NEWS - Tomorrow's Leaders Tonight: A Round-up
Tomorrow’s Leaders Tonight was hosted by The Scoop in conjunction with Imagine, Belfast’s annual festival of ideas and politics, on Wednesday night.
We put five thought-provoking issues to our panellists, representatives from the youth wings of Northern Ireland’s most prominent political parties: Adam Gannon of SDLP Youth, Stuart Hughes of Ulster Young Unionist Council, Hannah Irwin of Alliance Youth, Sarah Laverty of Young Greens NI, Caoimhín McCann of Ógra Sinn Féin and Grant Warren of Queen’s Democratic Unionist Association.
The Roadmap
Discussion got underway with the question of Northern Ireland’s roadmap out of lockdown, with panellists giving their perspective of what exactly we need to see from our political representatives. Irwin and Gannon both opted for an evidence-based roadmap based on medical advice, with Gannon calling for clarity while Irwin admitting that outlining an end point is often unrealistic.
Warren pointed to the need for a more ambitious, tangible strategy with a roadmap fixed to dates as in England, while Hughes opted for a more cautious approach; as we move forward, we need to take into consideration the different affects lockdown has on young people.
Shifting the focus to the vaccine, McCann suggested that while the rollout in Ireland has been poor in comparison to Northern Ireland, the pandemic has shown that we need to act as one island.
Keeping the conversation on the vaccine, an optimistic slant was provided by Laverty who emphasised caution yet hope, that we are in a much better position than we were last year and have proven we can respond to crises rapidly and collectively.
Irwin raised the issue of a green recovery plan which was supported by Laverty, who cautioned that any such plan must not be rushed.
Can women in Northern Ireland feel safe?
The women on our panel kicked off our next topic, giving their thoughts on what should be done to help women feel safe in Northern Ireland. Laverty advocated for both a top-down approach, including greater funding for the women’s sector and relationship and sex education, along with long-term behavioural change.
Irwin too spoke of the “underlying misogyny” we need to tackle in education but flipped the discussion and responsibility over to the men on the panel, with the view that, “the onus isn’t on women, it’s on men.”
Gannon agreed that men need to challenge the misogyny of their peers and Warren added that there is a need to refashion our culture of distrusting women and victims. Keeping the conversation rooted in belief and trust, McCann too acknowledged that it is only by believing women that they will become more confident reporting crimes. Hughes brought the discussion back to the everyday, admitting that we cannot simply “legislate our way out of this.”
A Divided Panel
On the issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol, debate sparked up between Gannon who advocated for upholding the protocol as the only workable solution and Warren, who was fearful that even with discussion with the EU, Northern Ireland would still be treated differently. What Gannon branded a “temper tantrum” from the DUP was echoed more subtly by Irwin who asserted that unionist anger would not bring a solution and McCann, who attributed the DUP’s actions to an “identity crisis.”
A more reflective stance was provided by Hughes who argued that unionism should never have accepted the protocol on the basis that it undermined the Good Friday Agreement, but the focus should now be on more flexible arrangements.
Laverty drew lines between the parties, concluding that the solution lay in “toning down the rhetoric”; Brexit is a reality, we now need to deal with it as a collective.
Healthcare or Human Right?
In our penultimate topic, panellists gave various perspectives on the continued failure to implement abortion services in Northern Ireland.
Gannon asserted that there is “no excuse for services not being upheld at this stage” and Irwin agreed that the lack of provisions only extends trauma to women.
McCann could not answer on why his party abstained on a recent motion by the DUP to amend abortion legislation in Northern Ireland, which has since passed its second hearing in the Assembly, but stressed the need for implementation of services.
On the issue of Westminster stepping in to decriminalise abortion in October 2019, Warren was of the opinion that this was “unprecedented” and stressed that abortion is a devolved issue.
To this, Laverty asserted that women in Northern Ireland feel betrayed, “healthcare is a devolved issue, but human rights isn’t.”
Hughes, whose party holds the current health portfolio, took a more ambiguous position. Northern Ireland’s abortion legislation violated international human rights law, as outlined by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). To this, Hughes acknowledged Westminster’s right to step in. But describing himself as a devolutionist, Hughes shifted the focus to how the continued use of a cross-community veto over abortion legislation signified a need for reform at Stormont.
The Brain Drain
The final topic on the agenda was Northern Ireland’s ‘Brain drain’. Ahead of the event on Wednesday, a report from independent think tank, Pivotal, reported that 17,500 students from Northern Ireland were currently enrolled in England, Scotland and Wales, around 2/3 of all students currently enrolled at either Queen’s or the University of Ulster. On this issue, panellists were fairly unified.
Warren emphasised tackling tuition, while Hughes and Laverty moved the conversation beyond students to incentivising other tertiary education opportunities such as apprenticeships.
McCann attributed the flock of students out of Northern Ireland to a heavy reliance on Foreign Direct Investment, Irwin to a lack of opportunity while Gannon advocated for investment in infrastructure which should be evenly distributed.
When asked to outline one thing they would change about Northern Ireland, answer ranged from Hughes’ targeting of licensing laws, Gannon’s focus on regional inequality and a sentiment which was shared by both Warren and Laverty; we just need to have a little more hope.
To listen to the discussion in full, catch up on our podcast here .
Abby Wallace is The Scoop’s Deputy Editor