Order Paper

1. Prayers

2. Members’ Statements

3. Question Time

3.1 Education

4. Private Members’ Business

Motion: Unlocking Funding for Childcare Providers

Proposed:

That this Assembly welcomes the £50 million earmarked for early years and childcare in the Executive’s Draft Budget for 2025-2026; highlights the positive impact of the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme towards alleviating financial pressure on thousands of families and helping more parents, particularly women, to stay in, or return to, work; further welcomes that from September 2025 an additional 2,500 children in 105 pre-school settings throughout Northern Ireland will be offered full-time pre-school education; recalls that the package of early years and childcare measures agreed in May 2024 included a £2 million allocation for a targeted business support scheme for childcare providers; regrets, in this context, the failure of the Department for the Economy and Invest NI to expedite the scoping exercise necessary to inform the design of this scheme; notes that this comes at a time when many providers are already facing challenges to recruitment and retention, including grappling with rising national insurance costs; calls on the Minister for the Economy to explain the cause of this delay; and further calls on the Minister to work alongside Executive colleagues to expedite the delivery of this vital financial support to childcare providers in financial difficulty, as well as those in areas where the demand for childcare exceeds supply, as soon as possible.

Ms Diane Forsythe
Mr Phillip Brett
Mr Peter Martin
Mr David Brook

Motion: Reducing Stigma in Mental Illness

Proposed:

That this Assembly recognises that many people, from a cross-section of society, face mental health challenges; asserts that no person experiencing mental ill-health should feel any shame due to their illness; further recognises the need to fully implement the Mental Health Strategy 2021-2031; calls on the Minister of Health to take action to reduce stigma around mental illness and to bring forward a work plan on this issue, given its prevalence within society; and further calls on the Department of Health to deliver anti-stigma and anti-discrimination public awareness and education campaigns, as detailed in the first theme of the Mental Health Strategy.

Ms Liz Kimmins
Miss Órlaithí Flynn
Mrs Linda Dillon

5. Adjournment

• Improved Access to the Accident and Emergency Department in Altnagelvin Hospital.

Mr Pádraig Delargy