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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“I start, like the rest of the Members who have spoken, by commending my colleague Colin Crawford for securing the Adjournment debate. I also commend him for his volunteering work over the years, prior to coming to the House, with special needs kids. I know that SEN provision is a topic that is close to his heart. <BR /> <BR />It will come as no surprise to the House that I want to focus my comments on North Antrim and Castle Tower School in particular. The school opened in 2018 after a long-awaited £21 million investment in its 13-acre site. The issue facing the school is its extremely limited options for expansion. It has had to operate between the Castle Tower site and the site of the old Ballee Community High School, which is now home to the EA.”
“The major problem with selling ground is that a large percentage of the money raised may also be liable for capital gains because of the ongoing inflation in costs of land. If the Government care anything for farming — I fear that they do not — they must find reverse gear and do so quickly. <BR /> <BR />That said, many who will vote for the motion in a few moments' time need to look a lot closer to home than Westminster to find the cause of the problems in our largest industry. It ill behoves the House to pretend that it is exercised about farming when many of the challenges faced by the industry are and were created in this Building.”
“Inheritance tax inevitably means the breaking up of a family farm holding to pay the whopping death duties demanded by government. Inheritance tax is, at the best of times, a tax of government greed, but, when it prioritises the Chancellor's greed over farm survival, it plumbs new depths. It has been made all the worse by the Government's dishonest pretence that it will hit very few. That is not so. It will cripple family farms not just because the threshold is so low but because of the pretence of a protection of up to £3 million, which will apply only in rare cases. <BR /> <BR />In order to address the problem, many will have no option but to sell parts of the farm. That diminishes the viability of the farm.”
“Thank you very much. There was a unity of purpose in the room last night; it certainly was not in favour of the Minister's ammonia strategy. <BR /> <BR />The Minister has already had an opportunity today to show that he has got the message from last night and has started listening to farmers. That opportunity came in the TB debate, when he could have responded by announcing a badger cull, but only more dither and delay was on offer. Maybe that is why the Minister literally fled the rally last night. An AERA Minister who has to run out of a rally defending agriculture is one who needs to reflect on whether he is in the right job. <BR /> <BR />The sound reasons why farm exemption from inheritance tax was introduced in the first place have not changed; indeed, they are now more acute. Farms are asset-rich but cash-poor.”
“— in place even though the Minister had to admit that agriculture is responsible for barely half of the pollution in Lough Neagh. <BR /> <BR />I give way to the Minister.”
“The motion condemns the actions of the Government in relation to their assault on family farms, and so it should. However, I will watch with interest how Members vote here shortly. As my party leader noted last night, just half of Northern Ireland's MPs bothered to vote when the issue came before the Commons, which is where the real power lies. Sinn Féin put its republican ideology before farming, and its MPs left farmers in their constituencies voiceless. Half of the SDLP did not show up, and the half that did supported the Budget. The Agriculture Minister's party colleague was not there to vote either. I remind the Minister that one of the biggest cheers last night at the Maze came when Jim Allister called out your ammonia policy, which is —”
“Regardless of whether your preference is for culling or a future vaccine, no one can deny the damage that TB is doing to our farms or that action must be taken. Unless, or until, the Minister is prepared to tackle transmission by badgers, the future of farms and farmers' livelihoods will continue to be put at risk because of the badger.”
“If we look beyond the British Isles, we find that Australia and New Zealand succeeded in controlling bovine TB in livestock through TB control programmes with a focus on wildlife intervention. New Zealand achieved TB-free status through the inclusion of a culling strategy of the brush-tailed possum. If the Minister is not going to address bovine TB through culling, I ask him to detail in his response his thoughts on the TB vaccine that the University of Cambridge and Pennsylvania State University are developing. The University of Cambridge research finds that vaccination not only reduces the severity of TB in infected cattle but reduces its spread in dairy herds by 89%. Andrew Conlan stated:”
“Similarly, a report from the Irish Republic found:”
“That level of infection is more than 20 times higher than that found in cattle. Badgers, acting as a reservoir for TB, continue the cycle of infection, making it impossible to eliminate the disease from cattle populations. A recent analysis of a badger-culling intervention in England estimated a reduction of around 56% in culled areas. The report states:”
“It is telling that the Minister and, indeed, the motion dance around the main issue. We often talk about the need to address the elephant in the room. In this case, there is a need to address problems that, in the main, are caused by badgers. If the Assembly and the Minister are to get serious about addressing bovine TB, a badger cull must be introduced. <BR /> <BR />The evidence supporting that move is clear. Farmers take all the preventative measures that they can, but, given that we know that 21·3% of roadkill badgers from across the Province have been found to be infected by bovine TB, it is obvious that farmers are operating with one hand tied behind their backs. That 21·3% figure almost certainly underestimates the true prevalence of infection in badgers, given the limitations of post-mortem testing.”
