The Conservative Party in Northern Ireland has launched a scathing attack on Assembly Members who gathered at Stormont to discuss equal marriage and abortion claiming people are dying on waiting lists due to the failure of the parties to take office in an Executive.
“After years of inaction the waiting lists in Northern Ireland are beyond belief. Over 100,000 people are waiting over a year. People are waiting – living with anxiety and many in pain – and this is not deemed worthy of an Assembly meeting? More damningly it is undoubtedly the case that patients are dying due to delayed diagnosis and treatment but no one in the DUP – or the other Assembly parties - thought it might be good to bring the Assembly together to address this?”
“Let’s be absolutely clear about this – in England there are only 1,000 people waiting over a year for treatment in a country of 40m. In Northern Ireland with a population of less than 2m that figure is over 100,000. In England the Health Service has been run for the best part of the last decade by a Conservative led government. In NI we had years of a DUP/Sinn Fein led government and now rapidly approaching 3 years with no government. The DUP and Sinn Fein are entirely responsible for the waiting list crisis.
Gary Hynds, Conservative Spokesperson in Northern Ireland was speaking as Assembly Members gathered to discuss abortion and equal marriage – even though it was apparent that without an Executive being formed the meeting was pointless.
The Conservative Party in Northern Ireland welcomed the changes in marriage and abortion laws in Northern Ireland
“We welcome the moves to bring our situation in line with the rest of the UK. The move on equal marriage has the overwhelming support of the population in Northern Ireland and controlling abortion by postcode was clearly highly unsatisfactory”
“The Conservative Party has no official position on these matters of individual conscience however we believe that having different laws in different parts of the UK on these fundamental issues does not make sense.”
ENDS
Waiting Lists:
