Part of Private Members' Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:45 pm on 10 September 2024.
Nuala McAllister
Alliance
2:45,
10 September 2024
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I am sure that everyone will be delighted to know that I will not take the whole 10 minutes.
I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate. It is important to highlight, first, that there is a recognition and consensus throughout the Chamber around moving forward and ensuring that we have the block grant that we deserve in Northern Ireland and which is overdue. It is important that we all get on the same page, and I thank everyone for contributing in such a way that we can build that consensus.
There have been a few recurring points and themes in the debate, and I want to touch on some of them before we close and move to the vote. To be perfectly clear and to reiterate what many people have said, it is Alliance's view, which is shared by many others, that austerity is not about saving money. It is not necessary, nor is it about being fiscally responsible. It is a damaging, poverty-inflicting political choice, and it is that policy that has resulted in the ever-increasing budgetary pressures that currently face the Executive.
We had hoped that, perhaps, the time had come for us to move beyond those austerity measures, but, unfortunately, as we have heard recently — the Minister highlighted it — through engagements with the UK Government and the removal of the winter fuel payment from a Majority of pensioners in the UK, that is not to be the case with the new Government. Nevertheless, that does not mean that we, as an Assembly or an Executive, should give up. Instead, we need to ensure that we do not lose our course and that we add further fuel as we hold the Government's feet to the fire on those issues.
I want to touch on the issues of health and education. The majority of Members who contributed to the debate discussed health and education, and particularly around the issue of transformation. When discussing health in particular, every debate that we have mentions Bengoa and transformation. Unfortunately, many political parties simply pay lip service to that idea, and we are well beyond that time. We need to ensure that what we do is true transformation. It is about ensuring that we use our resources in the most cost-effective way to save lives. It is about early Intervention and prevention before it is too late for many people.
In the discussion around education, we mentioned the £250,000 that is to be spent on electronic pouches for mobile phones. It is a pilot project, and surely that means that the Minister intends to roll it out to all schools at some point, wasting £25 million, in my calculation, so it is not about just £250,000. We need to get real when we talk about transformation and recognise that we need to put the money there to ensure that it is done for the long term.
There was a lot of discussion about working collaboratively across Departments to ensure that that happens. I touched on that in my speech yesterday regarding policing and its interdependence with Health. That is just one aspect, but this is across all Departments. We need to ensure that we work together so that money is not wasted or effort duplicated across Departments.
The issue of duplication brings me on to another issue that was mentioned, and that was the cost of Division. I want to respond to the Leader of the Opposition's comments that the cost of division is not in the Programme for Government. Surely the leader of the Opposition will recognise that that is a four-party Programme for Government. Also, the Opposition's plan for change did not reflect the cost of division, and it is an Opposition of just one party. We need to be realistic; we will not get everything that we need in the Programme for Government. However, our party is not a party of quitters, and we will consistently raise the issue of tackling the cost of division. It is important that we do so, it is financially responsible to do so, but we also owe it to the many people who see that division across society.
I thank the Minister, in particular, for coming to the Chamber, and I welcome the work that the Minister has been doing to ensure that engagement with the UK Treasury is ongoing. I think that the relationships there are becoming more positive than they were with the previous Government, but I will highlight again some of the points that the Minister made, particularly on Departments living within their budgets.
The "Leader of the Opposition" is head of "Her Majesty's Official Opposition". This position is taken by the Leader of the party with the 2nd largest number of MPs in the Commons.
The Deputy speaker is in charge of proceedings of the House of Commons in the absence of the Speaker.
The deputy speaker's formal title is Chairman of Ways and Means, one of whose functions is to preside over the House of Commons when it is in a Committee of the Whole House.
The deputy speaker also presides over the Budget.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
An intervention is when the MP making a speech is interrupted by another MP and asked to 'give way' to allow the other MP to intervene on the speech to ask a question or comment on what has just been said.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
