Order Paper

1. Prayers

2. Members’ Statements

3. Question Time

3.1 Education

4. Committee Business

Motion: Amend Standing Order 30

Proposed:

After Standing Order 30(2) insert:

(2A) No Private Member’s Bill shall be introduced in the Assembly after the final sitting day in June of any relevant year.

(2B) In this Standing Order, a relevant year is the calendar year immediately preceding the calendar year in which, in accordance with section 31(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, a poll for the election of an Assembly will take place.

Chairperson, Committee on Procedures

5. Private Members’ Business

Motion: Funding for Health Service Transformation

Proposed:

That this Assembly acknowledges the deepening crisis engulfing the health service; believes current hospital waiting times are unacceptable and must be urgently and sustainably addressed; notes with particular concern the 9.4 per cent rise in the number of patients waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment in the Northern, Southern and Western Health & Social Care Trusts between June 2023 and June 2024; reiterates support for the full and timely implementation of the Systems, not Structures report by Professor Rafael Bengoa in order to deliver a more effective, efficient and responsive health service; recognises the importance of transformation being clinically led, as well as the need to value and reward our dedicated frontline health professionals; expresses concern that the stabilisation package agreed with the Government in December 2023 is insufficient to enable the immediate sustainability of public services or to take forward the much-needed transformation agenda; further believes there is a need for a new, long-term financial settlement with the Treasury; calls on the Minister of Health to work with Executive colleagues to strongly make the case for additional funding from the Treasury; and further calls on the Minister to prioritise and allocate additional resources to tackle the backlog in hospital waiting lists in the delivery of the Executive’s forthcoming Programme for Government.

Mrs Diane Dodds
Mr Alan Robinson

Motion: Removing the Barriers to Green Growth

Proposed:

That this Assembly recognises that fair and just growth in the green economy is vital for securing Northern Ireland’s economic future and delivering on our Net Zero commitments; welcomes work from the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to bring forward a Green Growth Strategy; recognises that this Strategy is an important precursor to the delivery of a wider Green New Deal that will decarbonise our economy and create sustainable green jobs in existing and emerging industries; agrees that the major delays within our planning system is one of the greatest barriers to green growth, inward investment and delivery of vital renewable energy infrastructure; further recognises that, without fundamental reform of the planning system, the ambition to harness the potential of a green growth economy, as set out in the draft Programme for Government, will not be possible; and calls on the Minister for Infrastructure and the Minister for the Economy to work together to deliver fundamental reform of the planning system in order to deliver green growth and maximise renewable energy.

Mr David Honeyford
Ms Kate Nicholl
Mr John Blair
Mr Andrew McMurray

6. Adjournment

• Pollution in Lough Erne

Mrs Deborah Erskine