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 Executive's lack of a short-term plan undermines their long-term promises. The maths simply does not add up, and communities are paying the price. <BR /> <BR />Illegal HMOs are adding to the strain. Members may not want to face up to it, but HMOs are pushing up rents in working-class areas. The current system, whereby all HMO applications are processed through Belfast City Council, is outdated and fails to address local needs and ensure safety for tenants. Councils need to be responsible for HMOs in their own area. For example, we are told that there are only 14 HMOs in the whole of the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area. My goodness. If one goes down into Clonavon — an area of Ballymena known as a G3 area — one could find 14 HMOs operating there. <BR /> <BR />Immigration places further pressure on our limited housing stock.”
“I am happy to support the Member's comment. The housing crisis cannot be solved without first solving the problems with our waste water infrastructure.”
“Northern Ireland Water says that it needs £640 million this year to fund its investment appropriately, but it has got £321 million. There are 37,000 houses with approved planning permission, but the network has capacity for only 18,000 in specific areas across Northern Ireland. Moreover, 34 areas across 23 towns are closed to greenfield developments. <BR /> <BR />I am happy to give way.”
“The promise of 100,000 homes by 2039 rings hollow when we cannot deliver 1,000 social homes this year. Over 44,000 people are on housing waiting lists. In my constituency, families feel the real impact of that inaction, which is worsened by such systematic failures as Northern Ireland Water's inability to support new housing developments. I met Northern Ireland Water officials last week, and the message was very clear: there are 73 waste water treatment works at capacity across Northern Ireland. At their own expense, developers are now having to connect road gullies to watercourses to free up capacity in the system to allow for connections.”
“Will the Minister confirm whether the anti-poverty strategy is fully costed and the necessary funding has been ring-fenced across all Departments? What specific, measurable outcomes do the Executive aim to achieve through the strategy and in what time frame?”
“<BR /> <BR />Although we often find ourselves speaking about the challenges that we face in this Province, it is good and right that we pause to celebrate excellence and acknowledge those who, by their talents, bring us together and lift our spirits. Michael Dunlop and Josh Rock are not only sporting champions but ambassadors for the very best of Northern Ireland. On behalf of the people of North Antrim, I offer them our congratulations and thanks. They have made history, and they have made us proud.”
“Michael has not only upheld that legacy but expanded it with unmatched resolve. He has made Ballymoney, North Antrim and all of Northern Ireland proud. <BR /> <BR />As if one sporting triumph were not enough, I must also express my heartfelt congratulations to the Northern Ireland darts team, which made history at the weekend by winning the 2025 World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt. In a nail-biting final, Daryl Gurney and North Antrim's own Josh Rock defeated Wales 10-9 to claim Northern Ireland's first-ever title in the tournament. Josh Rock's calmness under pressure and his exceptional skill have cemented his place among the world's elite, which he has taken while representing us all with humility and, indeed, class.”
“I pay tribute to two outstanding ambassadors for Northern Ireland: men whose skill, determination and passion have placed them firmly on the world stage and brought immense honour to our Province and to my constituency of North Antrim. <BR /> <BR />First, I extend my warmest congratulations to Michael Dunlop, who has rightly been recognised in the King's Birthday Honours with an MBE for services to motorcycle racing. Michael is a legend of road racing, a symbol of Ulster's tenacity and a true son of Ballymoney. With 33 Isle of Man TT wins and 51 podium finishes, Michael holds the record as the most successful TT rider in history. Those are not just numbers but represent years of courage, dedication to the sport and his sheer brilliance. The Dunlop name is engraved on the very fabric of motor sport in this country.”
“Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker. I got sidetracked there with the SDLP trying to divert attention from its sisters in the Government who forced this upon the United Kingdom. <BR /> <BR />I will finish with this: what is needed is the honouring of the 2016 referendum result, which was a vote for the United Kingdom to leave the EU. This legislative consent motion does not respect that result. Accordingly, I will vote against it.”
“There is the leader of the Opposition trying to distort. What I am saying to you is that this is to be used as a Trojan Horse by the Labour Government, which is your sister party, no doubt. You sit among them in Westminster. You sit on their Benches and support them when you want, but, at other times, you like to step away and not have anything to do with the Labour Party.”
“As unionists, we should be demanding that the result is respected, not subverted UK-wide. With the rise of Reform in Great Britain, the idea that people across our nation will tolerate such a situation for very long is for the birds.”
