Matthew Bell

Ahead of Chancellor John Healey MP delivering his first Budget this Wednesday, South Antrim MP Robin Swann has outlined his key priorities to support local businesses, farming families and public services. With significant economic pressures facing key sectors across Northern Ireland, Mr Swann is calling on the Treasury to deliver targeted measures, including reform on hospitality VAT, Air Passenger Duty and agricultural tax. Speaking ahead of the Budget statement, the Ulster Unionist MP said: “This Budget comes at a critical time for families and businesses across Northern Ireland. The Treasury has an opportunity this week to deliver practical support that will protect jobs, boost growth and deliver fairness for Northern Ireland. “A reduction in hospitality VAT, as recommended by our Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report, would provide a huge boost for local venues under severe pressure. Cutting this rate will help safeguard businesses, protect local employment and strengthen our wider economy. “We also need to see the scrapping of Air Passenger Duty for Northern Ireland. Removing APD will establish a level playing field on the island of Ireland, encouraging airlines to station more aircraft here, driving growth and ultimately delivering a greater return to the Treasury.” Mr Swann also highlighted the impact of uncertainty surrounding farm inheritance tax, adding: “Our farming community needs urgent assurances and certainty regarding farm inheritance tax. Recent research by the Ulster Farmers’ Union found that nearly nine in ten farmers responding said these inheritance tax changes have increased stress or worry within their families. It is clear that there has been unnecessary emotional and financial strain put on local family farms and the Treasury needs to offer clear reassurance.” On the ongoing budget deadlock at Stormont, Mr Swann said: “With the Northern Ireland Executive still operating without an agreed budget, I hope that any major spending announcements from the Government will deliver notable Barnett consequentials for Northern Ireland to help address the current shortfall. “Westminster funding alone, however, is not a substitute for local accountability, and this a point the Prime Minister made when I questioned him on the issue last week. It is vital that Stormont agrees its own budget as soon as possible, allowing the Executive to get on with its proper job of delivering high-quality public services for everyone in Northern Ireland.”

1/5 🩺 Your health care should depend on need, not your bank balance.

1/6 🕊️ Northern Ireland has come a long way.

Ulster Unionist Deputy Leader Diana Armstrong MLA has marked International Day of Rural Women by asking what progress DAERA has made on the barriers facing women in agriculture, more than four years after an Assembly report set them out in detail. Diana Armstrong said: “Rural women hold our communities together. In farming, in business, in schools and surgeries, in churches and clubs, they are the people who keep things going. “There are nearly 52,000 people working on farms in Northern Ireland. Four out of five of them are down as the farmer, a partner or a spouse. Now think about what that word spouse is covering. It is the woman who reared the calves, who does the books at the kitchen table, who takes the call from the vet, who has the dinner on for whoever is in the yard. None of that puts her down as a farmer. Most of it is not paid either. “The scale of this is already well documented. The Breaking the Grass Ceiling report found that women make up 22% of the agricultural workforce but only 5% of principal farmers. It found the number of women farmers fell by 15% between 2006 and 2019. It found women make up just 4% of participants in Business Development Groups. Seven in ten women who responded said the culture of the industry was a challenge, and two thirds were holding down a job off the farm as well. “Nearly 180 women took the time to set out what their working lives were actually like. That was four years ago. What I want to know today is what DAERA has done with it. What has the Department put in place since? What has changed for the woman on a farm in rural Northern Ireland? If the answer is very little, then say so honestly and get on with fixing it. “There is a harder issue underneath all of this. On a great many farms the land, the herd and the business are in one name, and it is usually not hers. A woman can give forty years to a farm and have no security in it at all. If a marriage ends, or a partnership breaks down, or there is a dispute over succession, she can find she has nothing to show for a lifetime’s work. It is rarely talked about and it needs to be. “Rural women also carry the sharp end of problems I have raised before. There is no bus. Childcare is miles away and costs more than the job pays. Services are a drive rather than a walk. “So today is not only about saying thank you, although I do. Recognise the work women do on family farms. Look at how women with no legal stake in the business they have built can be supported. Stop designing services on the assumption that everyone lives within reach of a bus route. “I see the difference these women make every single day. The least they are owed is to be counted.”

🎥 The Belfast Agreement was built on balance. St Andrews tore that up, and 20 years on we're still paying the price. Time to get back to making Northern Ireland work for everyone. Dr Steve Aiken OBE MLA speaking in the Assembly ⬇️

🎥 "Your future matters. Your ambition matters. And your right to stay, thrive, and build a life here matters." 💬 Chris Mercer on why young people aren't a bolt-on to society, and why Northern Ireland must fight for their future.

𝗔 𝗨𝗞 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗜𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱✅ Our Health Minister Robbie Butler has officially announced that Northern Ireland's regional thrombectomy service is now running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thrombectomy removes a blood clot to restore blood flow to the brain and can dramatically improve a stroke patient's chances of recovery. Previously the service ran from 8am to 5pm. Now, the time of day or night a stroke happens is no longer a barrier to treatment, and patients are already benefiting overnight. Robbie said: "This is a landmark moment for stroke care in Northern Ireland. We are leading the way as the first in the whole of the UK to provide a 24/7 thrombectomy service for our entire population. This is something I am immensely proud of." #StrokeCare

🎥"Is there a method ahead of government actually being able to do things, like build roads rather than blocking them?" @SRAikenUUP puts it to the deputy First Minister.