Browse content similar to 17/02/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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1,000 jobs are to go at the aerospace firm Bombardier. | :00:00. | :00:21. | |
I'm live outside the company's East Belfast operation where there's | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
Everybody's depressed about it. Morale is down. | :00:25. | :00:35. | |
The troubled C Series jet has put the firm under | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
We'll have political reaction as well as reaction from Canada | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
where Bombardier's parent company is based. | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
And in other news tonight: The way ahead for health here, | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
can politicians and experts come up with a workable plan? | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
And a wintry chill with a widespread frost tonight but, apart from a few | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
wintry showers, many parts dry into tomorrow. | :00:59. | :01:06. | |
Up to 1000 jobs of lost at Bombardier. The company has | :01:07. | :01:23. | |
struggled to get its new planes off the ground and there's no | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
underestimating the impact of today's announcement. | :01:27. | :01:35. | |
Because underestimate the importance of this company. | :01:36. | :01:44. | |
Bombardier is a vitally important company. | :01:45. | :01:46. | |
Aside from direct employment, it supports thousands more | :01:47. | :01:48. | |
It puts about ?180 million worth of wages into our | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
It accounts for about 10% of manufacturing exports. | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
It also spends a lot on research and training. | :01:55. | :01:56. | |
So when Bombardier is having difficulties it should | :01:57. | :01:58. | |
Workers were braced for the worst because the company was to release | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
gloomy 2015 financial results in Montreal. | :02:05. | :02:05. | |
But those results were pre-empted by a statement in Belfast announcing | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
This setback had been looming. Uncertainty has hung over the | :02:10. | :02:26. | |
workforce for many months as a financial storm cloud moved in from | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
Canada. Bombardier is going to spread this job is paying across a | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
period of 24 months. 580 posts will go this year with the potential for | :02:40. | :02:47. | |
the same again to be shared in 2017. Delays and cost overruns the new | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
passenger plane has four in the business into turmoil. Savings have | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
had to be found on jobs are now set to go just weeks after a pay offer | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
was rejected. Everybody's down. What do you expect? Morale is low. When | :03:06. | :03:13. | |
you go to happen but we didn't think it would be as large as it was. | :03:14. | :03:21. | |
People might not have jobs. But I hope I'm employed next year but I'm | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
62 so it will affect the younger ones more than me. Locally, bon but | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
-- Bombardier employs 500 500 people. Roughly 500 are agency | :03:34. | :03:40. | |
contract is who will be among the first ago. The permanent staff are | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
concentrated in east but others are based in Don Murray, new nappy and | :03:45. | :03:46. | |
new canards. These Belfast are dealt with | :03:47. | :03:53. | |
employment lawyers before and some felt the pain of the workforce. | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
There's a message beyond the worker, a message to government in the sense | :03:59. | :04:05. | |
of we need to bring jobs into Northern Ireland in general but in | :04:06. | :04:07. | |
particular into communities like East Belfast. Bombardier has had | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
huge historic levels of government financial support and the executive | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
believes it is importance to the economy is not diminished by today's | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
announcement. I look to the changes of the company has made, painful as | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
those maybe I submitted to the workers, painful as they have been, | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
it replaces the organisation to a position where it can grow for the | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
future. I've been with the senior management on five occasions and we | :04:36. | :04:43. | |
know it has been confirmed that the long-term future of the Belfast | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
plant is secure. The company had built 2016 as a year of transition. | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
After months of speculation, its turnaround strategy is now known to | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
involve what was feared, large scale job losses. | :04:58. | :05:00. | |
As Julian was saying, most of Bombardier's recent problems | :05:01. | :05:03. | |
stem from the development of the new C Series airliner. | :05:04. | :05:06. | |
I've been having a closer look at what's gone wrong. | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
The C Series is Bombardier 's dream of the future. Cutting edge | :05:13. | :05:21. | |
technology, great fuel efficiency and the best engines on the market. | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
Its aim, to take on the giant of Boeing and Airbus in the short haul | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
passenger market. It was first conceived in 2004. The Belfast wing | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
factory was officially opened by the Prime Minister and Mr decade later. | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
Developing a new playing is a time-consuming and expensive | :05:43. | :05:44. | |
business. The C Series has been beset by cost overruns and allays. | :05:45. | :05:51. | |
It was originally due to enter service in 2013, it should finally | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
be flying commercially this year. It started out with the development | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
budget of $3.4 billion. That sought to 5.4 billion, it is also entering | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
a fiercely competitive market. Knowing and Airbus have tweaked | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
their models and slash prices, as a result sales of the C Series have | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
been slow. The launch target was 300 orders but only 243 have been | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