“The Bill behind the legislative consent motion is the means by which GB is brought into line with Northern Ireland, not the other way around. It is not a tool for restoring the Union. We are, to a degree, exporting the protocol. <BR /> <BR />I remind those unionists who view the protocol as, to some degree, a pragmatic solution to the sea border that 17·4 million people voted to get out of the EU. That is the biggest mandate in UK history. Some in this place like to pontificate about how regions of the UK voted. If you want to get into that game, I say that I am proud to represent North Antrim, which returned one of the largest Leave votes in the whole of the United Kingdom. Regardless, the solution to the protocol will never be to export it to the rest of the UK.”
“That was the price that was imposed on us by the protocol and its rebranding under the Windsor framework. If Northern Ireland is already aligned with EU law and Great Britain is now being given the legal vehicle to follow suit, who is aligning with whom? This is not the United Kingdom respecting the will of its people. This is not taking back control. It is the rest of the United Kingdom being brought into line with the part that has been left behind, namely Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />The Bill behind the legislative consent motion is a constitutional Trojan Horse. It has the potential to reverse Brexit by stealth by bringing the rest of the UK into something of the same bondage that we in Northern Ireland endure. If anyone claims the label of "unionist", they should be on red alert.”
“This legislative consent motion should concern every unionist in the House. The Bill that it concerns gives Westminster Ministers sweeping powers to make regulations not through debate, not by vote and not by parliamentary oversight but by diktat. Why? It is so that Great Britain may, at the discretion of the Executive, align its laws with those of the European Union, and not because the people voted for it or because Parliament debated it but simply because Ministers chose to do so. <BR /> <BR />Clause 2(7) allows a product to be deemed compliant, not because it meets UK law or EU law, but automatically, dynamically, without scrutiny and without consent. This part of the UK already lives under dynamic alignment with EU law in over 300 areas.”
“The Union is being hollowed out before our eyes, and the statutory rule is just another brick in the wall of constitutional betrayal. I urge other unionists to do the same.”
“Furthermore, it will not stop with that one regulation. There will be others. This is a process, not just a single event. EU law remains hardwired into Northern Ireland's internal system through the Windsor framework, and the price of that is our legislative independence. Some may ask whether this is really worth opposing, given the subject matter. My answer is yes. Principle is important. Today it is PCBs, but, tomorrow, it may be food standards or energy policy. What we tolerate in principle today we will be expected to submit to in practice tomorrow. I will not support a process that turns the Assembly into a mere implementation arm of Brussels diktats. I am here to represent the people of North Antrim, not the Brussels establishment. <BR /> <BR />I will vote against the motion.”
“What exactly is the Assembly's role? Is it to rubber-stamp it or risk being told that we are in breach of the framework? That is not technical alignment; it is political submission.”
“Even the explanatory memorandum admits that the draft statutory rule partially implements regulation (EU) 2019/1021. Our laws are being progressively adjusted and realigned to fit the European rule book. Although that may not bother the Minister, and, by the looks of things, it may not even bother other unionist MLAs in the Chamber, it bothers me, as a democrat.”
“It is therefore not retained EU law. It is not assimilated law, nor is it law that we in the House have freely chosen to adopt on its merits. No, it is a requirement that is being imposed externally, which the Assembly is being compelled to implement in order to comply with the obligations under the Windsor framework. We are being told, "Vote for this or violate an international agreement". That is not democratic accountability. That is not devolution. Rather, it is dictatorship. Let us reflect on what that means. The people of Northern Ireland are subject to laws that they did not vote for, made by institutions that they do not elect and forced by powers that the Assembly cannot resist. The draft regulations exemplify that reality.”
“I oppose the draft statutory rule because of how and why the legislation is being brought forward. Let me be clear: these draft regulations are not simply a technical update but part of a broader and far more troubling pattern, which is the ongoing subjugation of Northern Ireland's lawmaking powers by the European Union via the Windsor framework. <BR /> <BR />Paragraph 9.1 of the explanatory memorandum could not be clearer. It states:”
“Will you give a commitment here today to do your best to set up a cross-departmental working group to address those issues, and, without the buy-in of the other Departments, will you lead on them?”
“Minister, a number of months ago, Colin Crawford and I hosted the Education Minister at Castle Tower School in Ballymena. The principal is keen to pilot a scheme similar to that for colleges, which is set out in your statement, but it requires the buy-in from the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department for the Economy. <BR /> <BR />In the statement, under the strengthened foundations theme, we read:”
“Deputy First Minister, I trust that, when you came to Ballymena, you got the message loud and clear that photographs, buzzwords and glossy brochures are simply not working. At what point do we go back to the drawing board to ensure that money is spent on strategies that will deliver on the ground and show that there is an alternative to violence for getting your voice heard, which is a narrative that has been created by your partner in government?”
