Members' Statements – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 11:00 am on 9 June 2026.
David Honeyford
Alliance
11:00,
9 June 2026
At the weekend, I attended the Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club's end of season awards event. The club has more than 500 playing members on boys, girls and adults teams as well as Football for All and walking football teams. The club is at the heart of the community in Lagan Valley, and the awards were a fantastic evening to celebrate players, volunteers and coaches. I want to say "Well done" to everyone concerned.
One message came through really clearly, however, which was that as the club continues to grow, it needs more facilities and pitches. Club members urged us to get on with developing the Maze/Long Kesh site. That brought me back to a statement that we heard in the Chamber last week. I want to be really clear about this. The future of Northern Ireland will not be built by bulldozers, but through jobs, investment, sport and the arts and by creating opportunities for future generations. Ultimately, however, it will be built by sharing this place. No young person at Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club will get on to a new pitch because we demolish a building. They will get on to a pitch because we choose to build a better future for all of us.
The Maze/Long Kesh site offers the opportunity to provide sports pitches for local clubs and facilities for Commonwealth Games teams that we do not have in Northern Ireland. There is a chance to create jobs, attract investment and unlock economic potential. It is a strategically important site on the Dublin to Belfast economic corridor. Yes, the site also offers the opportunity to tell our story honestly and factually, while welcoming visitors from across the world who want to understand it. The site will never be about glorifying the past, creating shrines or anything else. It must be about building a better, shared future for all of us, and that the hope for tomorrow is better than it is today.
What struck me most last week was how quickly a bulldozer can generate headlines. Yet, positive conversations about sharing this place and about jobs and opportunities for tourism and sport never attract the same amount of attention. Have we become so comfortable that we would rather argue about yesterday and score cheap political points than plan and work for a better tomorrow? The choice is really simple. We can either focus on the dead end of tearing things down, constantly encouraging Division, or we can focus on building things up and sharing this place, creating better opportunities and a better future for everyone who lives here. For clubs such as Hillsborough Boys Junior Football Club and others in Lagan Valley and for the future of this region, we need hope, not the scaremongering that we constantly hear in here.
The House of Commons.
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.
