Who should I vote for in NI election 2022? Compare party policies
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Political parties in Northern Ireland are campaigning ahead of the assembly election on 5 May.
To help you decide who you might vote for, use this policy guide to compare where the parties stand on the key issues.
What are the parties promising you?
Party policies
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Democratic Unionist Party
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Top priorities
- Fix the NHS
- Remove the Northern Ireland Protocol
- Maintain Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom
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- Deliver 30 hours of free childcare each week
- An energy support payment to support hard-pressed families
- A windfall tax on energy firms
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- Invest an extra £1bn to cut waiting lists in partnership with the private sector
- An additional 750,000 hospital assessments and procedures
- Implement the reforms of the Bengoa Report
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- Create 5,000 new tech jobs
- Ensure everyone in Northern Ireland has access to fibre broadband
- Make tourism a £5bn industry
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- Build more schools in the next five years
- Modernise the curriculum for the 21st century workplace
- Introduce a cap on school uniform costs
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- Northern Ireland should remain a part of the United Kingdom
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- The Protocol must be replaced by arrangements that restore Northern Ireland's place within the UK internal market
- Any new arrangements must be able to command the support of unionists as well as nationalists
- Any new arrangements are to be judged against party's seven tests to determine whether they respect Northern Ireland's position as part of the UK
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- Promote sustainable investment to deliver on the aims and provisions of the Climate Change Act
- Tackle pollution in hotspot areas using targeted policies, capital support and more meaningful enforcement action
- Invest in research and development to identify green and clean solutions
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- The timely deliver of key capital projects including the A5 and A6 upgrades, York Street interchange and Ballynahinch bypass
- Deliver a regular high-speed train service between Belfast and Londonderry
- Improve road connections to rural and hard-to-reach areas
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- Oppose an amnesty for Troubles-related offences
- Deliver and maintain the New Decade, New Approach commitment to 7,500 police officers
- Veto any return to 50:50 recruitment of police officers
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- Encourage further the development of the Ulster Scots identity including a positive educational and research agenda
- Grow the arts sector and create more opportunities for people seeking a career in this area
- Press for the release of sub-regional stadia funding for local football
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- Prioritise food security and self-sufficiency in any policy brought forward by a new executive
- Deliver financial support to farm businesses affected by rising input costs and market volatility as a result of the invasion of Ukraine
- Promote further reductions in red tape facing agriculture
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Sinn Féin
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Top priorities
- Tackle the rising cost of living
- Re-establish the executive
- Plan for Irish unity
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- Give £230 per household to help with cost of living pressures and an additional £100 to those who previously accessed the Energy Payment Support Scheme
- Extend Business Rates Holiday by one month and allocate £70m financial support for Agri-Food Sector to deal with rising costs
- Allocate an additional £9m and £8m to the Discretionary Support Scheme and Emergency Fuel Payment Scheme respectively
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- Increase health budget by £1billion over the next three years
- Recruit and retain more nurses, doctors, GPs and HSC staff
- Invest in transformation of health and social care
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- A new economic strategy for the north to maximise the potential of dual access to the EU and British Markets
- Reform Invest NI to put a greater focus on supporting local businesses and promoting regional balance
- Seek greater devolution of fiscal powers for the north
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- End academic selection
- Improve the curriculum by including age appropriate relationship and sexual education, climate change, and emotional health and well being
- Respond to the increasing demand for both integrated education and Irish medium education
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- Support Irish unity
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- Maximise the potential of the Protocol and access to the EU and British markets
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- Ensure a just transition so that the burden of moving to a more sustainable economy does not fall on those least able to carry it
- Ensure a just transition fund for agriculture supports farmers to transition to more sustainable practices
- Ban petroleum licensing, drilling and extraction in the north of Ireland - including the practice of fracking
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- Prioritise transformative projects such as the A5 and A6 and narrow water bridge to improve connectivity and road safety across our network
