Tag: 2022

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionist Party on 9 November 2022.

Former Ulster Unionist Health Minister, Robin Swann MLA said:

“Whilst it is a decision I of course wish could have been avoided, few will be surprised by this result. Our nurses are experiencing the exact same soaring cost of living pressures as all those right across society. Notably however our HSC workers are also being deprived of even their basic independently recommended pay increases for 2022/23 as a result of the ongoing political instability in Northern Ireland.

“The previous industrial action in late 2019 and early 2020 was a key factor in the establishment of the last Executive. Within four days of taking up the role as Minister of Health I had worked with HSC trade unions and presented the plan to Executive colleagues that ultimately brought the action to an end.

“Whilst there were several reasons behind the previous action, essentially the three key asks were the reintroduction of pay parity, an increase to the workforce and a commitment to safe staffing legislation. I was pleased to be able to resolve each of those by delivering the immediate restoration of pay parity, setting an all-time high of 1,325 nurse and midwifery training places each year – which I increased further again this year – as well commencing the long process to deliver safe and sustainable legal staffing levels.

“Whilst an awful lot has changed from January 2020, not least with the onset of the pandemic, one thing that shouldn’t have is the basic expectation that our HSC workers should be paid no less than their counterparts in England. Yet due to the collapse of a functioning Executive earlier this year that’s exactly what has happened. It’s shameful and it’s ridiculous that given the well-known scale of pressures weighing down on our health service that the mistakes of the past are so quickly being repeated.

“Had an Executive been in place during the summer I could have immediately started the process of delivering the recommended increases in pay for our workers. Yet in the absence of an Executive, the absence of an agreed Budget and no wider decision on public sector pay – legally I wasn’t able to.

“That is why earlier this week I wrote to the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris urging him to use his powers to maintain pay parity. Whilst it’s really concerning there was no reference to this in his statement to the House of Commons, I would still hope that in the days ahead he recognises the harm to morale, as well as the disruption to key services, that will be inflicted if the inequity continues and isn`t addressed.

“Whilst I appreciate the implementation of the pay review body recommendations alone would likely not have been enough to avert the decision of the RCN membership, it would be the necessary and absolutely essential first-step if we are to avoid the prospect of ongoing industrial action and disruption to HSC services over a considerable period.”

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionist Party on 8 November 2022.

UUP Finance spokesperson, Steve Aiken OBE MLA said:

“The report from the Fiscal Council today starkly lays out the challenges that the public sector faces in Northern Ireland. The absence of an Executive, coupled with the inability to prioritise services, has helped create a set of fiscal pressures that if unresolved will roll over into next year’s budget and beyond.

“After all parties called for the stability of multi-year budgets, the current situation of no in year budget, only being able to spend up to 95% of previously agreed totals and no forward planning for the years ahead, is a damning indictment of failure. Sinn Fein and the DUP have much to explain for over a decade of fiscal mismanagement.

“The UUP is seeking an urgent meeting with the Department of Finance’s Permanent Secretary to gain clarity on the department’s proposals on addressing budgetary pressures and the future budget process.”

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionist Party on 8 November 2022.

Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey has welcomed a written answer received from NIO Minister Lord Caine, in which Lord Caine made it clear that the Government will not be considering Joint Authority for Northern Ireland.

Lord Empey said:

“Recently there were a number of calls for joint authority between London and Dublin to be imposed if there is no restoration of an Executive at Stormont.

“The Ulster Unionist Party obviously rejects any idea of Joint Authority and would regard it as the clearest possible breach of the principle of consent, thereby dealing a fatal blow to the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

“Seeking clarity, I tabled a question asking His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for the establishment of joint authority over Northern Ireland by the UK and the government of the Republic of Ireland. (HL3051).

“I have now received a response and I welcome the clarity it provides. Lord Caine said ‘Joint authority is not and will not be considered by this Government. As we set out clearly in our Northern Ireland manifesto at the 2019 General Election, the consent principle in the 1998 Belfast Agreement governs the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. On that basis, Northern Ireland remains an integral part of the United Kingdom.’

Lord Caine also said that ‘the manifesto said: “A Conservative Government will always defend and uphold the consent principle as set out in the Belfast Agreement and we will never agree to any arrangements that are inconsistent with it”. Our manifesto also set out our commitment to the long-established three-stranded approach to Northern Ireland affairs, under which internal, Strand One, matters are for the Northern Ireland parties and the United Kingdom government ultimately to decide. We will continue to stand by these manifesto commitments.’

“The Ulster Unionist Party welcomes this answer and the clarity it provides and trusts that this will put an end to talk of Joint Authority, which is as unhelpful as it is unwelcome.”

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionist Party on 8 November 2022.

