Northern Ireland

Health crisis prompts sharp exchanges in Westminster election debate

Colum Eastwood (SDLP); Steve Aiken (UUP); Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Féin); Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) and Naomi Long (Alliance) with UTV Election Debate presenter Marc Mallet. Picture by Kelvin Boyes
Colum Eastwood (SDLP); Steve Aiken (UUP); Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Féin); Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) and Naomi Long (Alliance) with UTV Election Debate presenter Marc Mallet. Picture by Kelvin Boyes Colum Eastwood (SDLP); Steve Aiken (UUP); Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Féin); Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) and Naomi Long (Alliance) with UTV Election Debate presenter Marc Mallet. Picture by Kelvin Boyes

THE crisis in the health service drew acrimonious exchanges between representatives of Northern Ireland's main parties during last night's UTV Election Debate.

But while there was deep division on the causes and response to growing waiting lists and ongoing industrial action by nurses and health workers, the mood around the potential restoration of the Stormont institutions was relatively positive.

However, Brexit and its consequences continue to cast a shadow across regional politics though there appeared to be little support, if any, among the debate's five participants for Boris Johnson's withdrawal agreement.

During the lively hour-long exchange, the politicians were quizzed by UTV's Marc Mallet.

Last night's pre-recorded debate is the first of two staged by the region's big broadcasters ahead of Thursday's Westminster poll, with the BBC screening The Leaders' Debate live tomorrow night.

During the debate, the DUP's Emma Little Pengelly – whose husband Richard heads up the Department of Health – insisted the Stormont executive had taken a collective decision to end parity with health workers in Britain.

She also claimed the funds secured through her party's confidence and supply deal with the Conservatives had "helped everybody".

However, both Alliance leader Naomi Long and Sinn Féin's vice-president Michelle O'Neill blamed former DUP health minister Jim Wells for the move that had seen Northern Ireland's nurses paid less than their counterparts across the Irish Sea.

The DUP's South Belfast candidate, deputising for Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds, argued that a solution to the health crisis lay in the restoration of the devolved institutions, while Ms O'Neill, who isn't contesting Thursday's election, said a "financial injection" was required to counter the effects of "Tory austerity".

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken, who is his party's candidate in East Antrim, advocated borrowing money to address the immediate issues, while his SDLP counterpart Colum Eastwood argued for "taking the politics out of health", highlighting how previous Stormont health ministers had sometimes received little support from their executive colleagues.

The Foyle MLA lamented the need to go "cap in hand" to the British government.

On Brexit, Ms Little-Pengelly said the DUP had "stopped a bad Theresa May deal and stopped a bad Boris Johnson deal" but Me Aiken argued that his larger unionist rivals had "fundamentally undermined" the union by initially conceding a regulatory border in the Irish Sea. He said the DUP was "not over the jot and tittle" of the British prime minister's Brexit deal.

Ms O'Neill rejected criticism of Sinn Féin's abstentionist policy, noting that the SNP's 35 MPs had not stopped Brexit.

She said her party had instead worked with Dublin, the EU and Washington to "protect the Good Friday Agreement and the all-Ireland economy".

Mr Eastwood, the SDLP's Foyle candidate, consistently argued that it was necessary to have a presence at Westminster because that is where key decisions were being taken "whether we like it or not".

Alliance East Belfast candidate Mrs Long, whose party advocates a second referendum, said the funding secured by the DUP through the confidence and supply deal was a "drop in the ocean" compared to the financial hardship that would result from Brexit.

Ahead of fresh negotiations aimed at restoring the devolved institutions, the SDLP, Alliance and Ulster Unionist leaders stressed the need for reform, with particular focus on the petition of concern.

Ms O'Neill also name-checked the Stormont assembly veto mechanism, as well as stressing the need to legacy to ensure the institutions were "credible and sustainable".

Ms Little-Pengelly said her party had no preconditions and would "look at legislating for the Irish language".