- Support improved green transport including public transport and active travel infrastructure
- Support improved rail network connectivity, such as in the North West and the Dublin-Belfast corridor
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- Oppose an amnesty for Troubles-related offences
- Tackle violence against women and girls
- Strengthen hate crime legislation
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- Implement recommendations from Culture Arts and Heritage Recovery Taskforce established by Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey
- Implementation of the Irish Language and Ulster Scots Language Heritage and Culture strategy
- Implementation of an Irish language act
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- Reintroduce areas of natural constraint (ANC) payment for hill farmers
- Retain single farm payments for small farms of three hectares
- Support more sustainable farming practices through Just Transition Fund for Agriculture
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Social Democratic and Labour Party
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Top priorities
- Tackle the cost of living crisis by giving every household a minimum of £200
- Reduce waiting lists by investing £1bn in the health service and support a 6% pay increase for nurses
- Increase free pre-school childcare provision from 12.5 hours a week to 30 hours a week
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- Pass emergency legislation to free up £300m in Stormont's bank accounts, to help people struggling with rising costs
- A £200 payment to all households and extend the £100 emergency fuel payment scheme
- Relaunch the free school meal payment scheme for the remainder of the year including the summer
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- Create elective surgical hubs to ensure no matter how busy emergency practice gets, there is no elective practice reduction
- Fully fund the 10-year mental health strategy and appoint a junior minister with responsibility for mental health
- Provide more care outside hospitals in the community, where people need it most
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- Explore the potential of re-introducing the £20 uplift for Universal Credit claimants
- Agree a three-year budget and reduce corporation tax
- Target greater investment and job creation in the north west as well as areas of north and west Belfast
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- Develop a 21st century curriculum which is broad and develops skills so no child leaves school disadvantaged
- Tackle educational underachievement including the "extortionate costs" of school uniforms
- Support the principle of parental choiec including faith-based, integrated, Irish medium and controlled schools
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- Support Irish unity
- Party's New Ireland Commission will seek to engage with people across the island about the future
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- The Northern Ireland Protocol should remain
- Support for practical solution to issues such as those around medicines, chilled-meat grace periods and the movement of animals
- Maximise the potential of dual market access and create a new European investment hub for Northern Ireland
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- Ensure Northern Ireland declares a climate emergency
- Ensure a just transition, balancing protection for the environment with the social and economic rights of all workers
- Build a green economy including supporting investment in renewable technologies
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- Continue investing in zero-emission buses and a 10-year plan for cycling in Belfast
- Expand cycle and greenway networks
- Expand the all-island rail network to better connect communities
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- Oppose an amnesty for Troubles-related offences
- Reform the criminal justice system to deliver fairer, faster justice with "increased accountability"
- Continue to support and advocate for a police force representative of the community it seeks to serve
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- Deliver an Irish language act and the other cultural commitments in the New Decade, New Approach deal
- Double arts spending at a minimum as part of a three-year Stormont budget
- Create a new arts and cultural strategy
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- Secure new fuding streams for farming and rural development
- Propose an Agriculture Bill to help rural communities recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and set a legal framework for sustainable farming
- Ensure all communities have access to high-quality broadband
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Ulster Unionist Party
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Top priorities
- Support and rebuild the health service
- Secure common sense alternatives to the Northern Ireland Protocol
- Maintain Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom
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- Establish a fuel poverty task force
- Expand the Warm Homes Discount to Northern Ireland - a sum of money credited to an individual's electricity or gas account
- Call on Westminster to lower fuel duty for all, with additional rebate for "essential" users
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- Support and properly incentivise the move towards a genuine seven-day-a-week health service
- Increase funding for child and adolescent mental health services to a minimum of 10% and create a single mental health trust
- Protect and enhance cancer services, including implementing the 10-year cancer strategy
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- Support city deals/growth deals
- Set up a Job Skills Fund to ensure proper funding of job skills, apprenticeships and life-long learning