“Minister, I welcome your statement in response to the assault by the Labour Party against some of the most vulnerable in our society, who depend on the winter fuel payment. You have confirmed that the new payment will be paid through the DWP system. If the payment does not arrive, should people contact DWP or the Department for Communities? Will those who would have newly qualified this year for the winter fuel payment now qualify to receive the £100, since the policy has changed?”
“Minister, in a previous answer to me, you advised the House that 24% of excess phosphorous entering the water environment in Northern Ireland is from waste water treatment works, yet your statement does not even mention the Department for Infrastructure or Northern Ireland Water. After your experience last night, Minister, why have you not learned that, as Minister of Agriculture, you should not be afraid to speak up for farmers and point the finger at the ministerial colleagues who are contributing to the environmental problems?”
“The assertion of Emma Little-Pengelly on social media that political opinion cannot be a reason to refuse to approve the appointment is a fundamental misunderstanding of the law. Views that endorse or express acceptance of violence and terrorism are not protected political opinion, and — my goodness — I have cited enough evidence of that in this statement. Ms MacBride's defence and glorification of the IRA's terrorism were ample grounds to refuse to approve her appointment to such an important office, and the deputy First Minister should be ashamed of failing to do so.”
“Those are the words of a song by Patricia MacBride, a member of the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission. Her views are hardly a secret. The appointment of Ms MacBride as a victims' commissioner in 2008 caused outrage when, in her official biography, she described her brother as an "IRA volunteer" who was "killed on active service". Ten years later, on 23 October 2018, Ms MacBride referred to the 10 victims of the Shankill bomb, claiming that the bomber Thomas Begley was a victim in the same way as the people whom he bombed. <BR /> <BR />In spite of all that, the deputy First Minister thought it appropriate to sign off on Ms MacBride's appointment as a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission. What a shameful betrayal of innocent victims.”
“The Executive got £57·2 million in Barnett consequentials because of the scheme introduced in Great Britain, yet the four-party Executive, of which the Minister is a part, allocated only £25 million to childcare. I am still at a loss as to what the Minister or the Executive deem more important than allocating all of the moneys received from Westminster for childcare to offsetting childcare costs. Neither the Minister nor his Executive colleagues even blush that, having got £57·2 million for a childcare scheme, a whopping £32 million of that has been taken and spent on goodness knows what else. If the Executive are serious about addressing rising childcare costs, a good place to start is ring-fencing the entirety of past and future moneys received from Westminster and spending them solely for that purpose. I support the motion.”
“I have been something of a lone voice here in raising the fact that parents in Northern Ireland have been short-changed when it comes to childcare support. I welcome the belated recognition of that fact in the SDLP's motion. It ill becomes the House to seek to con the people of Northern Ireland that Stormont is doing something great for working families with a support scheme for childcare when the reality is that the Executive have taken money that should have gone to the scheme and spent it on other things. <BR /> <BR />On 21 October, I asked the Education Minister directly to explain why the childcare support offered by the Executive was £32 million less than the amount provided by Westminster.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. The rigorous implementers do not care about trade. All that they care about is doing as much damage as possible. They love the thought of colonial rule in Northern Ireland, because that supports their objective of saying that Northern Ireland cannot work. <BR /> <BR />Frankly, it is time that unionists reflected on whether this place is worth having at all, particularly if the majority of people here are prepared to say to their constituents, "I am happy to hand over powers to people whom no one in Northern Ireland elects and who have no concern for the people of Northern Ireland".”
“The protocol has done what 30 years of IRA terror could not: moved the border to the Irish Sea.”
“<BR /> <BR />In a few weeks' time, the Assembly will have its first significant vote to be decided on a purely majoritarian basis in over half a century. Where is the concern there for the Belfast Agreement and the principle of parallel consent? There is and always was an alternative. When it comes to trade, every border between fully sovereign states is managed by way of mutual enforcement. That principle is at the heart of the Bill that my party leader will introduce in the House of Commons next month. At Stormont, the truth is that, as soon as unionism was in the minority, nationalism, along with its little helpers in the Alliance Party, were happy to dispense with minority protections. <BR /> <BR />I ask unionist colleagues in the Chamber to stop and think about where we are right now.”
