MLA Sugden pays tribute to McClarty

After taking over from David in 2014, the East Londonderry MLA revealed: “My constituents welcomed me into East Londonderry as their representative, and we have done fantastic work since.”

As part of her speech the Coleraine woman said it was a ‘privilege’ to serve the people of the area.

She went on to pay tribute to those who are not seeking re-election: “I pay tribute to my constituency colleagues John Dallat MLA and Gregory Campbell MP/MLA, particularly Gregory Campbell. We have an awful lot of work to do in East Londonderry, and I look forward to working with him when I am returned as an MLA and he continues his work as an MP.

“Politics in Northern Ireland is changing. It is a generation since the Good Friday Agreement. That signals that we have to now embrace the new generation. Time will be a great healer in Northern Ireland, and until the people who were involved in the Troubles are no longer involved in politics, I do not think that Northern Ireland will truly move on.”

Sugden went on: “The people who will remain here, maybe for the next five or 10 years, who were involved in the Troubles will pave the way for a new generation. That is important.

“This mandate has not been perfect.

“It has actually been quite frustrating.

“I am a student of politics — many degrees and all that — but the one person whom I take a lot of my experience from taught me that politics is about people.

“We need to embrace that in the next mandate.

“Last year, when we saw Ministers going in and out of office, that was not respecting people. If I can encourage anything in the next mandate, it is that we start putting the people of Northern Ireland first.”