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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Every one of 2,236 lines we hold for Timothy Gaston, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 37 of 45.
“<BR /> <BR />I could recite multiple stories about constituents from yesterday. In one case, the battery ran out in a stair lift, meaning that my constituent could not get upstairs to use the toilet or get to his bed. I also think of the lady in a wheelchair who did not have power in the house for her family to operate her hoist or any of her medical equipment. Those are just some of the many stories of people on the critical care list who were just left until I contacted NIE. The call centre staff were helpful, but the problem was that there simply were not enough staff or generators to meet the needs of those in vulnerable situations. <BR /> <BR />Members, if any lesson is taken from the response to the storm, it must be that we were not well enough prepared for the vulnerable people on the NIE critical care list.”
“However, I will give some feedback to NIE to highlight the lack of proactive information that flowed to those on the critical care list. <BR /> <BR />A number of my vulnerable constituents reached out to NIE over the weekend about serious medical issues, but no callback ever came. On Saturday, I heard from a 93-year-old lady who relies on her medical chair and bed to enable her carers and family to look after her. Once the batteries ran out, her medical chair would not function, and the bed deflated. My first call about that issue on Saturday resulted in a wait of over an hour on the elected representative line to NIE. It took four further calls before NIE agreed to provide generators to a number of my constituents in similar situations, and those were delivered only after midnight.”
“I do not want my next comments to take away from the sterling job that those workers have been doing, and will, no doubt, continue to do until every home has its power restored, every road has been cleared and every house has running water again.”
“I preface my comments by paying tribute to the thousands of front-line workers, who did not have a choice when it came to the lockdown warning for Friday morning, including the home helps, who put the needs of others above their own; the police officers; the hospital staff; and, once again, the farmers, whose assistance was invaluable to reopening many of our roads. I thank all the churches and the Orange and community halls that opened their doors so that people would have access to heat and electricity, and, of course, I thank those who were working round the clock to maintain the electricity and water supply during the storm and who have been working since to repair the vast swathes of damage caused to the network since Friday morning.”
“I thought that I would get an extra minute, Mr Speaker, because I took an intervention.”
“In truth, few of today's contributions sought to engage with the points that I made, but I will respond to some Members who did. I say to Deirdre Hargey that, as I made clear when I moved the amendment, I see the issue purely as one involving women's rights. Joanne Bunting made a number of common-sense remarks about the need to protect female spaces, which were sneered at by the Justice Minister from the nasty party. Maurice Bradley raised concerns about how the panels function, but he missed the key point: the fact that those panels have to be "gender-balanced". Are there two genders? How about nine? Are there over 150? I will give way to any Member who wants to put into Hansard how many people will need to be on those panels.”
“To bring it back to the idiocy that we are dealing with, I am far from convinced that labelling those lines as offensive and transphobic in 2025 represents any sort of progress. To be a lot more serious, I think of the words of Christ in Mark 10:”
“I will move back to prisons, Mr Speaker. <BR /> <BR />In the 1961 musical 'West Side Story', a character sings the lines:”
“— have introduced gender-neutral bathrooms. The Minister needs to get serious. The Education Authority is accountable to the Education Minister. It is not a body that he can conveniently palm difficult issues off to when he does not want to deal with them.”
“I thank the Member for his input. Members always seem to want to get away from the issue that is before us. It is a woman's rights issue; nobody else wants to talk about that, but that is what we always need to come back to. <BR /> <BR />I am grateful for the support of DUP Members in the debate, but I ask them to reflect on what is happening in their Ministers' Departments, particularly Education. Prior to the last Assembly election, some of them were prominent in the Let Kids Be Kids campaign. However, what have we seen? We have a DUP Education Minister who washes his hands of questions about a policy that allows pupils to be referred to by names and pronouns that do not match the biological reality. He does not know and has no desire to find out how many schools —”
“Civil servants should not ask for a "Christian name" but for a person's "forename".”