“— to answer questions about where the Police Service of Northern Ireland was.”
“This afternoon, we have heard plenty of hand-wringing from MLAs who were neither on the ground that night nor are they even from North Antrim. I put on record my thanks to a couple of people in the Housing Executive: Brendan Doherty from the out-of-hours team and Roy McClean, who went above and beyond to help elected Members on the ground on Monday night and Tuesday morning to get people rehoused. Minister, I trust that those who are focusing their attention on solely your Facebook post will ask the council why it did not close the leisure centre and will ask their Justice Minister where the police were when they knew about what was going to happen. The police had four members of staff stationed at the leisure centre, but they disappeared. My goodness, what a dereliction of duty. The Justice Minister should be here —”
“On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. During the last exchange, when I asked the Finance Minister a question, he turned it round and rhetorically directed it back at me. Surely that is not the process for a Minister who comes to the House to deliver a statement. He should be obliged to give a Member, no matter who that Member is, a sensible and respectful answer to the question that he has asked.”
“The £50 million loan for Casement leaves a large shortfall. Does the Minister support a clawback clause for money from non-GAA events held at Casement?”
“The people of Northern deserve better. They deserve transparency and integrity in public office. The Bill offers none of that. That is why I have opposed it from the beginning at every stage and in every form in full view of the public, who are footing the bill for it, and it is why I will vote against it again today. Shame on those who will vote for it and who have backed it from the beginning. Self-interest reigns supreme, and the Member from the official Opposition typifies that with his arguments.”
“Chuntering from the sidelines is all that the official Opposition are good at.”
“That is something that the official Opposition cannot and will not face up to.”
“cannot compare Westminster to Stormont. The official Opposition, along with the rest of the pan-nationalist front, were happy to give away 300 areas of law to a foreign legislature.”
“Westminster exercises all the powers that it is given, so you”
“A Member from the official Opposition speaks. It is great to see some scrutiny of the issue come from the official Opposition. He looks to Westminster. Westminster exercises all the powers —.”
“That is a conflict of interest dressed up as experience. The original rules rightly excluded former Members. The Bill removes that safeguard for no good reason. <BR /> <BR />The Bill is a symptom of what is wrong with Stormont: a culture of entitlement, enabled by back-room agreements and protected from public scrutiny.”
“The justification from one member of the Commission is that MLAs with families need to keep up with their counterparts elsewhere. Tell that to the carers on £81 a week. Tell that to the young family on universal credit. Tell that to the nurses, the porters and the social workers. Worse, it rings hollow to compare us to other legislatures. Unlike every other legislature cited in clause 3, the Assembly has deliberately chosen not to exercise full legislative authority. It handed swathes of power to Brussels and cannot even set its own standards in key areas of economic life. An institution that abandons power should not demand parity of pay with those that exercise it. <BR /> <BR />Clause 5 makes former MLAs eligible to sit on the very board that will determine future pay and pensions.”
“Every amendment that I proposed at Committee Stage — amendments aimed at restoring some integrity to the process — was rejected. The message from the majority was clear: "Nothing to see here. The pay rise train is running on time". <BR /> <BR />We are told that the Bill merely empowers the remuneration board, but let us be honest: clause 3 gives the game away. When you instruct the board to have regard to salaries in other legislatures, each of which pays significantly more than the Assembly, it is not about reform; the dice are loaded for a guaranteed upward trajectory.”
“There was no public consultation prior to the publication of the Bill, no transparency and no input from parties excluded from the cosy carve-up. It was a stitched-up deal from the start, and all the parties on the Commission know it. The names of the Members on the front of the Bill are telling: they are from Sinn Féin, the DUP, the Ulster Unionists, Alliance — none of them are in the Chamber — and the SDLP. Every party with a seat on the Commission has put its name to the scheme and would have carried it through quietly had it not been for the two of us in this corner being determined to shine a light on what they were doing. What about the official Opposition? Do not make me laugh. There was certainly no opposition when it came to awarding themselves a pay rise.”
“Well, we have reached the Final Stage of a Bill that should never have made it this far. From the beginning, the legislation has been marked by secrecy, self-interest and, indeed, plenty of spin. It was conceived behind closed doors, pushed forward without proper public consultation and dressed up as reform. In reality, it is nothing more than a vehicle to enable MLAs to award themselves a substantial pay rise — one that they dare not put to the public in plain terms. One might wonder whether, had Mr Carroll and I not been here, anyone would even have mentioned the reason for the legislation before us. <BR /> <BR />Let us recall how we got to where we are today. The Commission consulted only the parties that are represented on it.”
