let us see what the reformers want to talk about.”
“With 25 years of experience of failed mandatory coalition —”
“Under such a system, legislation would be brought forward by Westminster Ministers but shaped, examined, amended and challenged locally by elected representatives. Committees would no longer be tamed by Executive loyalty but would robustly interrogate those exercising executive power. That is not direct rule by default or joint authority by stealth; it is a form of devolution that maximises local democratic input without handing the levers of government to those determined to wreck it. <BR /> <BR />The choice before us is not between the failed Executive and permanent rule from London. There is a middle way, one that, I argue, is a better way; a way that accepts 25 years of evidence and removes structural sabotage from the heart of government. If you want to talk about reform, that is an option.”
“For my part, let me be clear: if the choice is between dysfunctional and terrorist-inclusive government and British rule from Westminster, I know the side that I will be on. <BR /> <BR />Let us not make that choice, however. The Executive have failed comprehensively and repeatedly, but the Assembly itself, in its legislative role and scrutiny powers, has not. What fatally undermined scrutiny in the past was the simple fact that Ministers were being scrutinised by parties that were themselves part of the Executive that they were meant to be holding to account. I say this: remove the failed Executive model, retain the Assembly and its legislative authority and retain and strengthen its scrutiny role.”
“I am happy to set that out at the end, along with a solution to our current problems, but I will get back to what I was saying. <BR /> <BR />So long as the Executive can exist only with Sinn Féin at their heart and so long as Sinn Féin's political objective is the destruction of our Union, this place will continue to fail the people whom it is meant to serve. For 25 years, they have been promised that the next restoration, the next Government or the next reset will finally make devolution work. What do we have to show for it? Repeated collapse, chronic instability and an Executive incapable of taking hard decisions. Many people have understandably concluded that Stormont should simply be scrapped altogether, and I understand that frustration.”
“There is no flow of Executive legislation, and the Programme for Government promises nothing of substance. <BR /> <BR />But fear not: the SDLP has the solution. What we need is a statutory duty to cooperate with each other. The problem is not that Ministers are not cooperating; the problem is that the system itself is built to fail. The Executive model created by the Belfast Agreement requires the participation of parties that do not even believe in the continued existence of Northern Ireland. It embeds veto and rewards inaction. That is how the system is designed.”
“Absolutely not. It is the structure of this place. A mandatory coalition will never work — never ever, ever — without the best sound bites of what we have heard from the Floor today. <BR /> <BR />My goodness, what have we heard? The public have been promised stability, progress and delivery. Those were the very pledges and the justification given by those who wanted to bin all that and say, "Our promise on the protocol does not matter, because we need to get back to this place, and all our ills will be in the rear-view mirror". That has not happened, and the reality has been drift, delay and dysfunction. There is no agreed Budget; rather, you have Ministers openly attacking each other over the proposed Budget that is out for consultation.”
“The motion invites the Assembly to reflect on what is politely described as a failure of delivery by the Executive. The SDLP has provided the opportunity for the four Executive parties to mark their own homework during their contributions. What we have heard is pre-election sound bites ahead of the 2027 Assembly election, with the odd poke of the eye put in for good measure. <BR /> <BR />I make it clear at the outset that this is not a matter of poor implementation, missed targets or insufficient ambition; it is a problem of structure and of design. The SDLP cannot admit that, of course, because the structures that this place operates under are a product of its making. Time and again, the public have been promised stability, progress and delivery.”
“It is just the latest reason that many of us in unionism want to defund the BBC. It is partial, agenda-driven and does not reflect the grassroots community.”
“UTV has apologised; 'The Irish News' has apologised; and the local newspaper has apologised; but guess what? The BBC has not. Six months on from broadcasting the story, the BBC is still considering the complaint. For a publicly funded broadcaster that routinely lectures others about transparency and accountability, that delay is indefensible and means that a voluntary organisation continues to carry reputational damage from an allegation that has already been shown to be false. <BR /> <BR />The BBC is paid for by compulsory licence fees. With that privilege comes responsibility. The BBC must, without further delay, conclude considering the complaint and correct the record with the same prominence as was given to the original allegation. Anything less is not impartiality.”