“How liberal and progressive it is of those people to make it more difficult for the blind because that is what their EU overlords require of them. How wonderful it is that the self-styled Social Democratic and Labour Party wants to surrender lawmaking power in 300 areas to people whom no one in Northern Ireland elected. The SDLP welcomes a process that will see us subject to colonial rule in 300 areas of law. It invites us, four years down the line, to embrace laws made for us about which neither it nor anybody else in the Chamber has any knowledge and that we certainly will not be able to scrutinise. Significantly, at last Wednesday's meeting of the Committee for the Executive Office, it was pointed out that, under the protocol, Northern Ireland is tied to EU VAT rules.”
“In 1998, the people of Northern Ireland were promised that there would be no change to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland without their consent. Implicit in that was an acknowledgement that we, as citizens of the United Kingdom, had the right to take part in national referendums and that the decisions in those referendums would be honoured, yet many in this place have devoted the past eight years of their life to overturning the will of the people of the United Kingdom. Having failed to do that UK-wide, they turned their attention to another means of frustrating the will of the people, which was to keep Northern Ireland locked in the EU single market and customs union. What has been the result? In the past week, we have seen a move to impose a guide dog border between here and the rest of our nation.”
“I say this to the SDLP: if you want to be taken seriously as an Opposition, you need to be prepared to challenge Sinn Féin and, indeed, the First Minister. <BR /> <BR />Why, weeks after the scandal broke, have you not brought a motion to the House about McMonagle? We still do not even know how many days a week the self-confessed paedophile worked in Ms O'Neill's office. Did he work there at all or was she involved in funnelling money for constituency work into a party press operation? Let us get real, and, if we are to have these institutions, let us at least debate the breaches of the ministerial code that are relevant. It is time that the SDLP took off its constructive gloves and seriously challenged Sinn Féin regarding its handling of the Michael McMonagle scandal.”
“Thank you very much for your intervention. Obviously, this is not the Executive. This is the Assembly, but you can smile about your wee gotcha moment, if that is what you were after. <BR /> <BR />As I said, that would have underscored the message that the trashing of the constitutional guarantees of the Belfast Agreement meant that it could not coexist with the protocol. <BR /> <BR />Coming back to the SDLP, however, I find it amazing that this is the context in which it chose to cite the ministerial code. In recent days, we have had the scandal of the First Minister seeking, successfully, to head off questions at the Committee for the Executive Office about her adherence to the ministerial code. No one who watched her evidence would have concluded that she was committed to accountability and openness.”
“The lure of the ministerial car proved greater than his commitment to his own promise. <BR /> <BR />If there was any doubt about the continuing impact of the protocol, it was removed last week when a pet border was introduced between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and not just a pet border but one that applies to guide dogs. So much for the deal that was sold to ordinary unionists on the basis of zero checks and zero paperwork. How much stronger a message it would send if, instead of merely returning to the Executive and North/South Ministerial Council, the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party had kept their word and the Assembly had come back only to vote on the protocol.”
“have abandoned their pledges about not operating the North/South Ministerial Council. Indeed, some were clear that they would not operate any of the Belfast Agreement institutions in such circumstances. I recall Mr Lyons once boldly declaring:”
“As noteworthy as it is, the motion does not have one word in it explaining why the boycott started and why, quite frankly, it should be continuing. That is not surprising given its source. As a party that aspires to a united Ireland, the SDLP is hardly going to have a problem with the trashing of our east-west relationship. What is surprising is that unionists, who, alongside the TUV, said on "Ulster Day" 2021 that it was:”
“Once we get the funding formula right, that will give the Minister the opportunity to take decisions, such as to reintroduce the holiday food grant scheme and to offer assistance to reduce the financial burden of school uniforms and PE kits on struggling families. <BR /> <BR />Until we get our fiscal floor and funding mechanism sorted, we are a talking shop on the issue. I agree that the burdens that are placed on families are too great, but the Executive, in their current guise, are limited in what they can do. I encourage us to use this debate to discuss why we should be funded to the same level as Wales. In the meantime, anything else is immaterial. Yes, I want to see the Minister take action, but we need to have the financial resources in place to allow him to do so.”