“That is why the Health Minister referred to "people who menstruate". That is why the Finance Minister introduced a Civil Service inclusive language guide, which she was permitted to do without objection from Executive colleagues. Civil servants are advised that, instead of the words "mum" and "dad", they should use "parent", "adult" or "caregiver". They should not talk about "husband", "wife", "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" but "partner" or "spouse".”
“It involved removing words from vocabulary and defining words that remained, forcing people to accept ideas that they knew made no sense. He summed it up:”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Having listened to today's contributions, and considering the fact that my opponents simply did not engage with my arguments, I am more convinced than ever that there is nothing loving about housing men in female prisons. There is nothing progressive in rolling back rights that were won by women in the 19th century. There is nothing inclusive about excluding the words "women" and "girls" from policy papers, such as the one that I referred to, that have serious ramifications for what should be female-only spaces, such as women's prisons. <BR /> <BR />In his novel, '1984', George Orwell described how the state created Newspeak, a controlled language of restricted grammar and limited vocabulary that was designed to limit freedom of thought.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. As you are aware, the Secretary of State has refused to pull the Stormont brake in spite of the request to do so by every unionist in the House. Does not today's decision expose the basis on which devolution was restored as a sham? Mr Speaker, do you expect to remain in office in light of the fact that the main unionist party should pull the plug on these institutions, which are built on sinking sand?”
“The case also prompted action in England and Wales, with regulations being introduced in February 2023 to ban transgender women from being sent to women's prisons if their male genitalia are intact or they are sex offenders <BR /> <BR />The Assembly has an opportunity today to take a stand for common sense, to honour the memory of a trailblazer in the campaign for equality for women and, most importantly, to protect vulnerable women from the risk of abuse. I ask Members to support my amendment.”
“As I was saying, in January last year, the case of Adam Binnie Bryson, a convicted double rapist who was held at a women's prison in Scotland, caused outrage as he had been convicted of a crime that no woman could commit. Since then, a review has been conducted, which means that transgender prisoners are initially accommodated according to their sex at birth while an assessment is carried out into whether it is more appropriate to house them in a men's prison or a women's prison.”
“— caused outrage, as he had been convicted of a crime —.”
“In September last year, when I raised the issue with the First Minister, I got a dismissive and condescending response that did not address the issue. Whatever the Minister of Justice says about it, the fact remains that in December, as reported by the BBC, a man won a High Court case to be transferred from Maghaberry prison to Hydebank Wood. In January last year, the case of Adam Binnie Bryson, a convicted double rapist, who was held at a women's prison in Scotland —”
“Minister, the risks were identified by Elizabeth Fry. Any rowing back on what she achieved will result in the return of a risk to female prisoners. <BR /> <BR />We do not need panels concerning individual prisoners, convened at public expense, that are, by the definition of the terms they are set up under, inoperable. We need a bit of common sense: men should be detained in male facilities with male staff, and women should be detained in female facilities with female staff.”
“Now, the Minister will point to paragraph 7, which states that the Northern Ireland Prison Service:”
“How many genders are there, Minister Long? Are there two? Are there about nine? Are there over 150? It would be interesting if you could give us your position today. If you do not know or refuse to say, how is the guidance fit for purpose? If you accept the ideology that resulted in that guidance being produced, how can you ever say that the panel is, to use the Prison Service's own words, "gender balanced"? <BR /> <BR />This nonsense — I make no apologies for using the term — will always collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. If it were only laughable nonsense, it would not be so serious, but it is serious, Members. Why did Elizabeth Fry champion single-sex prisons? It is because, before she won that victory, women in the prison system were at risk of sexual and physical abuse from men.”