Following the sad passing of former Ulster Unionist MLA Sam Gardiner MBE, the Ulster Unionist Party Leader Doug Beattie MC MLA said:

“Sam Gardiner was first elected as an Ulster Unionist to Lurgan Borough Council in 1963 and was elected Mayor in 1968, the town’s youngest ever First Citizen. He was subsequently elected to the new Craigavon Borough Council and served as Mayor three times, in 1982/3, 1988/9 and 2000/1.

“He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum 1996 as a representative for Upper Bann and then to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2003, 2007 and 2011, serving as Father of the House until his retirement in 2016.

“He was a former High Sheriff for County Armagh and was appointed as a Justice of the Peace. He was also a member of the Orange Order, deputy Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution, a former chairman of Glenavon FC and was awarded the MBE.

“Sam was a very friendly and personable man who was held in high esteem by Council and Stormont colleagues across all parties and by the electorate. He was a man of conviction, a man of passion and a man of dedicated service. The Party will be the lesser for his passing.

“On behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party I would like to send my deepest condolences to Sam’s family and his many friends at this sad time.”

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionists on 7 November 2022.

The Ulster Unionist Party’s East Antrim MLA John Stewart, and the Party Leader Doug Beattie MC MLA, have condemned the latest threat made to the family of Glenn Quinn who was murdered in an attack in his own home in Carrickfergus in January 2020.

East Antrim Ulster Unionist MLA John Stewart said:

“How low can they go? These lowlives who wrap themselves in flags of convenience and call themselves paramilitaries, not content with murdering a terminally ill man, are continuing with a campaign of intimidation against Glenn Quinn’s brother and 78-year-old mother. Martin and Ellen have shown great bravery in continuing to call out these gangsters. I fully support their demand of justice for Glenn.”

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie who has met the Quinn family along with John Stewart added:

“This is yet another disgusting twist in this appalling story. Martin and Ellen Quinn deserve the support of the entire community, and the gangsters who are issuing threats against them deserve nothing but contempt.

“The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) have been quick to make statements in recent days. Where do they stand on this one? The law abiding, good people of Carrickfergus need to hear a clear and straight condemnation of the South East Antrim UDA from the LCC.”

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionists on 7 November 2022.

Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott MLA:

“Tuesday marks the 35th anniversary of one the IRA`s most horrific atrocities when they exploded a no warning bomb as people gathered on Remembrance Sunday in 1987. Twelve innocent men and women were murdered in the Enniskillen Poppy Day Massacre, with dozens more injured.

“It was an act of barbarity that even in a time when outrages were sadly almost commonplace, still had the power to shock people who had become almost immune to the horrors of the Troubles, and exposed to the wider world, the cruelty and the fascist nature of the IRA.

“Only recently, the memorial to the victims was erected in Enniskillen. Not only should there be a memorial to the victims, but their families also deserve truth and justice. The families have endured years of pain and watched on as IRA victims have been sidelined whilst others tried to justify the IRA`s barbaric murder campaign.

“Only this week Mary Lou McDonald attempted to differentiate between murders carried out by the IRA`s murder gangs and murders carried out by Dublin based criminal gangs. All murder is wrong whether it was 1987 or 2022. It was the Provisional IRA who massacred innocent men, women and children in Northern Ireland. The IRA`s bloody list of atrocities should be something to be ashamed of, not to be romanticised or glorified.

“To this day, many continue to live with the pain and suffering of losing a loved one or with the physical and emotional suffering of terrorist activities. Even with that pain and suffering I pay great tribute to those who have persevered with the erection of the Memorial in Enniskillen.”

The press release issued by the Ulster Unionist Party on 7 November 2022.

Doug Beattie MC MLA said:

“The weekend comments from Mary Lou McDonald that there is ‘no comparison’ between IRA violence and gangland violence has rightly been rejected, as has her claim that Jonathan Dowdall would not have been “anywhere near” Sinn Fein had her party known he was involved in any form of criminality.

“The whitewashing of the IRA’s part in the butchering of men, women and children and the continual harm and hurt visited on families is appalling and what we are witnessing is the Disneyfication of murder, seeking to romanticise brutal crimes.

“Mary Lou McDonald is deluded if she thinks that IRA atrocities such as the Abercorn, Claudy, La Mon or Enniskillen were not crimes. The shooting of Angela Gallagher, Jean McConville and Mary Travers – to name but a few – are crimes that would shame the devil, but not it would seem Sinn Fein.

“Gun attacks by drug gangs are no different to gun attacks by the IRA, because both are the work of illegal criminal gangs.

“I fully understand that Sinn Fein has a vested interest in trying to sanitise the bloody past of the IRA, but they face some inconvenient facts in the process. The first is that that 60 per cent of Troubles related deaths were the work of republican terrorists. The second is that the IRA in supposedly defending the Catholic population, killed more Catholics than all the other actors combined.

“Sinn Fein may attempt to pretend that black is white but they should not be surprised when they are challenged every step of the way by those for whom the truth is not a stranger.”