- Establish a "Freeport Northern Ireland" to include all ports and airports in Northern Ireland
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- Establish a single education system through the existing "controlled" education sector
- Support special educational needs by actively supporting well-informed proposals
- Give a greater emphasis to mental health services provision
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- Northern Ireland should remain a part of the United Kingdom
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- Oppose the Protocol and find common sense alternatives
- Medicines must be immediately removed from the scope of the Protocol
- Ensure there are no checks on goods traveling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that are staying in NI
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- Target an 82% or better reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050
- Boost cycling by implementing the strategic plan for greenways and developing and improving urban and rural greenways and cycle routes
- Plant more of the right trees in the right places and protect existing woods and trees to capture carbon and help wildlife
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- Expediate the A1 junctions and York Street interchange scheme, explore further options for the A5 and extend Glider services to north Belfast
- Complete construction of nearly 3,000 unfinished and unadopted roads
- Rapidly expand the electric vehicle charging network
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- Bring police numbers up to 7,500 by recruiting 500 more officers over the next three years on top of normal recruitment
- Speed up the courts and press for stronger sentences, especially for habitual violent re-offenders
- Oppose an amnesty for Troubles-related offences
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- Prioritise the establishment of sub-regional sports stadia
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- Develop a productive, progressive agriculture and fishing industry
- Support the production of high-quality food while transitioning to a net zero carbon society
- Invest in science, technology and training to give farmers the tools to become more efficient and sustainable
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Alliance Party
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Top priorities
- Fix our "broken" health service, tackle waiting lists and invest in mental health and preventative services
- Ensure our children are no longer educated apart and deliver a better future for our young people
- Tackle the cost of living crisis by delivering our Green New Deal, which would create 50,000 sustainable new jobs, improve energy efficiency and address climate change
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- Deliver a home heating support grant voucher scheme targeted at low-income households
- Introduce a £20-a-week child payment to protect children already vulnerable to poverty
- Push Westminster to uplift benefits in line with the real rate of inflation
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- Implement the reforms of the Bengoa Report to transform the healthcare system and tackle waiting lists
- Invest in mental health, including a fully-funded 10 year mental health strategy and separate emergency provision for those in mental health crisis
- Focus on early intervention and prevention, such as addressing deprivation which leads to illness and disease, introducing cost-effective screening, and adopting a harm-reduction model in the treatment of alcohol and drug misuse
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- Transition to a green economy and create more than 50,000 secure green jobs
- Invest in skills by delivering the new Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland to address upskilling and retraining opportunities in the green economy
- Create a universal, affordable childcare scheme, with fully funded hours paid directly to providers
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- Support for integrated education
- Oppose academic selection for post-primary transfer
- Secure evidence-based, inclusive relationship and sexuality education in schools
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- Continue to be defined by distinct vision and values rather than by the constitutional question
- Prioritise a shared and united community
- Support principle of consent via the Good Friday Agreement
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- Negotiate a comprehensive UK-EU Veterinary Agreement, with flexibilities on movement of goods
- Promote Northern Ireland's dual market access to GB and the EU
- Seek direct representation for Northern Ireland on UK-EU bodies
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- Deliver zero-carbon public transport with better routes and cheaper fares for disabled people and young people
- Ban current and future fossil fuel exploration including fracking
- Retrofit all social housing and provide grants to retrofit privately owned homes
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- Provide interest-free loans for electric vehicles and accelerated installation of charging points
- Develop a modern, all-Ireland rail network through a new five-year plan for rail investment
- Create an independent infrastructure commission with a 30-year vision to prioritise, report on and drive the delivery of infrastructure projects
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- Strengthen legislation on hate crime through a new Hate Crime Bill
- Reform sentencing laws
- Deliver the remaining Gillen Review recommendations
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- Commission an arts funding review
- Deliver outstanding regional and sub-regional football stadia funding
- Recognise and support the development of British and Irish Sign Languages