booked, all of this has weakened the entire Bombardier company. They took | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
an enormous risk, they're well out of their comfort zone, they have | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
produced a good aeroplane but it is coming in the wrong place and at the | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
wrong time. All of the major international airlines went on a | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
spending spree for new aircraft last year and thousands of new aircraft | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
or books by both Boeing and Airbus. The C Series didn't join in that | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
party. The State government in Colback has effectively given the C | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
Series a 1 billion dollar bailout and more public money could follow. | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
It's not forecast to turn a profit until 2020 at the earliest. The | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
company needs to cut costs and conserve cash. That's what today's | :07:06. | :07:06. | |
job losses are about. There was some better news | :07:07. | :07:08. | |
for the C Series today when Air Canada signed what's call | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
a letter of intent to buy 75 That's not quite a firm order | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
but it's pretty certain that it But Bombardier needs lots more | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
orders like this. The positive was something the head | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
of Bombardier locally, Michael Ryan, was stressing when I spoke | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
to him this afternoon. I asked him to explain why today's | :07:26. | :07:27. | |
move was necessary. Bombardier announced today the year | :07:28. | :07:39. | |
end results which if you look at it was close to $5 billion loss. They | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
also announced some good news and the sales of the C Series but | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
fundamentally the sustainability of the company needs to be addressed | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
because that is not possible to continue and part of that is a | :07:53. | :07:54. | |
transformation which is under way and part of that transformation is | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
optimising the workforce and that is that they've global level. When we | :08:00. | :08:06. | |
look at the aerospace side in Belfast, it's the single largest | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
site in the aerospace business. Therefore, we are also impacted. | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
Bombardier is a big company, Belfast is a reasonably small part of that, | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
with up to somewhere like a low-cost location like Bombardier in Morocco, | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
what kind of assurances can you give in the long-term future of this | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
business in Northern Ireland? Money to improve competitiveness, there | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
are things which we do which we will be core technologies is a move | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
forward. As a move to more complex and advanced products and services, | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
more value-added products, the wings and the C Series and he is a large | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
is, that will be core for as going forward but there are processes and | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
fabrication that we do which we have do we look at because we will likely | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
not be competitive at them at all. The global aerospace world is | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
looking at optimising it and that it was going to what we call lower cost | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
countries and if we want to compete being in a global marketplace needs | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
to take advantage of that. Where the relevant but I have to say the | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
technologies we are investing in, the value-added processes, the | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
programmes were looking at a key part Belfast's future and will | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
continue to be. If I read that correctly, you are saying the | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
high-value work around wings composite 's honour that will stay | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
in Belfast, some of the more basic processes, there's every chance that | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
work will have do go to lower cost locations. That is what will appear | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
at and we can't rule that out. Honesty we have factories in Mexico | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
and Morocco and we have a world-class supply chain and that is | :09:44. | :09:44. | |
based in Northern Ireland. Before we came on air, | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
I spoke to the Canadian business I started by asking him if the jobs | :09:48. | :09:49. | |
cuts here were making It is. We are aware that you have a | :09:50. | :10:03. | |
high-tech manufacturing that you put 100 million pounds into the company | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
and your concerns are the same as Ahlers. Even though we have the | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
headquarters here, you do a lot of the assembly, the important and core | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
work and we as a country as well are concerned about that and that is why | :10:19. | :10:21. | |
the government has been funding a lot of money into Bombardier to make | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
sure it stays in Canada with those high-tech jobs, not just important | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
here but in Northern Ireland as well so we share similarities as far as | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
the concern of the health of Bombardier going forward. Our job is | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
going there as well? 2000 jobs to be slated in the Montreal office. This | :10:40. | :10:42. | |
is as part of the 7000 job announcement. What is interesting is | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
in the C Series division they are saying no jobs will be cut, they'll | :10:48. | :10:50. | |
be increasing that division but we are seeing real jobs are losing the | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
lion's share, 3200 jobs so we are affected here as well. Is the view | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
in Canada that people be happy to keep the jobs there and not worry so | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