“In June 2022, 'The Daily Telegraph' ran a report about an email sent to BBC staff by Global Butterflies, a transgender group that the BBC had drafted in to do training sessions and that, no doubt, was handsomely reimbursed with licence fee payers' money. What did Global Butterflies say? It stated:”
“Regina Doherty, when she was leader of Fine Gael in the Seanad, said:”
“Would anyone in the Assembly who is prepared to defend that guidance and argue that it is sound like to tell me how many gender identities there are? Before you do, consider that that question is materially relevant to how the guidance operates. In paragraph 7, we read:”
“The world has moved on in many ways from 1823, and much of that has been progress. The inability of some today to say that a male is and always will be different from a female is not part of that progress. <BR /> <BR />Until 2017, Elizabeth Fry's reforms were recognised as so significant that she was deemed worthy of being depicted on Bank of England £5 notes. Who would have thought that, less than a decade after her face disappeared from the notes in our wallets, the battle that she won would have to be fought all over again? It is incredible that the reforms won by Elizabeth Fry against incredible odds at a time when women were excluded from the democratic process are being disregarded by the Prison Service today because of the unscientific, silly and, frankly, dangerous idea, which is blindly accepted in the guidance, that:”
“Let me quote one short extract from the Act:”
“— every identity, are having their identity erased, so much so that officialdom cannot even define them: women. <BR /> <BR />I will move on. Later, I will give you the opportunity to come in. <BR /> <BR />The right of women to have their own space in the penal system had to be fought for and won. One of the most celebrated champions of female rights in the late 18th and early 19th century was the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. At a time when women were denied the right to vote, Elizabeth Fry led a national movement demanding change. On 27 February 1818, she became the first woman to give evidence to a Select Committee of the House of Commons. Five years later, her campaigning bore fruit in the form of the Gaols Act 1823. The Act marked the beginning of government efforts to impose general standards in prisons across the whole country.”
“The core aim of my amendment is to place the focus where it needs to be: on the fact that what we should be addressing today is the rights of women. I see no reason to have to preface a motion before the House that deals with a women's rights issue with material committing our support to other communities, particularly when the policy paper that we are discussing says what I have quoted. <BR /> <BR />While it is interesting to think about what is in the document, it is enlightening to think about what is not in it: the words "woman" or "women" or "girl" and "girls" appear nowhere in it. Today, we rectify that. Today, we give voice to a section of society who, in the race to supposedly embrace a more inclusive future where we must respect —”
“Before the debate, I, of course, studied the Prison Service guidance. I believe that the author of that guidance, while not agreeing with me on much, would agree that the opening words should be removed from the motion. I say that because the guidance states at paragraph 4:”
“If we cannot do the latter, we should ask the UK Government urgently to make the relevant legislative changes to the regulation-making power in the 2005 Act, so that the levy applies to Northern Ireland in relation to online gambling.”
“The regulations apply to terrestrial and remote gambling, placing a significantly higher levy on the latter. It is estimated that, operating from the coming financial year onwards, they will raise between £90 million and £100 million annually, an increase of £40 million on the voluntary contributions. <BR /> <BR />I do not believe that the regulation-making powers in our 2022 Act have yet been deployed. Even when they are, it seems doubtful that they will engage remote gambling. If my assessment is correct, two things are urgently required. First, we must use the regulation-making powers in the 2022 Act from 1 April, so that people experiencing terrestrial gambling harm in Northern Ireland are not disadvantaged compared with those in GB. Secondly, we must introduce legislation applying the levy to online gambling for the same purpose.”
“We eventually caught up, making a similar provision through section 15 of the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. Unlike the GB levy, however, our levy appears to apply only to terrestrial gambling. If I am right about that limitation, it constitutes a major difficulty, because the problem prevalence figures associated with online gambling are significantly higher than those pertaining to terrestrial gambling, and the gross gambling yield figures demonstrate that more than half of the gross gambling yield comes from online gambling. <BR /> <BR />Last year, the Government determined that it was time to use their regulation-making powers, and, on 12 December, the Gambling Levy Regulations 2025 were laid before Parliament.”
