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UUP Health Committee John McAllister responded to comments made by Peter Robinson on the Health Budget to the Assembly Scrutiny Committee this morning. The UUP man said that there was breakdown between the Finance Minister and his wife Iris, the Chair of the Health Committee, who said that an increase in the Direct Rule budget of 2005 of 9% for health was insufficient.

Mr. McCallister said, “obviously there has been something of a breakdown in communications in the Robinson household. Finance Minister Peter Robinson is telling the Northern Ireland public that his miserly increase in spending on our NHS of 3.8% is enough. Iris Robinson, however, told the House of Commons in April 2005 that that year’s Direct Rule budget increase on NHS expenditure of 9% was insufficient. To quote Mrs. Robinson:

‘although a proposed increase of 9% … in the current expenditure of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety may, on the surface, appear generous, health inflation continues to grow at a much steeper rate. By 2007-08, the percentage rise that direct rule Ministers have committed themselves to will be less than 6%. The positive public messages from Ministers do not equate with the demands and restrictions that they are placing on senior managers away from the media spotlight’. (House of Commons, 5th April 2005.)

That said, perhaps we should not be too hard on the Robinsons. They have, after all, led the DUP to perform some spectacular u-turns in recent times. This merely adds to the list. A 9% increase in health expenditure in 2005, Iris Robinson said, was not enough. Today Peter Robinson tells us that 3.8% is enough.”

Following DUP MLA Tom Buchanan’s decision to dismiss investment in our National Health Service as “simply tossing in more and more money”, UUP South Down MLA and Assembly Health Committee member John McCallister has called on Mr. Buchanan and his colleagues to stop undermining the NHS in Northern Ireland.

Mr. McCallister said, “DUP MLA Tom Buchanan has now joined his colleagues Iris Robinson, Alistair Ross, and Mervyn Story in defending the Finance Minister’s decision not to fund the NHS in Northern Ireland to UK levels. I had expected more of Mr. Buchanan as a fellow-member of the Health Committee. I had expected that he would have put our NHS first. Instead he smugly tells the public that our health services do not require investment – or, to use his own dismissive description of investment in the NHS, ‘simply tossing in more and more money’. Nor does Mr. Buchanan stop there. Instead of praising the professionalism and dedication of our hard-working health professionals, he talks about the ‘failings of the NHS’.

“Mr. Buchanan says that his party ‘wants to see the maximum resources directed towards health’. If this is so, why has the DUP Finance Minister refused to fund the NHS to UK levels? If this is so, why has the DUP Chair of the Health Committee taken upon herself the role of a cheerleader for the Finance Minister?

“The Appleby Report into Northern Ireland’s health services unequivocally demonstrated the need for increased investment in our NHS. Appleby said of Northern Ireland’s health services, ‘a significant increase in resources is required in the coming years’. The Finance Minister Peter Robinson, supported by Health Committee Chair Iris Robinson, disagrees: his Draft Budget fails to provide increased investment for our health services.

“The DUP’s stance on this issue – as with so many others – has radically changed in recent times. As recently as 2005, Iris Robinson was telling the House of Commons that ‘significant investment is required’ in Northern Ireland’s health service and that the DUP ‘advocate increased funding’. Now Tom Buchanan, presumably at the behest of the Finance Minister, is dismissing investment in our NHS as ‘simply tossing in more and more money’. Obviously some DUP u-turns – such as accepting power-sharing and the devolved institutions of the Belfast Agreement – have been very welcome, if over-due. A u-turn on the importance of investing in the NHS, however, is self-evidently not in the interests of Northern Ireland.”

UUP MLA and member of the Health Committee, John McCallister MLA, has expressed his disbelief that the DUP’s Health Committee Chair Iris Robinson has - yet again - sought to defend the Finance Minister Peter Robinson’s under-funding of the National Health Service.

Mr. McCallister said, “one would have hoped that by this stage Iris Robinson would have had the integrity and courage to put the NHS first, rather than continue her ill-tempered and frankly ridiculous defence of Peter Robinson’s under-funding of the NHS.

“To call Health Minister Michael McGimpsey ‘left-wing’ because he is defending the NHS demonstrates Mrs. Robinson’s desperation. The fact that all mainstream British political parties believe in properly funding the NHS has obviously gone unnoticed by the DUP. Perhaps I can explain things in simple terms for Mrs. Robinson and her colleagues. To defend our NHS is not left-wing. It is a mainstream British value.