much about the jobs elsewhere in Northern Ireland. I don't know if we | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
would say that. We have affinity with Northern Ireland but people in | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
Montreal where the company is based would be concerned in keeping it in | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
Montreal and there are 34,000 jobs reliant on Bombardier staying in | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
Colback so I wouldn't say widgets missive of Ireland but we are | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
sharing the pain. What you think the long-term prognosis is? This is | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
where it gets tricky because there are in a negative cash flow | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
position, this has cost them $5.5 billion to get this up and running. | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
2 billion in over costs and what comes down to this single aisle jet | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
which is 150 passengers, it goes directly against Boeing and Airbus | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
and those are very large pocketed companies and there is concern with | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
analysts saying have a bit off more than they can chew? Does it have the | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
resources to be able to go up against those competitors or are we | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
going to be in a spiral of continuing to have to fund them? | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
Before we came on air, the Enterprise Minister Jonathan | :12:12. | :12:13. | |
Bell insisted Bombardier's future in Northern Ireland is secure. | :12:14. | :12:15. | |
Did you know this was going to happen? | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
What I want to do is insure for those that are affected by the | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
global restructuring of the company can have the opportunity to | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
re-skill, retrain, the accredited to apply with a competent CV for new | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
money factor in jobs in Northern Ireland. My priority is to them, | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
it's a global restructuring, what I do know is that the Belfast plant is | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
secure... Can you give any more money to the company because we have | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
invested very heavily in Bombardier so far? I have been in Canada twice, | :12:52. | :12:58. | |
I have met their management five times, over the last number of | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
months, they are committed to Belfast. To the long-term secure | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
future of Belfast and aircraft manufacturing and I have asked them | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
is anything more that I could have done? To secure the jobs quick | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
update there is no more assistance that could've done anything to | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
prevent what has happened today. What ratios can you give to the | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
other aerospace companies working in Northern Ireland that their | :13:25. | :13:26. | |
workforces won't be affected by these job cuts? I can tell you that | :13:27. | :13:33. | |
of office 625 companies in Northern Ireland that our manufacturing of | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
aircraft industry and all of the aircraft industry from Brazil, | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
Airbus, Boeing, bombarding you. We are manufacturing for them all. Some | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
of them will be supplying a lot in the chain to Bombardier but for | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
others some 75% of their workforce does not involve Bombardier at all. | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
That is because the department of a strategic view to spread how we look | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
to gain orders and we have now got orders from the entire supply chain | :14:04. | :14:06. | |
throughout the world for the aircraft Corporation 's and we are | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
in a strong place. The industry is valued at ?1.1 billion. We know in | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
the future that there is a need for tens of thousands of new aircraft | :14:18. | :14:20. | |
and I believe our companies will continue to step up to the plate to | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
deliver for the economy and put more than that ?1.1 billion back into | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
Northern Ireland. When I spoke to the Secretary | :14:27. | :14:28. | |
of State, who's in Washington, I asked if she could have done | :14:29. | :14:31. | |
anything to either stop today's decision by Bombardier | :14:32. | :14:34. | |
or lessen its impact. Sadly, Bombardier have been clear | :14:35. | :14:42. | |
that there wasn't any intervention by the UK Government or the | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
executive that could have prevented today's announcement. It is | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
unfortunately part of the global restructuring that is needed to | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
bring down Bombardier 's costs. The UK Government and the executive have | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
provided huge amount of support for the C Series, well over ?100 million | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
over recent years and whilst this is hugely devastating news for the | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
people facing redundancy I think we can all take some comfort from the | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
fact that Bombardier have made it clear they committed to the C Series | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
project and committed to Belfast is a hugely important manufacturing | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
centre for them. You confident about the long-term prognosis for the in | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
Belfast? Yes, I am. From my discussions with ministers and my | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
understanding of the Bombardier operation, they're firmly supportive | :15:40. | :15:42. | |
of the Belfast operation and UK Government working with the | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
executive will continue to do all we can to ensure that Northern Ireland | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
is one of the best places in the world to do business. The timing | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
