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Thank you for joining us for the Alliance Party leader's speech.

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Alliance Party Councillor for Castlereagh South, Michelle Guy, takes to Twitter to reiterate a point raised during her party leader's speech.

Naomi Long told delegates that four more Alliance MLAs would have been enough to progress John Blair's private member's bill to ban hunting.

The election in May "won’t just determine how our politics works for the next five years - it will determine if our politics works", according to Naomi Long.

She concludes: "Conference, I believe we have the people, the policies and the passion needed to build a truly progressive, inclusive and prosperous future for all of our people - to deliver the transformation our public services, our politics, our people so desperately need.

"And on the 5th May, together, we can and we will."

Naomi Long says she believes the electorate wants change.

"With so much important work to work to do, it is hard to fathom how we are again without an executive only two years after restoration," says the Alliance Party leader.

"It seems that some politicians are addicted to crisis and conflict, and simply not up to the job of actually governing.

"People have had enough of the constant dramas and the political soap operas. They want politicians who don’t just identify more problems – or worse still, add to them – but who are focused on finding solutions, on making things better.

"But it doesn’t have to be like this. Yes, we know there are huge challenges ahead – from the climate emergency to the spiralling cost of living - but together, we can face them."

The Alliance Party leader turns to the long-delayed apology to victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse:

"On 11 March, we will be making the apology the late Sir Anthony Hart recommended to victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse," says Naomi Long.

"However, the state apology will now be made by five government ministers, one from each executive party, rather than by the first and deputy first ministers, a situation which has divided victims and survivors and caused genuine hurt and distress among those who believe that this is, in some way, a downgrading of its status.

Mrs Long says, "it pains me that some of those who have had to fight so hard and wait so long to have their voices heard and to receive the recognition, acknowledgement and apology they so deserve now feel in some sense cheated by the absence of a first minister and deputy first minister to deliver it".

Naomi Long outlines the work she has been doing as justice minister in relation to the war in Ukraine.

"This week, I met with home office ministers about a bill which Westminster is bringing forward urgently to strengthen Unexplained Wealth Orders and account seizure and forfeiture powers, as well as increase transparency of shell companies and trusts, as part of the sanctions against Russia," she says.

"For Northern Ireland to be able to keep pace and ensure that we don’t become a haven for dark money, we need a legislative consent motion, something that isn’t possible without a functioning executive in place.

"We are now seeking legal advice in the hope we can work around that barrier – all because others refuse to do the job they were elected to do."

On the collapse of the executive, Naomi Long has harsh words for some of NI's other party leaders.

"The absence of a first minister, while no longer able to cause the collapse of the assembly has deprived us of that working executive, at a time when many key decisions still depend on it.

"We’re emerging from a pandemic, fighting a battle against climate change, facing a cost-of-living crisis and there’s a war on our doorstep in Eastern Europe.

"This is not the time to walk away from government, this is time to lead in government."

The Alliance leader makes an appeal to voters ahead of the assembly election in May.

"Just four more Alliance MLAs would have delivered the Hunting Ban in Northern Ireland. Let’s make sure we’re back in the next mandate, with those extra MLAs, to finish the job," says Naomi Long.

She pays tribute to the work of Alliance MLAs.

"Our assembly team has been punching well above its weight. Paula, Stewart and Andrew are examples of the best kind of political representatives.

"Hard-working on their committees and in their constituencies, forensic in their scrutiny and utterly dedicated to improving Northern Ireland."

Naomi Long has particular criticism for Sinn Féin over their opposition to a private member's bill on animal welfare brought by Alliance MLA for South Antrim John Blair.

"Despite our best efforts, John Blair’s bill to ban hunting of mammals with dogs was voted down by Sinn Fein supported by some in the DUP.

"Despite Mary Lou McDonald telling animal welfare organisations in the south that when the next opportunity arose, Sinn Féin would vote for a hunting ban, instead blocking it at second reading."

The Alliance Party leader pays tribute to the work of fellow East Belfast MLA Chris Lyttle for his service.

She says that as chair of the Education Committee he has "managed to make progress with his own bill to remove the exemption for teachers from Fair Employment legislation, again placing equality and inclusion at the heart of education. Let’s hope it gets a fair wind and completes before the end of this mandate".

And she has this personal note to add:

"I have had the pleasure of working with Chris from the a youthful, fresh-faced politics student until the broken husk of a 40-something man that we see with us today. Some might claim that’s cause and effect.

"Seriously though, East Belfast and those in the education and childcare sectors, in particular, will be losing a fierce and dedicated advocate. For me, it feels more like losing a limb than a colleague."

Integrated education has long been a key policy for Alliance and Naomi Long points to one initiative being pursued within the assembly.

"Kellie Armstrong has brought the Integrated Education Bill through Committee, Consideration and Further Consideration Stages of the process, largely unscathed and undiluted – quite an achievement for a back-bench MLA and one staff member when facing the weight of opposition of a DUP minister, backed by her party and department, not to mention sectoral interests."

Image source, Getty Images

"It has truly been a David and Goliath battle," says Naomi Long.

"A battle not to give integrated education an advantage over other schools, or to deprive other schools of resources, or restrict parental choice as some have falsely claimed – but to level the playing field and support the choice of parents who wish their children to be educated together in a fully integrated setting.

"Of course we are not out of the woods yet. The DUP continue to seek the extra signature needed for their petition of concern to kill the bill."