“That the Chair of the Health Committee is putting partisan interests before the NHS is shameful. The new Northern Ireland that Mrs. Robinson has suddenly and not before time decided is a good thing, needs and deserves a NHS funded to the levels secured for our fellow citizens elsewhere in the UK. Of course, I do not expect Mrs. Robinson to agree - after all, she has decided that defending the NHS is a left-wing stance. It therefore falls to an Ulster Unionist Health Minister to remind the DUP that the NHS is a UK-wide, British institution that should be funded to UK-wide levels”.

John McCallister MLA for South Down and member of the Assembly Health Committee, congratulated the Health Minister Michael McGimpsey for again stating that he has only supported a Draft Budget for consultation and has not committed to support the Finance Minister’s Draft Budget.

Mr McCallister said, “considering that during today’s Question Time the Chair of the Health Committee has – yet again – chosen to defend the priorities of the Finance Minister rather than the National Health Service, I commend the Health Minister for standing up for the NHS. The Draft Budget, as the Minister pointed out over the protests of the DUP benches, fails to provide adequate funding for a modern NHS. Because of the Finance Minister’s Draft Budget – supported by Iris Robinson, Chair of the Health Committee – families and communities across Northern Ireland will not receive health care comparable to that in the rest of the United Kingdom.

“The Minister was right to state that the people of Northern Ireland should have a National Health Service funded at least to the same levels as the NHS in the rest of the UK. It is incredibly disappointing that DUP MLAs during Question Time – particularly Iris Robinson and Alastair Ross – indicated their contentment with second-rate funding for our NHS. Thankfully a Ulster Unionist Health Minister disagrees and is determined to put the NHS first”.

Following today’s debate on the requirement handed down by the Courts to the Department of Health to issue guidelines on the legal termination of pregnancy, Ulster Unionist MLAs John McCallister and Danny Kennedy have welcomed Health Minister Michael McGimpsey’s statement that he is not seeking and will not seek to change Northern Ireland’s abortion law.

Mr. McCallister said, “today’s debate on abortion clearly shows that opinion in the Assembly remains resolutely opposed to any attempt to extend the 1967 Act to Northern Ireland. Both the motion and the amendment reaffirmed and reasserted the existing legal position – that abortion is unlawful except when necessary to save the mother’s life or to prevent her physical or mental harm. As I stated in my speech, I oppose the extension of the 1967 Act to Northern Ireland and any attempt to undermine the existing law in this part of the United Kingdom. It is of fundamental importance that the Department of Health, in discharging its legal obligation to bring forward guidelines on the lawful termination of pregnancy, ensures that the guidelines are entirely consistent with the existing law. It is therefore to be welcomed that the Minister has said that the proposed guidelines are being reviewed to ensure that this is so”.

Mr. Kennedy also emphasized the strong support within the Assembly for maintaining Northern Ireland’s present abortion law. He said, “as a member of the Assembly’s All-Party Pro-Life Group, I – like my colleague John McCallister – am firmly opposed to any attempt to undermine Northern Ireland’s existing abortion law. The 1967 Act which applies in the rest of the UK has resulted in more than 1 in 5 pregnancies in GB ending in an abortion. No right-thinking person can accept such a situation as desirable. This is why the amendment moved by myself and my colleague explicitly stated that the guidelines to be brought forward by the Department must be consistent with the existing law. I welcome the Minister’s clear and unambiguous declaration that he is not seeking and will not seek to change Northern Ireland’s abortion law”.

Speaking at the launch of Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Stormont today, UUP South Down MLA John McCallister said,

“I welcome today’s launch of the Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month for October. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer amongst women in Northern Ireland. Every year around 900 women are diagnosed with the disease and one in twelve women will develop the cancer during their life time. These large numbers mean that many families in our society will, either directly or indirectly, have their lives affected by breast cancer.

“I am pleased that because of recent developments in awareness and early detection, recovery rates are showing signs of improvement. Today in Northern Ireland there are 6,000 women living with a diagnosis of Breast Cancer. To ensure that we continue to see an improvement in these figures all women should be entitled to a detection service which is easily accessible and does not require excessive waiting times.

“I urge everyone to get involved in Breast Cancer Awareness Month, both by increasing awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease and by raising much needed financial support. It is essential that adequate funding is available to allow research to continue, so that hopefully one day this will be a thing of the past. It is also crucial that those who are experiencing the reality of breast cancer are treated with dignity and are provided with the support they deserve.”

Ulster Unionist South Down candidate John McCallister has highlighted the lack of affordable housing within the constituency, saying that “young people and first-time buyers are finding it impossible to get on the property ladder”.

In a statement, Mr McCallister said: “Over recent years huge amounts of council housing have been sold off under the right-to-buy scheme- while this is in itself a good thing problems have been created as this housing stock has not been replaced.