“Had the people of Northern Ireland been afforded the same protections as the people of Wales in April 2022, we would probably not be having this debate. <BR /> <BR />Will the Minister please tell the UK Government that the children of Northern Ireland who would benefit from a reinstated school holiday food grant scheme are just as valuable as the children of Wales? Of course, whilst we welcome the positive noises about future budget allocations, we deserve the same security as Wales, which knows that its funding cannot fall below need in 2026-27 or at any other time. The Treasury needs to grant us the same protections — the baseline fiscal floor to need and the uplift — not possibly at some point in the future but now and indefinitely, so that we can plan for the future.”
“In order to provide a sustainable holiday hunger programme, we need to gain the two protections that Wales enjoys. First, we must benefit from a baseline fiscal floor so that our funding cannot fall below the baseline need of 124% per head in 2026-27 or at any other time. Secondly, we need to have a 5% uplift, which has been worth £1·7 billion to Wales over the past eight years and has helped to keep block grant funding a bit above need. <BR /> <BR />As we reflect on the painful implications of the Department of Education's decision to cut holiday hunger funding in March 2023, we need to remember that, at that time, there was a UK Government definition of "need", and a UK Government mechanism to prevent funding from falling below need that was given to Wales but not to Northern Ireland.”
“I do, however, think that it is reasonable to say that being funded below need is so disruptive and dislocating, as illustrated by the termination of the school holiday food grant scheme, that we should be afforded exactly the same protections as the other part of the UK — Wales — whose funding has come close to need, in order to make sure that that never happens again. That is particularly important for us as we think about the holiday hunger programme for the future, because we are currently denied those protections, and our block grant funding is destined to plunge below need once again in 2026-27. Even if we manage to get a holiday hunger programme up and running for 2025-26, it is likely that it would have to be terminated again in 2026-27.”
“There is no doubt that it was that £753 million shortfall that informed the Education Department's decision, in March 2023, to terminate the school holiday food grant scheme. <BR /> <BR />Looking across the water to Scotland, we see a jurisdiction that, according to the Treasury's block grant transparency figures, was, at that stage, funded at £21 above need, when Northern Ireland was funded at £3 below need. I could stand here and argue that, because Scotland is funded at £21 above need, Northern Ireland should be funded at £21 above need. However, I do not think that that is a reasonable argument.”
“Funding for the school holiday food grant scheme, which provided payments to prevent holiday hunger for around 100,000 children and young people, was withdrawn in March 2023, at a time when we in Northern Ireland were told that we were overspending. At that time, however, it was not acknowledged that, in April 2022, Northern Ireland became the first part of the United Kingdom to be funded below need since the UK Government adopted their UK definition of need through the Holtham formula in 2012. The cost to Northern Ireland of being funded at £3 below need was a £322 million block grant shortfall in 2022-23, which became a recurring deficit that was rolled into the following year, to be joined by the £431 million block grant shortfall for 2023-24, creating a compound of £753 million shortfall in that year.”
“The public believe that it is, at best, highly questionable that a former Minister for universities who has produced no academic research of note should be promoted via an exceptional talent pathway that disregards the regular appointment process. There is an obvious conflict of interest there. What will the Minister do to ensure that that does not happen again?”
“<BR /> <BR />Going forward, let us resolve to ensure that we do not scapegoat the working classes but take their genuine concerns seriously. We demand honesty from our media and condemn racism in all its forms. I see no conflict in believing that all of that is possible.”
“I must also say that we do a disservice to the victims of racism by accepting groundless allegations as gospel. In September, the Executive Office Committee heard from a witness who said that the Housing Executive was institutionally racist. In the aftermath of the Stephen Lawrence murder, a High Court judge heard evidence from 88 witnesses, considered 100,000 pages of statements and produced a 350-page report to back up his findings that the Met was institutionally racist. In the Executive Office Committee, members seemed to believe that we should accept the charge against hard-working and honest employees of the Housing Executive just on the basis of lived experience. Such an approach does a disservice to those on the receiving end of racism.”
“I am not for one moment suggesting that all immigrants are potential terrorists — the occupants of the Chamber are evidence that Northern Ireland is well able to produce its own — but there is a need for truth and openness around the issue. Lack of transparency merely feeds suspicion and distrust.”