The Alliance party leader turns to her experience as part of the executive:

"I have been open and honest about the significant challenges of being part of an often dysfunctional executive. It has not always been easy," says Naomi Long.

"But I have also demonstrated what we can achieve if we focus on doing the job we were elected to do rather than posturing and bluster.

"However, that progress is only possible if we have devolved government with an executive and assembly."

During her Alliance Party leader speech, Naomi Long outlines that she will be appointing a Victims of Crime Commissioner Designate for Northern Ireland in the coming weeks.

The justice minister says she is “acutely aware that those permanently injured during the Troubles had waited too long to receive a pension”.

Therefore, the Justice Department is “creating a workable scheme and establishing the Victims’ Payments Board which has now made the first payments to victims”.

Naomi Long references in detail the legislation which she has been able to progress as justice minister.

“The Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims Bill will bring in a raft of measures to offer better protections for witnesses, who are often also victims, in serious sexual offence cases,” she says.

“It will create new criminal offences of upskirting, downblousing, cyber-flashing as well as strengthening the laws around “revenge pornography”, banning the so called ‘rough sex’ defence and creating a specific offence of non-fatal strangulation, often a precursor to domestic homicide.”

“These are hugely important and significant measures which will help people when they are at their most vulnerable,” says Mrs Long.

Naomi Long turns to the restoration of devolution at Stormont.

“After three years of suspension and wasted opportunities, our focus was firmly about what we could achieve in the remaining two-year term: about what Alliance could deliver.

“Our focus was on making a positive impact on people and the issues that really matter to them,” says the party’s leader.

She then outlines the work she has done during her tenure as justice minister, and explains that just this week a fourth piece of legislation, proposed by her department, reached its final stage.

Mrs Long call is “something of a record in any mandate, let alone in one which lasted only two short years”.

Naomi Long pays tribute to the work of her party’s deputy leader, and only MP, Stephen Farry.

He was elected in 2019 and has been a “strong advocate on international affairs, human rights and equality” says Mrs Long, adding that he has ensured an “informed and pragmatic voice from Northern Ireland is heard in Parliament, on issues at home and abroad”.

She specifically references Mr Farry’s work to assist refugees from Afghanistan.

"It is not an exaggeration when I say that there are people alive today who otherwise would not have been, as a result of the direct intervention of Stephen and Niamh McCourt, his parliamentary assistant.”

Turning to Brexit, Naomi Long says it continues “to destabilise relations between the UK and the EU”.

“It is a painful irony that those who most avidly pursued the hardest possible Brexit, refusing every possible alternative to the protocol, are the same people who are now bemoaning most loudly the impact of the Brexit they chose and the protocol they made an inevitability,” says the Alliance leader.

“Of course it was no surprise to any of us who had watched Boris bluster his way through politics leaving in his wake a tsunami of unkept promises and unfulfilled commitments, when his supposed ‘oven ready’ Brexit turned out to be a turkey.

“What never fails to surprise is the eternal willingness of some to put their faith in a man and a party which with such consistency throws them under the bus.”

The Alliance leader adds that her party oppose both Brexit and the protocol, but have “continued to focus on solutions to make Brexit as painless and as low impact as it can be for the people we represent and for local businesses”.

Naomi Long calls for “stronger, swifter economic sanctions against Russia and in particular the oligarchs who support the Putin’s regime”.

The Alliance leader says: “Whilst welcoming what the UK and other countries have done thus far, we need to act faster and more decisively to strip this kleptocracy of its source of power; its wealth.

“That also means seeking alternatives to reliance on Russian oil and gas.”

The East Belfast MLA adds: “It should disquiet us all that so many of those in this government are recipients of large donations from Russian sources and it demonstrates powerfully why we need to rid the UK of outside influences, which threaten our own democracy.

“Openness and transparency are critical tools in ensuring that we guard against the flow of dark money infecting our politics and elections.”

Speaking of violence in Ukraine, Naomi Long says the Alliance Party calls on the UK government “to open legal routes for refugees to reach safety here”.

She adds: “We must play a role in assisting with the now over one million people who have fled Ukraine since the war began – ordinary people facing extraordinary hardship.”

“Two weeks ago, these were people just like you and me – people with jobs and homes, caring for relatives, getting their children to school, shopping in town, visiting friends.

“Now, they are sheltering in the underground and basements, unable to access basic essentials like food, water and electricity, pushing their women and children on to over-crowded trains and buses heading west, with no idea when or even if they will be reunited.

“The UK must not place barriers in their way as they flee a war zone. We need to waive the visas and welcome the refugees,” says the Alliance leader.

Naomi Long speaks of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Last week, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, granted affiliate membership to Sluha Narodu, Servant of the People, the party of Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky,” she explains.

“I think none of us can fail to have been impressed by his composure and leadership as Ukraine has seen war waged by Russian troops on the streets of their towns and cities, or to be moved by the horror of the scenes unfolding in a nation only a three-hour flight from here,” adds the Alliance leader.

"As someone who lived through the Cold War and watched the break-up of the USSR, as a teenager - as independence movements and the hunger for democracy and freedom swept across the soviet block, causing the fall of the Iron Curtain, it is hard now to explain the sense of relief and optimism of the time.”

Mrs Long adds that she feels “anguish” watching “Putin and the Kremlin seek to crush that spirit of freedom under the advance of their tanks and guns”.