“Northern Ireland in 2006 saw a 35% increase in property value – this is the highest increase in Europe – and in some areas the rise has been over 50%. Combine these increases with the fact that Northern Ireland has the lowest average wage in the UK and you have the perfect recipe to accelerate the brain drain either to Great Britain or the Republic.”

He added: “With the current restrictions on planning permission in rural areas many young people are being forced further and further from their roots, mainly because new developments in small villages are being bought up by investors, forcing local buyers out of the market.

“I will be campaigning for a balanced rural planning policy – protecting the countryside from random development while allowing for sustainable development of rural communities.”

UUP South Down candidate John McCallister has said the concerns of the farming community are his “Number 1 priority” in relation to the Mourne National Park, and has hit out at DUP division and confusion on the issue.

In a statement, Mr McCallister said,

“Farmers have very genuine concerns about the Mourne National Park. These concerns are my top priority. This issue is far too important to the livelihoods of local farmers and other small businesses for there to be any confusion or ambiguity from public representatives.

“Yet clearly within the DUP confusion is the order of the day. Jim Wells has long been on record as a supporter of the Mourne National Park, even seconding a Motion of Down District Council supporting its designation as a National Park.

Yet this week we learn that his supposed ‘running mate’ Willie Burns is ‘totally opposed’ to the project, despite not even showing up to the Burren Community Centre meeting on February 9th. Has nobody told Willie Burns of his colleague’s long-standing support for the Park?

“The DUP candidates are not just out of step, they are totally at odds with each other on this key issue. Such confusion is not surprising from a DUP that is now so divided it can’t even promise to restore our devolved government. Only with a government of our own can we start to tackle the issues that really matter to farmers.

“With the Ulster Unionist Party, local farmers can be sure of where they stand. Sir Reg Empey has visited this constituency and has spoken up strongly for the concerns of local farmers - concerns reiterated by our Agriculture spokesperson Tom Elliott at the recent UFU hustings. Ulster Unionists believe in a prosperous and sustainable future for all of Northern Ireland’s rural communities.

As a farmer, I am determined not to let the rights of my fellow local farmers be trampled on. With the UUP farmers know where they stand. I call on the divided DUP to get its act together, there can be no room for confusion or ambiguity on this issue”.

Ulster Unionist Assembly candidate for South Down, John McCallister has said that a restored Assembly must formulate a comprehensive approach to ensuring that the Northern Ireland fishing industry is robustly represented and its interests defended.

Speaking from Kilkeel, Mr McCallister said: “This winter has been one of the worst on record for fishermen in the South Down area. In the run-in to Christmas, thanks to bad weather, the local fleet has only managed to put to sea on few occasions and this situation has continued through the opening two months of this year. This situation has resulted in severe hardship for those who rely on the sea for their living and it is compounded by the fact that those who have tried to claim benefits have been refused help.

“Whilst it is true that much of the policy impacting on the fishing industry is now decided in Brussels I believe that our local Assembly could do much more than it has done in the past.

“The next Assembly must not be allowed to treat the fishing industry as some sort of ‘side issue’. The Northern Ireland fishing industry must be made to been seen as being as important to Northern Ireland as is health and education.

“I will work to secure the renovation of Kilkeel Harbour and bring it up to the appropriate safety standards whilst also making it a commercially viable enterprise.”

“Achieving this will involve the Assembly in formulating a united policy approach to fishing with the core aim being that the interests of fishermen in places like Ardglass and Kilkeel are properly represented and protected.”

“Fishermen from Ardglass and Kilkeel are not asking to be treated differently from anyone else. All they are seeking is a fair livelihood for themselves and their families.”

“In the Assembly I will be striving to ensure their interests are not neglected, not overlooked and not ‘side-lined’ – but instead made a central and important issue.”

In the aftermath of the launch of his Party’s election manifesto, South Down UUP Assembly candidate John McCallister has said that the local economy is high on his list of priorities.

Speaking at a recent visit to Meelmore Lodge, Bryansford, one of the constituency’s most successful examples of agri-business diversification, Mr McCallister highlighted the need for continued and growing support for such schemes.

“Local businessmen should be commended for the vision and enterprise they have shown in diversifying into areas such as the hospitality and tourism sector”, said the Ulster Unionist.

“My Party’s manifesto has made it clear that it wishes to see a small business rates relief scheme, a competitive tax environment as well as investment in skills and innovation and, if elected, I will ensure that the benefits of such are brought to bear for all the people of South Down.”

Mr McCallister hit the campaign trail running this week visiting local people across the constituency and holding meetings with local businessmen.

“The modern UUP are eager and equipped to see normal politics work for all of us,” he added.