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- Promote market access for Northern Ireland produce
- Expand the Environmental Farming Scheme to promote habitat restoration, including linking areas of high value with wildlife corridors
- Introduce carbon audits for farms to support farmers to embrace environmentally beneficial farming practices
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Green Party
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Top priorities
- Take all steps possible to tackle the climate emergency
- Secure long-term investment and reform of healthcare services
- Tackle the cost of living crisis by introducing rent controls and increasing the minimum wage
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- Introduce rent controls and strengthen renters’ rights
- Support the reintroduction of the Universal Credit uplift
- Introduce a properly calculated living wage, as outlined by the Living Wage Foundation
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- Oppose cuts to frontline health services, ensuring that all health service staff have fair pay and working conditions
- Increase investment in mental health services
- Support the full commissioning of abortion services
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- Invest in renewables and create well-paid green jobs
- Fast-track apprenticeship programmes to train the workers required to adequately retrofit our housing stock
- Introduce a full childcare strategy that will meet the needs of working parents
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- End academic selection for post-primary education
- Ensure that all children have access to integrated education
- Increase investment in early years education
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- Border poll policies will be added as they are announced
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- Support the Northern Ireland Protocol - ensure that Northern Ireland maximises every opportunity from its unique position following the UK’s exit from the EU
- Support negotiations between the UK government and the EU to iron out technicalities with the Protocol
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- Achieve the net zero emissions targets in the Climate Change Bill
- Establish an independent Environmental Protection Agency responsible for monitoring the state of the natural environment and for enforcing environmental law
- Ban all types of fossil fuel extraction and cease the granting of exploration licences including those for precious metals
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- Invest in and expand cycling infrastructure
- Expand public transport, especially in rural areas, and explore reopening railway connections to ensure that towns and cities are adequately serviced and connected to each other
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- Introduce a robust and funded strategy to tackle violence against women and girls and seek to change legislation in line with the Gillen Review recommendations
- Support the decriminalisation and regulation of recreational drugs
- Oppose any attempt by the UK government to introduce an amnesty for conflict-related cases
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- Commit to multi-annual statutory support and long-term strategic investment for artists and the arts sector at both local and executive level
- Deliver a comprehensive Irish language act, including a strategy for the preservation and growth of the Irish language
- Support public ownership and regeneration of historical buildings, using them for arts, culture and tourism
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- Move towards a sustainable model of food production that protects the environment and improves animal welfare
- Ensure farmers are financially supported as we move to net zero, through the Just Transition Fund for Agriculture established by the Climate Change Bill
- Support farm payment criteria which incentivise small farmers, environmental protection, emission reductions, and animal welfare and rewards public goods such as rewilding and peatland restoration
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Traditional Unionist Voice
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Top priorities
- Abolish the Northern Ireland Protocol
- Maintain Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom
- Defend the NHS
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- Ensure Stormont cuts waste and abandons plans for an Irish language act
- Scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol which is driving up prices
- By scrapping the Protocol, free Northern Ireland from the EU VAT regime and reduce VAT on energy bills
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- The return of a readily accessible GP service
- A loyalty bonus for NHS staff - nursing and medical graduates should have their university tuition paid in full if they are still working in NI five years after graduating
- One hundred more cancer specialist nurses, minmum pricing for alcohol, a new tobacco strategy and the removal of current abortion laws
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- Push for the creation of an InterTrade UK body to promote free trade and business within the whole UK
- Oppose legislation which could see vast reductions to the agri food sector in the name of environmentalism
- Highlight the economic benefits of Northern Ireland remaining in the UK, such as UK-wide Covid support schemes
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- An evidence-based curriculum overhaul, investment in teacher training and fair pay
- Commitment to academic selection and a culture of celebration of hard work and achievement across all aspects of school life
- Addressing the "cold house atmosphere" in our universities towards students from a unionist background