couldn't be worse than you considering you're in Washington to | :15:53. | :16:00. | |
sell Northern Ireland. The timing is terrible for those affected by | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
redundancy or facing it but I think it is important for me, other | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
ministers and the executive to be out and about promoting Northern | :16:11. | :16:13. | |
Ireland as a brilliant place to do business. That is important. Also | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
today around 81% of businesses in Northern Ireland think that leaving | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
the European Union is a bad idea. To zap you personally a difficult | :16:24. | :16:26. | |
position? During the Reformation and it will be important to consider | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
carefully the views of business and to listen to voices from the | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
business committee on both sides of this important debate before people | :16:36. | :16:38. | |
make up their minds whether to vote to leave the EU or stay in. For you | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
personally, as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, would it not | :16:45. | :16:46. | |
make campaign to leave the European Union difficult for you personally | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
whenever 81% of businesses hearsay would not be a good idea? Every | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
individual and adult in Northern Ireland will be able to make their | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
own choice about the future relationship of the UK with the rest | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
of Europe and no doubt issues around jobs and our trading relationship | :17:10. | :17:12. | |
with Europe will be at the heart of that debate. | :17:13. | :17:13. | |
Let's go back now for a final word with John Campbell. | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
Obviously such an important issue. We've heard it referred to by the | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
enterprise minister. What about the other companies who supply | :17:25. | :17:32. | |
Bombardier? Aerospace is a priority for the executive. There are a | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
cluster of aerospace complete in Northern Ireland and the enterprise | :17:36. | :17:38. | |
minister makes a fair point. Although Bombardier sits in the | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
middle, those companies have diversify and supply lots more | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
different businesses. Engineering in great happy, they make wind parts | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
for Airbus. Another company have started up work in China. The whole | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
industry is not the pennant and Bombardier will stop they have other | :18:00. | :18:02. | |
options. Something which was mentioned to me was when Bombardier | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
is talking about getting rid of work and not doing it in the plans | :18:09. | :18:11. | |
because it doesn't make sense not miss the real that work gets sent | :18:12. | :18:14. | |
offshore, it may go to other companies within Northern Ireland. | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
There may be some opportunities in the supply chain rather than risks. | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
Any reassurance at all if you work Bombardier? He said quite important | :18:23. | :18:32. | |
things. He was clear that lower skill lower value work will not be | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
done here in Belfast. It no longer makes economic financial sense. That | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
work will be done elsewhere. What he emphasises the high-value work, the | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
skilled work, the high-tech processes and making the wings. That | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
will continue here. We have a competitive advantage, or the | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
knowledge. That reads across to our manufacturing sector as a whole. We | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
cannot compete on price for a lot of things but what we have to compete | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
on his quality and innovation. Briefly, what about the impact on | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
the wider community? Bombardier, although it is based on his Belfast, | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
people come from all the Northern Ireland to work in this place. | :19:18. | :19:20. | |
Generally in the aerospace sector are good, wages there will be above | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
the private sector median so the fact that they are shedding jobs | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
will be felt in households right across Northern Ireland. | :19:29. | :19:30. | |
Plenty to come before seven, including a cautious welcome | :19:31. | :19:32. | |
for the latest rise in house prices here. | :19:33. | :19:42. | |
The man tasked with reforming health and social care here is calling | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
on politicians to be brave and prepared to | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
The call came at a political health summit where the focus | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
was on politicians to put politics aside and health first. | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
They were asked to sign up to a set of principles which would guarantee | :20:00. | :20:02. | |
reform of the system, including how some hospitals deliver services. | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
Our Health Correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly reports. | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
Like thousands of people, Derek is caught up in the system waiting to | :20:13. | :20:21. | |
see a consultant. He has MS and has compared waiting to a horror story. | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
System is broken. It's not working. The system is failing people like me | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
and all the other estimated upwards of 4000 people with MS across | :20:33. | :20:35. | |
Northern Ireland. It's people like Derek that those taking part in the | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
summit want to help. Its aim, to try and encourage politicians to put | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
their politics aside and put people's health first. The expert | :20:45. | :20:47. | |
panel suggesting that could mean radical reform of the system | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
including where and how health is delivered. We don't think it's naive | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
to talk honestly to the population, show the new models will have better | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
