Butler under 'no illusions' about scale of new job as health minister

Robbie Butler has said he wants Northern Ireland to "have a world-class health service that people can access more quickly".

The Ulster Unionist Lagan Valley assembly member (MLA) was announced as the new health minister on Thursday.

The appointment came in the wake of Mike Nesbitt's resignation. He stepped down after UUP leader Jon Burrows said he did not support emergency general surgery (EGS) being removed from Causeway Hospital.

"I take on this role with no illusions about the scale of the challenge," Butler said.

He is a former UUP deputy leader and has twice considered running for leadership, only to withdraw at the last moment.

Butler added that problems in the health service "will not be solved overnight" but he would also not "accept that they are inevitable".

"I intend to spend as much time as possible seeing health and social care at the front line, not from behind a desk.

"That was an important part of Mike Nesbitt's approach too, and I intend to build on the momentum he created while bringing my own ideas, energy and priorities to the role," Butler said.

Burrows said that Butler had his "full confidence and the full backing of our assembly team".

Speaking on Thursday to Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Burrows said it was a "good day for the people of Northern Ireland, our health service and all those who rely upon it".

"Robbie Butler has public service running through his veins," Burrows said.

"He is entirely committed to the outstanding professionals that we have working in the health service and to ensuring that the people of this country can access, swiftly, the health service, that their needs are catered for and that we have confidence in the service we provide."

There was a special sitting of Stormont's health committee on Thursday afternoon following a request from the committee's chair, Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan.

He said it is "essential" Butler can make decisions "based on expert advice and patient outcomes rather than the narrow electoral and constituency interests of his party leader".

The department's permanent secretary Mike Farrar told the committee it was a challenging financial position.

"We have no budget and we know in health terms that we started the year with a deficit. We have a reset agenda which we can't afford to lose time on."

The DUP's health spokesperson Diane Dodds said: "Patients will judge this minister not by announcements or strategies, but by whether access to healthcare actually improves."

SDLP health spokesperson Colin McGrath said Butler is "taking on one of the toughest jobs in the executive and there will be very little time for him to find his feet".

Alliance health spokesperson Nuala McAllister said: "The crisis cannot be allowed to continue whilst a caretaker minister has his eyes focused on elections next May."

Until now, Butler has probably been best known by some for twice considering running for the leadership of his party, only to withdraw from it at the last minute.

His name was being flouted as a possible successor as soon as Nesbitt resigned on Tuesday night, and on this occasion he has chosen to take up the call.

As a former firefighter-turned-politician he may have experience in putting out fires, but doing so in one of the most difficult Stormont departments will be new territory for him.

While he's been an MLA since 2016, he has never held a ministerial job before.

As an effective caretaker minister in the seven months left of the assembly term before the next election, he will have to quickly get to grips with a massive in-tray.

He will also face questions about how he intends to manage relations with the party leader Burrows, given the events of this week.

One Ulster Unionist source said while the job was only for a matter of months, other parties could "set a target on his back" and make life difficult for him.

His decision to step into the job may help further boost his Lagan Valley profile in the run-up to next May's assembly poll, which is shaping up to be an interesting constituency battle.

But being health minister is hard enough when you have experience of the brief and a budget to work with.

Butler, at the moment, has neither of those.

Former UUP leader Doug Beattie has said Nesbitt had no choice but to resign after Burrows "undermined" his position as health minister.

Beattie, who quit the UUP in May after an internal party dispute, said Nesbitt was left with "no other choice" but to resign after Burrows voiced his opposition to withdrawing services from Causeway Hospital.

The Upper Bann MLA, who now sits at Stormont as an independent, said there was "something seriously wrong" with how the UUP's MLA team was being treated in terms of communication.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster, he said Burrows had "huge support" within the UUP but there has been "a lack of communication" with his MLA group.

"When his MLA group don't even know that Mike has resigned and they find out through the media, then there is something seriously wrong about how they are being treated."

Beattie denied there was "animosity" between MLAs and Burrows but he described issues over some policies being "changed radically on the hoof".

"I really think by listening to the words that Jon said undermined Mike, undermined Mike's position as the health minister, and Mike had no other choice in many ways on reflection," he added.

Speaking before the appointment of Butler, Beattie also said the new health minister would be unable to "affect any change whatsoever" in the months before next year's Stormont assembly elections.

"If they do anything that's of any worth it's probably doing what Mike had already started," he added.