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- Northen Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom
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- Abolish the Northern Ireland Protocol
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- We should act responsibly as custodians of the environment to pass it on to future generations
- Provide more electric vehicle charging points, promote viable green energy projects and support the development of hydrogen buses by Wrightbus
- There must not be a rush to embrace any policy which gives the impression of being green
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- More expenditure on the road network, particularly rural roads and fixing potholes and upgrading the A75
- Support for major infrastructure projects such as the Enniskillen bypass, A1 upgrade and a rail link to Belfast International Airport
- The rationalisation of bus lane hours to ensure they do not operate outside peak periods to assist the flow of traffic
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- Recruit more police officers to bring the total number to 7,500 and oppose any return to 50/50 recruitment
- Defend the proud record of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
- Oppose any amnesty for Troubles-related offences, reject any form of "truth commission" and push for the police to more robustly investigate historic terror offences
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- Oppose the introduction of an Irish language act which would lead to "discrimination" against non-Irish speakers
- Ensure that all cultures and traditions in Northern Ireland are celebrated with special treatment for none
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- Ensure agriculture is not jeopardised nor food production reduced by as a result of pursuing climate-related policies
- Fishing must experience and enjoy the benefits of being outside the EU's Common Fisheries Policy
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People Before Profit
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Top priorities
- Protecting people from soaring prices and the cost of living crisis
- Tackling health crisis
- Dealing with climate crisis
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- Launch an Emergency Hardship Fund: distribute a direct payment of £1,000 to households hit by the cost of living crisis, including all but the top fifth of earners
- Put price caps in place on energy and fuel prices
- Infaltion-busting pay rise for all workers, and fight for minimum wage devolution with a view to increasing it
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- Protecting NHS by ending current privatisation by stealth
- Rebuilding NHS with massive increase in investment to reduce waiting times
- Proper pay rise for health workers to help retain staff, counteract burnout, and reward pandemic efforts
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- Reorienting economy to prioritise the needs of people and planet over the profits of large corporations
- Taking key sectors of economy into public ownership, including fuel and energy companies
- Improving workers’ and trade union rights to help counteract decades of stagnant wages and deteriorating conditions
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- Proper investment to reduce class sizes and improve staff pay
- Proper investment in integrated, non-selective education to provide a universal, accessible, lifelong education system, free at the point of access for all
- Protecting third-level education by removing tuition fees, and improving pay and conditions for university and college staff
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- Support border poll as a basic democratic demand
- Use a referendum campaign to fight for a radical, reunified Ireland based on progressive socialist politics
- A new, radical constitution which enshrines equal rights for all
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- Reject DUP moves to scaremonger over the issue to distract from their own internal crisis
- Reject the creation of a hard border, customs posts or immigration checks on the island of Ireland
- Reject moves to weaken economic and societal links between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
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- A just transition and Workers’ Superfund which offer re-skilling/re-training on full pay for migration to green jobs
- Urgent action to deliver carbon neutrality by 2035
- Oppose blue hydrogen, extraction licences, harmful dredging, gold mining and fossil fuel industry permits, in order to protect our natural environment and keep fossil fuels in the ground
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- Free public transport
- Improve bus and rail networks and connectivity across Ireland - particularly the north west
- Pay Rise for Translink workers
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- Oppose an amnesty for Troubles-related offences
- Public inquiry into the Noah Donohoe case - no Public Interest Immunity without justification to the Donohoe family
- Full implementation of both the Gillen review and CEDAW recommendations
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- Introduce a standalone Irish language act
- Greater investment into the arts with longer funding cycles
- A living wage for musicians and artists
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- More equitable funding for smaller farmers
- Transition from methane heavy production, with proper financial support to encourage more environmentally friendly, sustainable production
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Aontú
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Top priorities
- Reform the political institutions to stop MLAs getting paid if they don’t do their job and ensure the executive cannot be crashed by one party again
