Clare Bailey: It is certainly not the intent within this Bill. Silent prayer cannot harm anyone. Silent prayer is silent prayer, so how does any other human being know what is going on?
Clare Bailey: I thank the Member for that. It is worth noting that, comparatively, this Bill takes a light touch in respect of offences being committed, because the punishment for breaching safe access zones around the world, in almost all cases where they are operational, can result in imprisonment and wildly higher fines than what is being proposed in this Bill. That comes back to the intention behind...
Clare Bailey: Hardly surprising. In the words of Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." I commend the Bill to the House.
Clare Bailey: I thank Members, those who said that they support the Bill and those who are still raising issues, for their contributions. As has been mentioned, the Bill does not stop the right to protest. The Bill seeks to balance the right to protest with the right to healthcare, the right to health and the right to a private life. The current harassment laws have been brought up again. They have been...
Clare Bailey: No, I will not. We have been round the houses on this one.
Clare Bailey: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The law is there for anybody to go and read up on it. It is pretty straightforward and simple to understand. The Bill also seeks to be proactive about preventing harm from being done, and we have had that debate many times already. I take the point that Mr Allister raised on the defence of reasonable excuse, but that defence will remain available to anyone,...
Clare Bailey: Yes.
Clare Bailey: I thank the Member for that, but the enforcement clause allows an officer to direct a person to leave the safe access zone. People would therefore be made aware of their behaviours, and, if they were refusing, they would have no reasonable defence that they did not know that what they are doing is against the law, if the Bill passes. You said that the Bill is all about having someone else's...
Clare Bailey: I beg to move That the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill [NIA 35/17-22] do now pass.
Clare Bailey: It is a great relief to finally be able to move my Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill at Final Stage. When I was first elected, I pledged to the people of South Belfast that I would work hard on equality issues, for human rights-compliant legislation and, particularly, for women. Today is the last sitting day of the mandate. The Bill is part of that pledge. It has been a long time...
Clare Bailey: I beg to move That Standing Order 42(1) be suspended in respect of the Final Stage of the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill [NIA 35/17-22].
Clare Bailey: The motion to suspend Standing Order 42(1) is purely to do with the scheduling that has been agreed by all party Whips at the Business Committee to allow Bills to complete their passage within the time remaining in the mandate. I have been working on this Bill since I was first elected to the House in 2016. Now, in the last week of the mandate, I ask that Standing Order 42(1) be suspended to...
Clare Bailey: On a point of order —
Clare Bailey: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am glad to speak just to prove Mr Wells wrong: he will not be the last Member to speak in the House. Therefore, there is hope that we are not doomed just yet. It is extremely disappointing that Members saw fit to vote the previous motion down, because the Business Committee and every party Whip supported the suspension of Standing Order 42(1). They...
Clare Bailey: This has been my first experience of being an MLA — as it has been for my party colleague Rachel Woods — and of getting to know what a mandate looks like from the inside. In 2016, when I was first elected by the people of South Belfast as their first Green Party MLA, Alex Kane stood by his promise, donned a dress and danced for me, out the front, on the steps of the Building. [Laughter.]...
Clare Bailey: I, too, thank the Minister for his strong statement and his written reply to the cross-Committee letter that was issued on Friday, to both of which, unfortunately, we are still waiting for a response from his South Belfast colleague, the AERA Minister. Minister, you stated: "P&O has literally ripped up the employment rule book and, in the process, simply discarded 800 of its loyal and most...
Clare Bailey: Will the Member give way?
Clare Bailey: Will the Member give way?
Clare Bailey: Thank you. I want to go back to Mr Allister's opening statement in which he called the £261,000 that was spent "unnecessary squander". Surely, if you are calling for us to annul the SR now, are you not calling for further squander? If it is the case that just 18 people have registered, let me tell you this: I do not speak Irish, but when I went to an integrated school, I did Irish and learnt...
Clare Bailey: I will, yes.