“The Northern Ireland Executive's 2016 assessment of problem gambling demonstrated that we suffer from a significantly higher problem gambling prevalence than the rest of the UK: 2·3% compared with 0·5% for England. To put it another way, our gambling harm rates were five times higher than those of England. We have to assume that the situation has since deteriorated here, as it has in England. At that time, as now, the UK Minister had a regulation-making power under the Gambling Act 2005 to charge a gambling levy, requiring the industry to make a contribution to address the socially destructive effects of gambling. He used the threat of its deployment to extract a voluntary contribution from the industry.”
“In October last year, I asked the Health Minister to detail the number of abortions that have been carried out since the change in legislation and for the figure to be broken down by health and social care trust. He still has not answered. Tellingly, no other MLA has asked that question. The last MLA to get a reply was Jim Allister, who was told in May 2024 that the figure stood at 8,490. If Members are concerned about violence against girls and want to address it in a motion about RSE, the motion should attack the fact that RSE must, by law, teach pupils how to access services that result in the end of life.”
“I will be brief. I want to address how violence against girls is dealt with within relationships and sexuality education. Given the history of the issue in Northern Ireland and the position of parties on the matter, it will come as a surprise to some that the House has had to wait until my contribution to hear anyone highlight the world's biggest killer when it comes to girls: abortion. It is estimated that, in 2024, some 14 million children were issued out into eternity before they could even be born. In many countries, abortion means that girls are vastly more likely to perish than boys. It is shameful that there is not more openness on the issue.”
“Minister, will you give a clear commitment that the GAA will not receive more than its fair share of funding compared with the money already awarded to football and rugby?”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. The difference is that it is up to the judge to direct within the legal setting rather than somebody who can put their own slant on it. It is carefully managed in the courtroom by the judge, which is not what the motion calls for. There is no stipulation or guidance on what pretrial education would look like. The Member fails to recognise that something being dressed up as education would be in danger of colouring the thinking of the jury, thereby diminishing the independence that comes from the life experience of its members. I want to see an end to violence against women and girls, but I am not in favour of meddling with our tried and tested jury system.”
“Members, I am still waiting for an update on a follow-up question, which asked them to provide an answer in the past tense. <BR /> <BR />That said, I want to explain why I will oppose the motion. My opposition relates to its call for the introduction of pretrial jury education. Jury independence is of paramount importance. Pretrial jury education smacks of trying to shape jury thinking, as per the educator. Importantly, juries in sex cases already get special direction. For example, a juror cannot infer anything from how the victim was dressed. In addition, those juries, like every jury, are directed on the law by the judge before they retire to consider their verdict.”
“When there was a chance to do something about that issue and call a public inquiry, what did the MPs from the parties represented in this House do? Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and three of the five DUP MPs were nowhere to be seen. The calls for a national inquiry into abuse by grooming gangs will, however, not go away, nor should they. <BR /> <BR />I have always been opposed to violence against women and girls. That is not something that the First Minister can bring herself to say. I tabled a question for written answer on 24 September 2024 asking the First Minister and deputy First Minister:”
“I preface my remarks by saying that I listened with some disbelief this morning to the Member from Sinn Féin pontificate about violence against women and girls. There was no such concern shown by the republican movement, which decided that an innocent woman in my constituency, Yvonne Dunlop, should die. There was no pretrial education for the killers of mother of 10, Jean McConville. <BR /> <BR />Members, we all know the name George Floyd. This Building was lit up in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We all know the name Stephen Lawrence. His family are to be commended for their fight for justice. How many in the Chamber know the names Lucy Lowe, Charlene Downes and Victoria Agoglia, who were all murdered by Pakistani rape gangs?”
“While the protocol required a simple majority in the Chamber, the review, which has been triggered by the lack of cross-community support, requires cross-community support for any of its recommendations. There was no veto for unionists in December, but there is a veto for nationalists in January. Such double standards will serve only to underscore the feeling in my community that the process of which the Chamber and the Executive are a central plank is loaded against unionism at every turn. <BR /> <BR />Will anyone on the Benches to my right repeat the claims that that party used to justify its return to a terrorist-inclusive Executive? Once more, unionists have been treated as fools. Either the DUP was conned on the issue or, shamefully, it sought to con the unionist people. Members, either way, the result is shameful.”