“It cannot be denied that there was a deliberate attempt to conceal the truth about the murders of three children and the horrific injuries that were suffered by 10 other people, of whom eight were children. The suspect has since been charged with possession of an al-Qaeda training manual and is being prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2000. I am yet to read an apology or see even a fact check by the BBC, which claimed that he is a Christian.”
“It is undeniable that uncontrolled immigration is a contributing factor to the pressures that public services are experiencing. We cannot deny that vital front-line services, particularly our NHS, are under pressure. Yes, we welcome the contribution that migrants make to the NHS, but we need to consider the impact of a growing population on current waiting lists. Just yesterday, for example, I received a reply from Minister Nesbitt to a question for written answer, which told me that 722 people in Northern Ireland have been waiting more than four years for a knee replacement. <BR /> <BR />When we think back to the events of the summer, we have to put the protests, the vast majority of which were peaceful, in context. In doing so, we have to reference events in Southport.”
“I welcome the opportunity to, once again, condemn the racist attacks that we saw during the summer months. I will support the motion. However, I trust that it will not be a matter of passing another motion that leaves the Assembly with a warm feeling. As legislators, we should aim not just to say nice things but to deliver change of real substance. Let us not forget that the responsibility for dealing with the criminal activity that we witnessed lies not with the Executive Office but the PSNI. If we are looking to the Executive Office to act on the matter, it must do so within its departmental remit to promote equality and good relations. <BR /> <BR />That being the case, I trust that the Executive Office will look at the concerns that exist among working-class communities in particular about legal and illegal immigration.”
“First Minister, following on from the earlier question from the Chairperson of the Executive Office Committee, has there been any discussion about addressing the needs of those who have been missed by the scope of the historical institutional abuse inquiry, including those who suffered at the hands of clerics who operated on both sides of the border?”
“— to the murders of those men and all who perished at the hands of the IRA.”
“I think of Cecil Graham, who died on 11 November 1981, two days after the IRA shot him as he visited his wife and five-week-old baby. There was always an alternative —”
“Yesterday, as well as thinking of two world wars, it was appropriate that we remember Dermot Hurley and Walter Moore, two RUC officers, one of them a fluent Irish speaker, who were murdered by the IRA on 11 November 1971. I think of Winston Churchill McCaughey, an off-duty UDR soldier shot by the IRA beside his car outside his home in Kilrea, leaving his eight-year-old son to seek help from a passing motorist on Remembrance Day 1976. I recall Patrick Shields, a Catholic father of 10, murdered in an IRA bombing on 11 November 1977, because it decided to bomb the offices of a newspaper that had been critical of the IRA. I remember Owen McQuade, a soldier shot outside Altnagelvin Hospital while waiting for a colleague whose wife was in the maternity ward on Remembrance Day in 1980.”
“Until such times as the First Minister and her party can tell what they know about the events that filled 12 graves in Fermanagh — the day that shattered so many others right across Northern Ireland — I will treat their attendance at remembrance events with the contempt that it deserves.”
“Many have commented favourably on the acts of the First Minister in recent days. Some have even suggested that she deserves praise. However, I recall the events of 8 November 1987 and the memorable, chilling words of one Fermanagh man who had a microphone thrust in front of him and was asked for comment:”
“<BR /> <BR />Sadly, for many, Remembrance Day also reminds them of more recent events, and there is perhaps nowhere where that is more common than in Northern Ireland.”
“Yesterday, we remembered the sacrifice for freedom in two world wars and the many who, in spite of the absence of conscription, served with distinction on the battlefields of Europe, Africa and Asia. We remembered the fact that the rights to freedom of speech, to free elections and to freedom of religion had to be earned by the blood, sweat and tears of a former generation. In 2024, we particularly remember the events of 1944, which was a pivotal year in world history. We remember the invasion on D-Day, the bravery of the men involved in the ultimately disastrous Operation Market Garden and the revelation of the true horror of the Holocaust as the Nazi death camps were revealed: the starkest evidence that the Allies were correct to take the fight to the evil Nazi regime.”
“The Minister pushes a policy that will result in the slaughter of animals in Northern Ireland and the export of demand to the depleting rainforests of Brazil. Will he tell us how many jobs, he estimates, will be lost in the Northern Ireland agriculture sector if the climate action plan is implemented in its current form?”
“Minister, since the introduction of the protocol, the budget for InterTradeIreland has ballooned by £1·8 million. Can the Minister put his politics aside for a moment and tell us what, if anything, he is doing to support businesses that are trading with the rest of the UK and face the challenges of the Irish Sea border?”