Home > News > Investing in the future
Share

Investing in the future

As the union introduces its first dedicated National Officer for Northern Ireland, Tommy Newell reflects on the FDA’s growth in NI and future plans with the Devolved Government Network.

Over the past year, the FDA’s Northern Ireland Section has been the union’s fastest growing constituency, which has allowed the FDA to invest in additional resources, hiring a dedicated National Officer and soon opening a physical office space in Belfast for the first time in the union’s history.

Under the leadership of Convenor and FDA Executive Committee member Robbie Davis and Secretary Ross Thompson (pictured below), the Northern Ireland Section secured additional funding from the Irish Congress Trade Union’s (ICTU) Learning Fund to better support members and to help promote the benefits of FDA membership to the wider Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS).

In addition to this, they’ve also started to host regular events to remain visible and connect with members as well as continuing to put strong focus on personal cases, which plays a key role in the union’s growth through word of mouth. For his contributions to the Section’s hugely increased membership, Thompson received the Individual Impact Award at this year’s FDA Annual Delegate Conference.

FDA Northern Ireland Section Secretary Ross Thompson was awarded the Individual Impact Award at ADC 2024

“It’s easy to think that Northern Ireland could get left behind because a lot of what goes on in Westminster doesn’t have much of an impact as it’s a devolved administration and there’s a strong regional element,” Ross reflected when accepting the award. “But I really felt like [General Secretary Dave Penman] saw the work that we’ve been doing, and it means something to him that we have been doing so well on membership numbers.”

Up until recently the Section has been supported in this work by National Officer Allan Sampson, who had been splitting his time between Belfast and Edinburgh supporting members in the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

“This was the right time for us to recruit a dedicated National Officer for Northern Ireland, given the growth in the Section and given the complexities of the issues that members are dealing with,” Sampson says. “The Section has worked really hard to engage colleagues and to build membership over a period of time and that has really borne fruit. So, it’s absolutely right for us to make this additional investment in Northern Ireland.”

Allan Sampson

FDA National Officer for Scotland

This was the right time for us to recruit a dedicated national officer for Northern Ireland, given its growth and the complexities of members’ issues.

In November 2024, Robert Murtagh started in his new role as the union’s first dedicated National Officer for Northern Ireland. Murtagh brings with him experience from a varied background, as the former President of the National Union of Students in Northern Ireland and a previous Organiser at the Royal College of Midwives. He joined the FDA from Nautilus International, the union for maritime professionals, where he was the Communications and Campaigns Organiser. He says this was a “multifaceted role”, which encompassed public affairs, political engagement and some policy work as well as communications and campaigns.

“I did a lot of our political engagement supporting our General Secretary and our senior members of staff. I did a lot of our press releases and worked on our broader campaign work. A big part of my job was around P&O Ferries on the sacking of almost their entire UK resident workforce back in March 2022 and our campaign for legislative changes to stop that from happening again,” Murtagh explains.

His first interactions with the FDA were through Unions 21, where he is the Director of Ireland, a role he will continue alongside his work as FDA National Officer. Murtagh says what attracted him to the union was “the work the FDA has done in defending the impartiality of the civil service, which really stood out to me,” he explains. “I think what appealed to me is this idea that this isn’t about politics. It isn’t about being partisan. It’s about standing up for your members, and that has been at the heart of the FDA’s campaigns.”

“Over the last few years, we have seen civil servants impartiality come under attack”, he continues. “At times, they have been used as scapegoats. This is true across the UK and in Northern Ireland. When the Northern Ireland Executive was down, we saw a huge amount of pressure placed on civil servants and the UK government didn’t want to take responsibility for implementing policy. So, civil servants were caught in the middle.”

Robert Murtagh

FDA National Officer for Northern Ireland

This isn’t about politics. It isn’t about being partisan. It’s about standing up for your members.

It was watching this all play out that made Murtagh eager to join the FDA and “help defend the impartiality of the civil service, protect the civil service from political attacks, and make sure that we can be a strong voice for members”.

It’s these core values that Robert will take with him in supporting the Northern Ireland Section, with his two main focuses being “to increase the membership and increase the profile” of the FDA in Northern Ireland.

“Allan, the members, the reps and the committee have done a fantastic job in terms of growing our membership and growing our profile. I simply want to come in and continue that work and help out in any way I can to support them,” Murtagh says. “There are examples of work that has been done in Scotland and in the UK across departments that we can replicate here in Northern Ireland. We need to make sure that we know where our members and potential members are, what they want, what their expectation from the union is, and how we can meet that expectation.”

FDA Devolved Government Network

The FDA is the only trade union with members in all devolved governments of the UK, representing staff in the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Having established a Scotland office in 2016, the FDA opened its Wales office in 2022. The FDA is now set to open its first office in Northern Ireland, meaning for the first time in the union’s history it will have a physical presence in all four nations of the United Kingdom, in the four capital cities of London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

Growth in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has been a key priority for the FDA and in 2024, the union has established a new Devolved Government Network to bring together representatives from the devolved administrations as well as insights from the UK civil service.

Long-serving National Officer for Scotland Allan Sampson will lead this work, supported by National Officer for Wales Jane Runeckles and National Officer for Northern Ireland Robert Murtagh.

“All of the devolved administrations now have their own dedicated National Officer,” Sampson explains. “Our reps have worked hard to successfully build membership across the devolved administrations, which has allowed the FDA to invest additional resources. This will provide us with the opportunity to work more closely with members in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to share best practice, make advances where there are common interests or challenges, and continue to build our presence and influence.”

Latest news