“However, before the restoration of devolution, the unionist people were told that they had nothing to worry about on that score, because, if there was not cross-community support for the protocol, that would trigger a review. That review was announced last week, and its terms of reference were published. Of course, some people were not interested in what the review was going to do and say. The Alliance Party, for example, put out a statement about what Lord Murphy should do two hours before the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) got round to sending a copy of the terms of reference to anyone, including the House of Commons Library. Regardless, I trust that some in the House will be interested in what the review says. <BR /> <BR />I draw Members' attention to paragraph 3.5:”
“The vote on the protocol that was held in the Chamber just before Christmas was the most significant vote in Northern Ireland's history. Never before had the representatives of the people of the Province been asked to sign away their right to shape the laws to which they are subject. Yet, on that occasion alone, for the first time in 50 years, the vote was decided on a simple majoritarian basis. <BR /> <BR />Of course, even before the vote took place, everyone knew what the outcome would be, because of the nationalist and republican alliance in the House. Having trashed the principle of cross-community consent on a key issue, the EU was happy to leave the completion of the process to its lackeys in Stormont, who duly delivered for it. <BR /> <BR />Such an outcome was entirely predictable.”
“People would be poorer? No. It would allow our businesses to flourish and take advantage of Brexit. Northern Ireland did not get Brexit, but, once again, the Alliance Party is still in denial. <BR /> <BR />I will finish my remarks by saying that the changes mean that the sector will struggle even more than it does currently. That is another reason why I support the motion. Agency workers in Northern Ireland are the backbone of our industry. If the Government do not stand over helping to offset the cost of National Insurance increases, rather than foisting the increases on agency workers and public services, I despair. I look to the Finance Minister to see what work she has done to date and what figures she will produce for Members this evening on the issue.”
“I thank the Member — I think — for his intervention. I would certainly rather that Northern Ireland were released from the shackles of the Northern Ireland protocol —.”
“Since the UK Government adopted that definition, funding for Northern Ireland has fallen below the definition of need not once but twice in five years. I also note that there is no suggestion of the Government offsetting the cost of National Insurance in relation to agency staff, who, as Members will know, do a Trojan amount of work and without whom our health and social care service would simply collapse.”
“The changes will mean that many of them simply will not be able to afford to do so. <BR /> <BR />As I understand it, the Government are offsetting the National Insurance rise in relation to the public sector. That said, following a question for written answer in the Commons, my party leader obtained information that suggests that the higher level of employment in the public sector in Northern Ireland, which is 26·8% as opposed to 17·3% across the UK, will not be recognised. Therefore, we face being short-changed in another issue that is developing in the budgetary pressures that bedevil this place. <BR /> <BR />Importantly, I believe that the change will result in Northern Ireland once again being funded below the level of need.”
“Members, it is important to remember that National Insurance is only part of the tax burden to fall upon employers. It is shocking that the Labour Government have chosen to reduce the threshold to £5,000, meaning that the vast majority of people with a part-time job will end up with their employer now paying 15% National Insurance. That will result in question marks over the viability of many jobs. The hospitality sector in my constituency, which is a sector that already runs on relatively small margins and employs a lot of part-time people, will fall victim to a double whammy: the increase in the living wage, plus employers now having to pay National Insurance. Many businesses in North Antrim are small. They employ 10 people or fewer but have a vision to expand and grow.”
“Alcohol consumption seriously increases the risk of developing a stroke. <BR /> <BR />There needs to be a holistic approach to the health service. There is an onus on us all to think about the impact that we, as legislators, have on the pressures on the vital service on which we all rely, and I am not convinced that that has been the case in the House to date.”