Questions asked by Peter McReynolds in the Northern Ireland Assembly

Mr Butler

I thank the Member from East Belfast. I know that the Member is significantly interested in the topic, so I was not surprised to see it pop up. It is also close to my heart. My Department has secured £2·3 million in recurrent funding to increase neurology capacity and to begin reducing unacceptably long waits. The funding will be directed towards a balanced programme of immediate backlog reduction and sustainable service reform. That includes additional professional staff who can assess, review and support appropriate patients without requiring every contact to be consultant-led. My officials are working with a range of neurology stakeholders to ensure that action is in line with the published regional review of neurology services without prejudice to that work. Investment could support improvements to clinical triage, advice and guidance for GPs, validation of new and review waiting lists and patient-initiated follow-ups for suitable, stable patients. Measures such as those will ensure that specialist appointments are prioritised for patients with the greatest clinical need, while building a safer, more equitable and sustainable service across Northern Ireland. Neurology waiting times saw a slight improvement in the first six months of 2026, with the regional focus on elective care action. Between January and June, there was a reduction of 1,333 patients waiting for a first consultant appointment, from 28,188 to 26,855. However, the median average wait of 77 weeks remains unacceptable. That is why we need much more investment to support the regional review. The review proposes an ambitious programme to put people with neurological conditions at the centre of their care and to improve services underpinned by workforce growth and new ways of working. My Department is preparing to publish the review's consultation analysis report and to progress the next steps for implementation as soon as possible, despite the significant budget challenges that face the health and social care system.

Mr Butler

It is essential that we reduce waiting times, but we must also improve support for people while they wait, which is what the Member talked about. Services need to ensure that referrals are reviewed according to clinical need and that people whose conditions worsen can be identified and assessed more quickly. Better specialist advice for general practitioners can help some patients to begin appropriate tests or treatment without having to wait for hospital appointments. My Department's regional review also recommends protected urgent appointments for people who are at risk of hospital admission, clearer points of contact and stronger links with nursing services, therapy services and community and voluntary services. Those approaches require careful planning and appropriate staffing, but they are central to a safer service. Patients should not feel forgotten whilst they wait, and those with the most urgent needs should be identified and prioritised consistently across Northern Ireland.

Mr Lyons

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I intend to answer questions 4 and 15 together. My Department did not provide any direct funding to the fleadh. However, my officials and several arm's-length bodies (ALBs) of my Department engaged with partners to support and promote the fleadh, and my Department provided important support in terms of event space, with a number of DFC-owned public spaces used by businesses during the fleadh. Those included Writer's Square, Donegall Quay, Queen's Quay, Bank Square and Cotton Court, and my Department was responsible for ensuring that all areas under its ownership were cleaned and maintained before, during and after the event. Looking forward to 2027, while I am not currently in a position to advise on any projected investment for next year, I will ensure that my Department and its ALBs continue to engage with the organisers of the 2027 fleadh on ways to further enhance the festival for Belfast and Northern Ireland, as well as ensuring the longevity of its cultural legacy.

Ms Ní Chuilín

I thank the Minister for that answer. It is disappointing that he did not put any direct funding into the Fleadh Cheoil. I welcome the fact that spaces belonging to the Department were made available. However, the business case for next year is being made now and will continue into early 2027. Will the Minister commit to putting funding into the Fleadh Cheoil? Belfast City Council did so with much less resource, so I would welcome the Minister having another look at it. I am sure that he will agree that the fleadh was a very successful event.

Mr Lyons

Yes, it was a successful event, and I was happy to attend a number of the events in August. It brought people together and was good for the city and beyond. I was not asked to provide any funding for the fleadh. I met the organisers over a year before the event. There are lots of other people who ask me for money and I am not able to help them, but no request was made in this case. It was right and proper that the funding from the Executive came from the Department for the Economy. It is the Department that is responsible for large events, and that is why it happened in that way. Of course, I will always consider how we can help and how we can bring benefit to people across Northern Ireland.

Mr Lyons

Yes, of course, the fleadh would not have been what it was had it not been for the many people who contributed, took part and displayed their talents, all of which were enjoyed by everybody. The Member asked specifically about legacy and what I am doing to ensure that we have a legacy for the arts in Northern Ireland, and that is exactly why I have brought forward the heritage, culture and creativity framework, underneath which will be, for the first time ever in Northern Ireland, an arts policy. We spent a considerable amount of time developing that. We engaged with other Departments and arm's-length bodies.

We have ensured that there has been input from councils, and we are doing a considerable amount of work in that space in order to make sure that it is fit for purpose. I am pleased to announce that that will be going out for consultation soon and, subject to the feedback from that consultation, I look forward to sharing that policy with Executive colleagues, with the aim of ensuring that I publish that as early as I can in 2027.

Mr Kingston

Does the Minister agree that the fleadh was a good example of how our shared cultures can be celebrated together, which is in stark contrast with the despicable scenes and glorification of terrorism that we see annually at the west Belfast festival?

Mr Lyons

Yes, absolutely. I congratulate the organisers of the fleadh for the way in which they went about their work and how they tried to make it inclusive and representative not just of Belfast but of Northern Ireland as a whole. There were great opportunities for people to feel welcome and involved. The Member is absolutely right: that does stand in stark contrast to what we saw at the west Belfast festival. Unfortunately, it is becoming commonplace that it is an event that glorifies terrorism. Even this year, we had the promotion and platforming of the evil ideology of Martina Anderson and everything that she had been involved in, and disgracefully so. It would be better for everybody in Northern Ireland if we had a little bit more fleadh and a lot less féile next year.

Some Members

Hear, hear.

Mr O'Toole

Minister, the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann was an extraordinary and unprecedented event in this city and in this region. It genuinely brought joy in a way that people in this city had not experienced before. The people who delivered that, however, and were the backbone of that, were the artists — dozens of whom are watching in the Chamber today — who have been failed by you and by your predecessors as Ministers with responsibility for arts, culture and communities. They want to know when the arts will be sustainably funded here. In Dublin, one theatre — the Abbey Theatre — gets the equivalent of nearly the entire arts budget in Northern Ireland. Budget talks are going on at the moment. Will you finally put an end to the scandal of the underfunded arts sector here and press for a specific and meaningful increase in the arts budget in Northern Ireland?

Mr Lyons

First, I recognise the fact that the arts are not funded to the level that we want to see them funded to. That stands out when you look at where the budget was 15 years ago compared with where it is today. I understand and fully appreciate people's concerns in relation to that. However, I have made it a priority. For as long as I have been in office, I have had some very difficult decisions to make. There are lots of things that I have not been able to fund as I would have liked to or as we did in the past. Despite that, however, I have increased the arts budget above inflation since I came into office in February 2024. Is that enough? No. Does it take us back to where we were in the previous decade? No, it does not. Nonetheless, I hope that it shows the commitment that I have made to make sure that the budget has been protected during that time. There has also been a considerable increase in the capital funds that have been made available to the Arts Council, from £1·3 million to £1·9 million, over the past couple of years. I understand the importance of community infrastructure and of people having musical instruments for bands, schools, other groups and individuals, and that is why that has been increased. We are in a really constrained budgetary environment, and I will do what I can with what I have. That is why I will also make sure that we deliver on the arts budget.