“Do not call representatives racists for speaking out and then act shocked when locals feel that the House will not listen to them, much less respond to their concerns. Do not send the South Belfast MP to Ballymena like an anthropologist to film the local environment and then deliver her lecture from her natural habitat of the BBC studios. Keep ignoring those issues, but know this: for all the talk, and by refusing to so much as facilitate a debate around immigration, you are fuelling the fire.”
“<BR /> <BR />During my first speech in the House last August, I raised concerns about undocumented immigration in Ballymena. What was the response? It was sneering from the Alliance and nationalist benches. They have learned that I will not be silenced, but nothing else has changed. Without a mature debate on immigration, especially on undocumented immigration — people crossing from the Republic with zero checks — tensions will continue to grow, not just in my home town but in towns across Northern Ireland. The BBC claims that there is no influx. That is a nonsense. Do not cite documentation in an attempt to disprove undocumented immigration. <BR /> <BR />When will politicians stop gaslighting the public on the issue? Do not tell people that what they see is not real.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. <BR /> <BR />Last week's disorder in Ballymena has greatly saddened me. A town that I am proud to represent has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, leaving destruction and heartbreak, including for the young men who are facing prosecution. I condemn the violence. I deplore racism. Violence has never been, nor will it ever be, the answer. However, the Assembly is part of the problem. When criminals walk free, some from the Maze to ministerial limos, is it any wonder that people think that violence pays? There is hypocrisy from Ms O'Neill in condemning Ballymena's unrest while commemorating the terrorist Thomas McElwee, who burned to death Yvonne Dunlop, a young mother, in my home town.”
“— that will work with them to address environmental issues —”
“In light of your comments last week, farmers do not care about sexuality, political outlook or religion. They want a Minister who will work for them and with them to tackle the pressures that they face. They want a Department —”
“Tell that to the farming community, Minister. My goodness. In the form of your nutrients action programme, we now see farmers being blamed for complex environmental problems, while their vital contributions to food security, rural economies and environmental improvement are ignored. <BR /> <BR />There is an ideological edge to the narrative. The Minister's former membership of Greenpeace is a matter of public record. It is hard to believe that that outlook does not shape the policies coming from the green welly brigade in his Department. Water quality has improved, especially in agricultural catchments, thanks to real and costly investment by farmers, who are the custodians of the land. <BR /> <BR />Minister, a message from farmers: farmers are not the problem; they are a vital part of the solution.”
“<BR /> <BR />Let me now add some context. Slurry became a liquid by-product on Northern Ireland farms only in the 1950s, yet here we have evidence of algal blooms back in 1923. Discolouration was reported again in 1937, 1969, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1978 and repeatedly throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. To suggest that it is a new phenomenon caused solely by modern farming is historically illiterate. <BR /> <BR />Last October, I raised the issue with the Department and pressed the Minister on the fact that the Department for Infrastructure and Northern Ireland Water were major contributors to the pollution of Lough Neagh. What did the Minister say back then? What was his response? It was this:”
“Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I hope that the penny will finally drop today that, as well as losing the confidence of the farming industry, Mr Muir has lost his political cover to force farmers to destock farms under the guise of his nutrients action programme proposals. <BR /> <BR />Prior to today's debate, I decided to do a little detective work that turned up some interesting facts. The earliest time to which I was able to trace pollution issues in Lough Neagh was September 1923, when there was a 'Mid-Ulster Mail' article with the headline "Discolouration of Lough Neagh". Environmental science was in its infancy back then, yet the causes that were identified are strikingly familiar: sewage effluent, land drainage and warm, calm conditions encouraging algal bloom. Does that sound familiar, Minister?”
“— decided that he knows better than the industry?”
“The Member talks about the consultation. In previous NAP reviews, the industry was consulted, whereas, in this NAP review, the Minister has gone with his own ideological vision and enforced proposals on the farming community. Previously, Ministers worked in conjunction with the industry —.”
“Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance are out of touch with science, common sense and the people whom they claim to represent.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Last month, the results of a LucidTalk poll, which were published in the 'Belfast Telegraph', revealed that 72% of Northern Ireland's population supported the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed that the term "woman" refers to a biological woman. That overwhelming majority transcends political divides. Sinn Féin lauds an Executive Office strategy on ending violence against women and girls while its leader in this House cannot even tell us what a woman is. <BR /> <BR />Just a few weeks ago, the Justice Minister defended a policy of housing men in female prison spaces. Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP members of the Executive Office Committee all recoiled in horror when the Women's Rights Network bravely stood up for 51% of the population. To quote one member of the Committee:”