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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“It tried to create a situation where a child aged 11 or under could not commit an offence and where those aged 12 and 13 could be prosecuted for only five offences: murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape and assault by penetration. That is all. Everything else falls outside criminal law. <BR /> <BR />I noticed that Mr McNulty tried to change the narrative, but the events of recent days should have caused Members to reflect. However, they did not. We should not pretend that children aged between 10 and 13 were not engaged in serious offences. If the House had been allowed to pass amendment No 82, it would have positively encouraged children between 10 and 13 to commit crimes when disorder breaks out without fear that the law would apply to them. Take the example of the bus that we saw burnt in east Belfast just a few days ago.”
“<BR /> <BR />Northern Ireland does not operate a harsh and punitive regime for children. Our youth justice system is already built on diversion. It already recognises that children are different, and it already seeks rehabilitation rather than punishment. Youth conferences, diversionary disposals, supervision and support are already at the heart of the justice system. <BR /> <BR />The reality is that custody is rare. Prosecution is often the last resort. The current law already provides a balanced framework. What concerns me is that amendment No 82 tried to go further, beyond what is there and beyond recognising childhood.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I will return to examining the amendments in front of us. I will concentrate solely on the group 6 amendments. <BR /> <BR />What are the group 6 amendments all about? They are not about whether children should be treated differently from adults, as they should be, nor are they about whether vulnerable children deserve support, intervention and rehabilitation, as they do. The focus of that group of amendments is much narrower and more practical. It is on whether Northern Ireland should remove the criminal justice system's ability to deal with the most serious offending committed by children aged between 10 and 12 years old. The answer to that question is a resounding no. That is why 30 MLAs signed the petitions of concern. They felt passionately that raising the age before you can commit an offence is reckless.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I go back to my remarks and concentrate on amendment Nos 79 and 80, which are in the name of Sian Mulholland of the Alliance Party. <BR /> <BR />The Alliance Party always likes to seek power at the ballot box, but, soon afterwards, it is captured by its own ideology, not insisted on by the public but cooked up at its party headquarters. On this issue, like many others, the Alliance Party is not even listening to what its voters want. We all know that, during the George Floyd unrest in the United States, two Alliance MLAs chose to make personal donations to the bail fund.”
“Absolutely, and that is what I am entitled to do. I will take my time to go through where I firmly stand on the minimum age of criminal responsibility. The reason, however, for bringing up that point is that I raised the age of criminal responsibility as a concern at Second Stage. The Member got to her feet and made a point of order that it should not be a concern, because it was not within the parameters of the Bill in front of us.”
“We have found something that we can agree on in the Chamber tonight. There are a lot of amendments, and the trees have been harvested in the name of the Member for North Antrim Paul Frew. <BR /> <BR />I will go back to my point. The spoiler alert is that the Alliance MLA who tried to shut down this line of debate at Second Stage by saying that the age of criminal responsibility would not form part of the Bill was Nuala McAllister, yet, 21 months later, here we are, debating a number of amendments on the age of criminal responsibility.”
“I am happy to give way to Mr Frew, the Chair of the Justice Committee.”
“Indeed. I was going to make that point. For all the environmentalists who do not like to waste paper, I do not know how many pages the Marshalled List is, but it is a quare sheaf.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. Although I am in the Assembly only a short time, in my two years here, I certainly have not seen such a sheaf come in front of us.”
“I will take that on board, Chairperson. That is me put in my place, if only it were as easy to do that. You will have found over the past two years that it is not just as simple to disregard what I have to say when I am given the Floor.”
“And there we have the condescending, sneering remarks from the Chair of the Executive Office Committee. That is a case in point.”
“I expected a prolonged intervention and expected her to say something else, but Sian has taken great exception.”
“The party of the Member who said that that was not a principle of the Bill has tabled an amendment on it. I say that so that we can keep up and to ensure that everybody is aware of the duplicity of the Alliance Party, because this is what it intended to do all along: it intended to have a Bill that would be wide enough to allow it to farm out to other MLAs in the party things that it could not get through the Executive, so that they could bring those things through and do the Minister's bidding. <BR /> <BR />I am happy to give way to my North Antrim colleague.”