- Restore the Human Right to Life to all children and reverse the abortion law that "discriminates against children with disabilities"
- Create a New Ireland Forum to bring together all of political and civic society throughout Ireland in order to fix the problems created by Brexit, to unite our people and to plan for Irish Independence
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- Devolve the power to control excise duties and Vat from London to Stormont, reducing fuel costs for families until prices reduce
- Public transport must be reformed to provide a comprehensive widespread network and the cost must be reduced
- Support for the microgeneration of electricity must be increased to allow families to provide a larger portion of their own energy and to get the financial benefit of their energy being fed back into the grid
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- Return the 800 hospital beds to the health services that were removed by the five executive parties over the past 10 years
- The delivery of a fully funded mental health strategy to support those who have suffered so much over the last two years
- €1.5bn in investment into the reduction of hospital waiting lists to ensure that no one has to wait longer than a year for the treatment that they need
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- End the dependency of the north on the block grant by devolving taxation powers from London to Belfast and make the northern corporation tax the same as in the south
- Invest in transport and broadband infrastructure particularly west of the River Bann
- Maximise the international reach of Invest NI by sharing international infrastructure with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland and doubling the staff of InterTradeIreland
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- Assess and increase provision of human resources within our education system. Re-assessing supply and demand and pathways into education posts/educational psychology will reduce waiting times for special needs assessments and increase provision
- End "funding discrimination" against Catholic and controlled sector schools and bring about equality of funding for all education sector
- Provide permanent learning support to every school in the north, similar to what has been the case in the south for decades
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- A referendum on Irish reunification within five years
- Create a New Ireland Forum to bring together all political and civic society throughout Ireland in order to fix the problems created by Brexit, build the all-Ireland economy and plan for Irish Unity
- A programme to integrate service delivery on an all-Ireland basis in terms of health, education, spatial development, housing, infrastructural development and justice
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- Aontú supports the provision of the Protocol as the only solution to deal with the Brexit crisis that has resulted from the remain vote in the north being ignored
- Support for technical solutions to the challenges of border checks
- Build on the economic opportunities offered by access to the British and EU markets by providing funding and human resources to firms in the north seeking to export to both markets
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- A deep retrofit of all eligible housing stock over a 10 year period
- Increase the provision of public transport and a reduction in cost to the consumer
- Further support for both community and domestic sustainable microgeneration so as to ensure increased access to low-cost energy
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- An all-Ireland Spatial and Transport Development Agency to ensure joined up transportation thinking and investment
- Improvement of the Belfast to Derry train line, development of a Dublin to Derry/Letterkenny rail line and the development of a Western Rail Corridor to link Derry with Galway and Limerick
- Immediate development of the A5 Dublin to Derry motorway
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- Introduce accountability into the PSNI to ensure that communities achieve proper community policing instead of the "military style" policing currently being delivered in some communities
- Oppose an amnesty for British military actions in the north of Ireland and launch an investigation into the extent of British collusion with loyalist paramilitaries
- Investment in education community facilities and community policing throughout the most socio-economically deprived areas to ensure that young people have positive opportunities and choices for their lives
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- Support the right of Catholic, Protestant and dissenter to be able to live to their full potential without fear or favour from the state
- Introduce an Irish language act in order to give parity of esteem to Irish and English and to ensure that Irish speaking families can engage with the state in their own language
- Greatly increase the provision of Gaelscoileanna and Irish as a subject in English speaking schools
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- Increase the portion of the profits achieved in the food supply chain for the primary producer
- Seek to ensure farmers can earn more from sustainable energy production
- Seek to ensure that farmers get paid and supported for their role as guardians of our biodiversity
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This guide is a concise summary of the main policies being put forward by each party.
The policy areas featured in the guide were selected by BBC journalists and ordered using polling data on the most important issues for voters in this election.
More information on how the issues and parties were selected is in our methodology.
A full list of candidates standing at the election is available here.
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