Gordon Lyons urges focus on ‘delivery’ for new Health Minister Robbie Butler

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said he was looking forward to working with the new Health Minister, UUP MLA Robbie Butler, and urged a focus on delivery in the final term of the current assembly mandate.

The appointment of Mr Butler comes after Mike Nesbitt resigned amid a fallout with UUP leader Jon Burrows over the proposed withdrawal of emergency general surgery from Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, Co Londonderry.

Asked about his new colleague, Mr Lyons said his focus was “purely on the patients and those that rely on the health service”.

“That’s what the focus of everybody should be,” he said,

“It’s up to Jon Burrows to address the difficulties that he’s had internally and the problems that he has had with his colleagues and with Mike Nesbitt and what led to his resignation.

“I want to wish Mike well, he sat beside me in the executive, and I look forward to that seat being taken by Robbie Butler.

“I’ll certainly be doing everything I can to work with him in a positive way to make changes so that we can actually deliver for people and get a better health service.

“We have so many challenges: access to GP services, cancer waiting times, workforce morale – all of those issues need to be addressed, and we will certainly be there as a willing partner to try and help address some of those issues.”

Heading into the final year of the current Assembly mandate before an election expected next year, Mr Lyons said his focus was making sure the institutions can “actually deliver for people”.

“People are talking about the assembly election – that will come, we’ll put forward a positive case in that election,” he said.

“However, what we need to focus on right now is using the time that we have, because this mandate isn’t over.

“There’s still many things to get done, many ways in which we can work together to actually make sure that we have progress.

“So I look forward to the election whenever it comes, we’ll have a very positive manifesto and a positive vision for Northern Ireland and people will be able to look back at the record of delivery in DUP departments, in the Department for Communities, in the Department for Education, and they’ll see the positive changes that we have made, I want to make sure that that continues.

“And I can tell you, I don’t sense apathy out on the streets, when I’m talking to people, they’re agreeing with the things that we are saying – about the need to get more people back into work, the need to make sure we have a sensible immigration policy, the need to deal with the issues that people are facing every single day around education and around healthcare,

“And people are actually, I think, going to take a very close look at what the parties are actually saying and what they have delivered, what their record of delivery has been, and I believe we have a very strong record of delivery that we will be able to stand on and a positive vision going forward as well.”

He added: “There’ll be lots of talk about political parties, about Jon Burrows, and the internal difficulties within the Ulster Unionist Party.

“Let’s set those to the side. Let’s make sure that we focus on what will actually make a difference to people.”

Mr Lyons highlighted the overlap between his department and health, saying it was something he had worked closely with Mr Nesbitt on.

“We need to make sure that people have warm, safe, secure homes, which will do away, I hope, with so many of the winter pressures that we face, and that’s why I want to make sure that we have proper investment early on and that early intervention as well,” he said.