“— an Alliance MLA got to their feet to make a point of order. I will take an intervention in a minute. That MLA stated:”
“The party gave that a lot of thought: it put in one line about it. <BR /> <BR />Continuing that train of thought, I want Members to cast their minds back to the Second Stage debate on the Bill, which was on 1 October 2024. During my contribution, I cautioned Members against any attempt to amend the Bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility, reminding the House of:”
“It is good to hear that you now have an interest in victims, given that, for many years, those in your party did not. They were the victim-makers. Maybe that is a part of history that you do not want brought up. You do not want to talk about that bit of history, but, while I am in the Chamber, I will make sure that you and the rest of your party are never allowed to forget it. <BR /> <BR />I will move on to the Alliance Party. I give the Alliance Party credit for at least mentioning this in its manifesto. Buried away on page 23 of its 94-page manifesto is the sentence:”
“Ms Sheerin, I can certainly assure you that I am no pawn for the DUP. I signed the petition of concern out of conviction and principle as soon as I knew that it had been laid because — you know what? — it was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do because I could not trust Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance or, of course, Mr Carroll from People Before Profit to make a decision that would safeguard my children and their future. I will take no lectures from Sinn Féin — especially not from you, Ms Sheerin —”
“— as that which they sought. <BR /> <BR />I am happy to give way to Ms Sheerin.”
“I discovered that two parties — the SDLP and Sinn Féin — had nothing to say about raising the age of criminal responsibility. Where is the mandate from the people that they talk about, given that it was not even worth putting in their manifestos? We had Ms Ferguson saying that it disrespected her party's mandate. Well, it was not a big enough issue to include in your manifesto. The truth is that neither party has a mandate from anyone to change the law in such a significant, profound and controversial way —”
“Apparently, tabling a petition of concern amounts, in their words, to a denial of democracy; yet, last night, Alliance was so keen to railroad through its will that its Chief Whip proposed closing the debate on the group 6 amendments without hearing from the parties in this corner of the Chamber. I am well used to Ms Bradshaw not wanting to give me my fair say on a Wednesday afternoon, but it is a bit rich of the Alliance Party to complain that its mandate is being disrespected when it sought to prevent some Members from taking part in the debate, ensuring that they would not say anything at all. <BR /> <BR />I did a wee bit more reading this morning to see what the nationalist and republican parties and the Alliance Party had to say about the issue in their manifestos.”
“It is not surprising that it does not do so, as Sinn Féin is more akin to a victim-maker than to a supporter of the rights of a victim. <BR /> <BR />How did the SDLP react to amendment No 82 not being moved? Well, going by its Members' contributions, one could be forgiven for forgetting that the petition of concern was the birth child of the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists as part of the Good Friday Agreement. <BR /> <BR />Alliance Members were frustrated at not being able to move amendment Nos 79, 80 and 82. They did not get what they wanted, so they tried to lift the ball and walk off the pitch.”
“The spectacle that we all witnessed last night from members of the liberal elite in the Chamber was nothing other than self-combustion. Even by their own standards, it was a spectacle for all to behold. Time and again, the mask of the self-righteous MLAs slipped as, between their sniping and sneering remarks, they struggled to hold it together. <BR /> <BR />As a result of not getting to move amendment No 82, Sinn Féin Members were visibly irate. They even walked out of the Chamber, only to return a short time later, as they realised that the debate was going on without them. Ms Sheerin accused those who signed the petitions of concern of blocking the rights of children. At what point, Ms Sheerin, does your party ever consider the rights of the victim?”
“Given that the IRA bombed the heart out of Belfast and my home town of Ballymena, which resulted in the murder of Yvonne Dunlop, will you outline, Minister, exactly the skill set that former IRA man Peter Lynch brings to economic development that justifies him sitting on the board of Invest NI, apart from being one of the boyos?”
“I did not have the benefit of seeing whether the Minister delivered that answer with a straight face. I can only think that he did not. Given that it was exposed that a poor culture existed at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), with video evidence showing slurry being blown into a local forest, amongst other breaches, when will all the data behind the NAP proposals be published to allow the industry to robustly scrutinise it? Minister, to be brutally honest with you, you and AFBI have little or no credibility left among the agriculture industry. The answer that you provided sums that up nicely.”
“The Minister's draft climate action plan can be found on the DAERA website, where it lists a 21% reduction in agri-emissions by 2030. The colourful document states that this will be achieved by a reduction in livestock of 22% for dairy cattle, 17% for beef cattle and 18% for sheep, pigs and poultry. Minister, is it now time for you to come clean with the industry that the proposals that you are taking forward will lead to destocking of farms through either the draft climate action plan or the other measures that you are bringing in through the nutrients action programme?”