“The Independent Press Standards Organisation upheld the complaint taken against the 'Belfast Telegraph' on precisely that point, finding that its reporting had given the false impression that the lodge's social media post had caused the cancellation, when the cricket club itself confirmed that that was not the case. When UTV was challenged by Ofcom to provide evidence for its reporting, it could not produce first-hand verification; instead, it produced screenshots from the BBC website. One media organisation was relying on another's untested reporting as evidence, creating an echo chamber in which assumption hardened into facts.”
“In July last year, a GAA summer camp in Comber was cancelled. Almost immediately, a narrative was constructed and amplified by the BBC that suggested that the cancellation was caused by opposition from the Goldsprings of Comber Loyal Orange Lodge. That narrative is wrong. That is not just my opinion but the conclusion of an independent regulator.”
“Trump has been condemned for rhetorical and hypothetical interference in Greenland, while the EU acts as a real colonial power over people in a non-member state, facilitated by the UK Government and parties in Stormont. Whether colonialism be from Washington or Brussels, it should be rejected. To condemn one and accept the other is rank hypocrisy.”
“However, while the Prime Minister claims to champion sovereignty abroad, he accepts a protocol that subjects the people of this part of the United Kingdom to rule by Brussels in over 300 areas of law. While Members will rail against President Trump, they will doff their cap to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. It is profoundly contradictory to claim that you stand with Denmark and Greenland against external coercion while accepting arrangements that undermine the democratic rights of the people of Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Let us be clear: Greenland's future belongs to the Greenlanders and should be decided by their elected representatives and their sovereign Parliament. The future of Northern Ireland should be decided by those whom we elect and our sovereign Parliament.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Today, we are witnessing an international debate over sovereignty, self-determination and economic bullying. The people of Greenland have made it abundantly clear that their future is not for sale to the highest bidder. However, in recent days, the president of the United States has escalated the situation by threatening to impose punitive tariffs on European nations, including the United Kingdom, if they do not acquiesce to pressure over Greenland. This morning, our Prime Minister rightly condemned the tariff threat, stating that penalising allies over joint security commitments in the Arctic is completely wrong. He affirmed that decisions about Greenland's future lie with its people and Denmark, as they should.”
“The customs code and customs charge are not an accident or an oversight; they are the logical and foreseeable consequence of surrendering control over our internal UK trade. That is something that no unionist should be complicit in, and, by sitting in the Executive day in, day out, those unionists and their parties are complicit in that taking place in Northern Ireland.”
“It was a Rejoiner's private Member's Bill to bring closer ties between the UK and the EU. Where were the DUP MPs during that debate? I know where your party leader was. He was stopping your Members trooping through the Lobbies to vote against it, and, because of that inaction, that vote passed, whereas it could have been snuffed out with DUP support. If we want consistency on these issues —. I know that the Member will probably take grave exception to how his party voted in that vote, but by its actions, it will be judged. In 2027, the electorate will give its decision on how the DUP mis-sold to the people of Northern Ireland the 'Safeguarding the Union' Command Paper, which has fallen apart. <BR /> <BR />I will get back to my closing comments.”
“I accept the Member's intervention and am glad that he agreed with everything that I have said in my speech. However, I put it to him and his party that, by going back into the Executive, they gave up the only thing that unionism had: leverage to try to get rid of the protocol. The DUP mis-sold a deal to unionists to come back into this place in February 2024. Indeed, his party has spent the past year trying to unravel and unpick the deal and say that, no, it did not say whatever. However, the fact is that the Member's party sold a deal to unionism to restore this place that was bluntly untrue. It contained lies. His party lied to the electorate, and it will be judged in 2027 for the stance that it has taken. <BR /> <BR />We only have to look back a number of weeks to a ten-minute rule Bill.”
“You cannot return to Government under the protocol and then fake surprise when Brussels continues to legislate for Northern Ireland. You cannot accept foreign customs control in February and then express alarm in July when new fees are introduced. You cannot brand Jim Allister a "dead-end unionist" for spelling out the truth on those issues almost two years ago and then, later, bring a motion to the House that underscores the fact that he was dead right all along.”
“Claims made in the House that a deal had been secured that met unionists' demands were, bluntly, untrue. That decision to resume devolved Government without the restoration of sovereignty over trade normalised the arrangements and signalled acceptance of the consequences.”
“The motion has exposed the fact that unionists returned to the Executive in February 2024 while the protocol remained fully in force.”
“<BR /> <BR />Once again, decisions that affect our economy and our cost of living are being made elsewhere, under a customs code over which we have no democratic control but to which we remain bound. It is not about international trade with the European Union; it is about parcels moving within the United Kingdom: a pensioner ordering clothing from England; a small business sourcing parts from Scotland; or a parent ordering school items from Wales. Those are everyday transactions, but they are now being treated as if they were imports to a foreign customs territory. That is not normal; it is not sustainable; and it is not compatible with the claim that Northern Ireland enjoys equal footing in the United Kingdom. <BR /> <BR />A wider political truth must be confronted.”
“The motion addresses something that goes to the very heart of daily life in Northern Ireland. The European Union intends to introduce, from 1 July 2026, a new customs fee on small parcels. That decision was taken not by Members of the Assembly or by Members of Parliament, and it certainly was not taken by the people of Northern Ireland or anyone elected by them. If the measure is imposed here, however, it will land directly on local traders, families and consumers, increasing the costs of goods from Great Britain and shrinking choice even further. That is the central injustice that the motion deals with. Parties will be judged on how they vote today.”
“It would appear, from reading the statement, that at no stage during the summit did the Northern Ireland delegation raise the most pressing problem that faces Northern Ireland in the context of the British Isles, namely the border in the Irish Sea, which, day by day, erodes our Union. That is not mentioned at all in your statement, deputy First Minister, under "Latest political developments". Did you raise it at that stage and, if so, why is not in your statement? Did you fail the unionist people by not raising it during the main summit, when you had each nation sitting at the same table? It is a problem that affects not just Northern Ireland but businesses in England, Scotland and Wales.”
“It is time for the Commonwealth Games Association to leave politics to the politicians, and the Ulster banner must continue to be used as the flag that represents Northern Ireland athletics.”
“Furthermore, it recognises the agreed position under the Belfast Agreement that Northern Ireland is and remains part of the United Kingdom. Moving away from a flag that beautifully marries distinctly Irish and British symbols is an attack upon that constitutional reality. <BR /> <BR />Finally, I remind the House that in many sports — athletics, boxing, cycling and a host of others — sportsmen and women must compete under the Irish tricolour at the Olympics. Tellingly, none of those who have been vocal about binning the Ulster banner have had much to say, if anything, about that inequality. This morning, I lodged a motion on the issue with the Business Office. I encourage those who share my concerns to sign my motion or, indeed, to put down their own, and I will be happy to support it and sign it.”
“The prospect of Northern Ireland's going to the Commonwealth Games without a flag due to the politicking of the local Commonwealth Games Association amounts to outrageous interference in a settled position. The Ulster banner has proudly represented us at the games since 1934. Why change it now? The simple fact of the matter is that there is no equivalent with broad consent that is recognised across the world as a flag that symbolises Northern Ireland. Whatever spin some may seek to put on it, the reality is that the world associates the Ulster banner with Northern Ireland in the very same way that a red dragon is a symbol of Wales. The Ulster banner is the flag under which generations of athletes from Northern Ireland have competed, won medals and been recognised.”