“Does she care — that is the question — or is Alliance still on the same page as it has previously articulated in this place, which is that there is no such thing as illegal immigrants? Those are the issues that the House does not want to talk about, and those are the questions that Mrs Long certainly has not answered. It is time that she did. <BR /> <BR />Throughout our United Kingdom, there is much talk about "Stop the boats". In Northern Ireland, we also need to talk about stopping and checking the buses. We had policing devolved to Stormont. What benefit has it brought? Our Justice Minister needs to come forward and tell us what she is doing about the issue.”
“<BR /> <BR />Another message from the open-border brigade in this place is, "We do not care about the issues that led to the brutal stabbing and attempted beheading a week ago today". Seven days on, where is the statement from the Justice Minister telling us what her Department and her agencies are doing to stop illegal immigrants taking the route that the would-be killer took into Northern Ireland? How many buses from Dublin have PSNI officers stopped to check for illegal immigrants? How many people have been sent back to the Irish Republic because they sought to come here illegally? More tellingly, how many illegal immigrants have come by that route? How many illegal immigrants are living in Northern Ireland today? Does the Justice Minister know?”
“Unlike some in the Chamber, my party and I have always been clear about violence: it is wrong; it is counterproductive; and it needs to stop. You will look in vain for any TUV representative who has said that there was no alternative to bombing, shooting, kidnap and murder. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the self-styled First Minister for all. A political class that accepts that — every party that partners Sinn Féin in government has accepted it — cannot lecture others on violence without many people rolling their eyes at its hypocrisy. For many, sadly, when it comes to violence, the existence of this place sends a message of, "It worked for them, so perhaps it will work for us". That mindset is the product of this Stormont.”
“I trust that when she sums up, she will outline the safeguards to address the concerns that the provisions will not be abused, that legacy cases will not come back to bite police officers and that sinister elements in political and republican circles will not use this law to dig up past cases and convictions. <BR /> <BR />The Justice Minister does not want to take me up on that offer. On that basis, I will draw my remarks to close. I trust that she will address those concerns in her winding-up speech.”
“If the Justice Minister wants to take me up on that point, I will be glad to give her an intervention. <BR /> <BR />Indeed, if the ombudsman wants to bring a case against a retired police officer, is it the case that the PSNI's professional standards department will have the power to decide whether a case is brought forward? What safeguards are in place to make sure that there are no vexatious complaints in legacy cases as a result of this legislation? I hope that the Justice Minister will make an intervention on that now, or, if not, pick up those points in her summing-up. The Justice Minister seems to want to sit in her seat and not take the invitation to make an intervention.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I am glad that you want to hear me. My comments will be brief. <BR /> <BR />There is no doubt that there have been a few bad apples and rogue elements in the police force. Those police officers should be held to account. I want to seek safeguards from the Justice Minister on this group of amendments. Exactly how far in the past will this group of amendments allow investigations to go? That is key to securing our moving on to the next stage. Yes, we hear all about regulations, but I do not see them. The regulations will come after the Bill receives Royal Assent. I seek from the Justice Minister today a safeguard as to where and when the line will be drawn on how far back investigations into police officers can go once they retire.”
“My intervention will be a short one, in order to abstract some safeguards on the group of amendments that we are considering this evening. I have no doubt that there are bad eggs in the police force. If there are rogue elements in the police force —.”
“<BR /> <BR />The BBC frequently lectures others about accountability, transparency and honesty, yet when it came to the Orange Order, all those principles went out the window. Why? Many, including me, believe that it was because the BBC in Belfast could not contain itself when it thought that it had a chance to kick an Orange lodge. Standards, checking and editorial guidelines all went out the window because it was the Orange Order. The truth has finally caught up with the BBC. I will continue to call out its double standards and hold it to account. What it reported was a lie, but, thankfully, we now have that acknowledgement.”
“A formal apology has been issued for its "lapse in editorial standards". Those are the BBC's words, yet what concerns me most today is not the original mistake but the fact that it took the BBC almost 11 months to reach a conclusion on a complaint that turned on a simple matter of the timeline. <BR /> <BR />For month after month, the complainants were effectively told that the matter had been dealt with. I raised that in the House in February. The BBC then claimed that the complaint had already been dealt with, yet its highest complaints body has now concluded that the clarification itself was inadequate because it failed properly to acknowledge that the original reporting was, indeed, wrong.”
“I welcome the news that Goldsprings of Comber LOL 1037 has won its battle to get the BBC to apologise. I will remind the House of what happened. Last July, the BBC reported that the cancellation of a children's GAA summer camp in Comber happened after, or because of, a statement issued by the lodge. That was a lie that the BBC went on to broadcast repeatedly across television, online platforms and its radio stations for two full days. It is not a matter of opinion or interpretation, it is a straightforward question of fact. Last week, after almost 11 months, the BBC's executive complaints unit finally upheld the complaint. <BR /> <BR />The BBC now admits that its reporting was based on a "mistaken premise". The BBC now admits that the issue represented was not just a failure of clarity but of accuracy.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This morning, I submitted a question for urgent oral answer about the attack in north Belfast to ensure that the Minister of Justice comes to the Chamber to answer questions from MLAs. The incident is not currently being treated as a terrorist offence. That means that the attack sits within the Justice Minister's responsibilities. We now know that the man is Somalian. I want to know —”
“— and did the right thing for the people of the United Kingdom.”
“— and it is time that the House faced up to the realities. It is time that the British Government took a stand —”
“That is what we saw last night. It is time to close our borders —”
“<BR /> <BR />The issues that the case raises need no longer be off limits to the Chamber and the Committees of the House. The most basic duty of government is the defence of its citizens. People need to know that they are safe to walk the streets without fear or danger of someone attacking them or, indeed, trying to cut off their head. Those who attempt to shut down discussion of those issues are not liberal. They are not standing up for the marginalised and oppressed in our communities to defend the policies that led to last night's attack. Advocating them is, positively, a danger to our communities in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Some people dare to say that raising such issues is not Christian. We are warned in Deuteronomy of:”
“Last night's events cannot be divorced from the immigration debate, and anyone who attempts to do so is gaslighting our communities. <BR /> <BR />Watching the video of the attempted beheading, I was struck by two things: one was the fact that the attacker was a foreign national, and the other was the fact that it had a striking similarity to the Islamic attacks that we have witnessed across the world. My party has already called for the nationality, immigration status and religion of the suspect to be published by the police. That needs to happen, and it needs to happen now. Shortly after the Liverpool incident, the police and the BBC positively rushed to say that the attacker was a white male. Let us see whether they are as quick to comment on last night's attack and to say that the attacker was not white.”
“In the Chamber yesterday, I was ridiculed by the self-righteous MLAs to my left, including the Justice Minister, for daring to highlight issues around immigration and the impact that it has on working-class communities. The word that Sinn Féin Member for North Belfast Carál Ní Chuilín used was "obnoxious". I wonder whether anyone in the Chamber today would dare to find fault with anyone who used stronger terms to describe the events that took place last night. That murderous attack was not just savage in itself but was indicative of the alien culture that has been imported through unchecked immigration.”
“Regarding the rest of the amendments that are on the Marshalled List, I put on record my thanks to the Chair of the Justice Committee for the work that he has done. He has put a lot of work into it, not just in preparing to speak in the Chamber. In Committee, the work that he has done in the background is clear. I will support the amendments that my colleague in North Antrim has tabled. To finish, I say the same to the Justice Minister: I will support the rest of the amendments that have been tabled in this group.”
“I will get back to the debate and the reasons that I have set out as to why I do not support amendment No 78 in the name of Connie Egan. I care deeply about the Christian heritage of Northern Ireland, so I oppose that amendment and look forward to joining the DUP in the "No" Lobby.”
“Maybe "part-time Minister" was not the right phrase; "caretaker Minister" is OK because she wants to turn a blind eye to anything that happens in the PSNI, but that is up to the Minister and her directorate.”
“— I do not want to be the one to burst her balloon.”
“I did not know that amendment No 73 would give us the power to influence any other country in the world. The Justice Minister may think that there are those around the world waiting to see what Stormont does —”
“— was in 1977. <BR /> <BR />I am happy to give way to the Justice Minister.”
“I put it back to the Member: what harm is the law doing? You referred to it as a dead law. As I set out, the most recent time when there was an issue —”
“For that reason, and because I do not believe that we should remove laws that recognise the Christian heritage of our beloved nation, I oppose the amendment.”