benefits, it will be better for you, if we take these decisions. It's | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
true that one has to make that easy for the local politicians and we | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
hope that we can make it easy by proving what the benefits are in | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
this areas. The politicians were presented with 16 principles that | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
they were asked to sign up to in advance. They included the desire to | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
maintain the NHS ethos that health care should be free at the point of | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
delivery and to create a healthier model that would deliver that. | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
Alliance and Sinn Fein argues any change must address health | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
inequalities. Others more cynical. We remain sceptical about the timing | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
of this as it is weeks away from an election and we are worried it will | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
be used by the DUP to deflect attention away from potential bad | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
health headlines that may emerge. If people are informed from grassroots, | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
they know it decisions are being taken and then used trust and that's | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
important going forward will stop these decisions are being taken with | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
their best interests at heart. According to Simon Hamilton this is | :22:08. | :22:10. | |
a long-term plan whether or not he is still imposed after the election. | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
This is more important than any party political point scoring. | :22:15. | :22:20. | |
Irrespective of whether I am in post after election or someone else, this | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
is a long-term problem, not a one-week problem. This is an issue | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
and a challenge we'll have two phase for several assembly terms. The | :22:30. | :22:37. | |
parties have until Fred Berry 26th -- Fabry 26 to accept the | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
principles. If accepted they will be used to design a new model for | :22:43. | :22:45. | |
Northern Ireland which could change how local hospitals operate. | :22:46. | :22:47. | |
The Coroner in the Arlene Arkinson inquest says he needs more time | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
before making a decision about whether the police can | :22:53. | :22:54. | |
He says he may hold more sessions behind closed doors. | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
The 15-year-old girl went missing 22 years ago and no-one has ever been | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
Two prominent dissident Republicans Colin Duffy | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
and Alex McCrory were granted bail today. | :23:09. | :23:10. | |
They face charges of conspiring to murder members of the security | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
forces and have been on remand for two years. | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
A PSNI officer who tried to arrest one of Northern Ireland's most | :23:19. | :23:21. | |
senior judges has been sentenced to three months in prison. | :23:22. | :23:24. | |
Thomas Anthony Carlin attempted to arrest Lord Justice Gillen | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
The cross-party body which runs the Assembly has asked | :23:28. | :23:38. | |
the Westminster expenses regulator to do some more work reviewing | :23:39. | :23:41. | |
the Stormont expenses system in light of recent controversy | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
The Speaker held a meeting of the Assembly Commission | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
Our political correspondent Chris Page is at Stormont. | :23:51. | :23:58. | |
What's the latest? The assembly authorities know that any issue | :23:59. | :24:07. | |
around expenses is bad for politicians in general. They have | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
had to do everything they can to deal with perceptions as a problem. | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
There's been extraordinary public row between the panel which sets | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
expense allowances and the assembly commission which administers the | :24:20. | :24:22. | |
expenses scheme. Essentially they disagree over whether expenses | :24:23. | :24:25. | |
payments made in 2012 should be allowed. Last year, the Westminster | :24:26. | :24:33. | |
regulator, compiled a report about the Stormont system and yesterday | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
that report was leaked. It's a bit should be changing the way the | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
assembly reviews expenses claims which have been initially refused. | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
The assembly commission met today. They're stressing that the reported | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
not identify any major areas of concern but that it did make a small | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
number of recommendations which the assembly is acting on. What's more, | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
the Westminster Bridge related being invited back here to do some more | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
work and update in the light of the stories of the last few days. | :25:04. | :25:06. | |
House prices in Northern Ireland grew by 7% last year, | :25:07. | :25:08. | |
the latest evidence of steady recovery in the local property | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
The average home now costs just over ?118,000. | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
The news has been welcomed by some property experts, | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
while others warn there are still many problems with debt | :25:20. | :25:21. | |
House prices aren't booming but they are starting to blossom. Last year | :25:22. | :25:37. | |
's price rise continues an upward trend which darted two years ago. | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
But in simple terms, what benefits does this bring? Homeowners have | :25:42. | :25:49. | |
confidence that that they may get it by relatively stroked shorts base of | :25:50. | :25:52. | |
time. First-time buyers as well who have been coming back into the | :25:53. | :26:01. | |
marketplace. We had extraordinary marketplace in 2007 and 2008 and we | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
hope they will come back but we'll see that over the coming years and | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
we'll have consistency and that's what we're hoping to achieve. A 7% | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
rise is generally welcome news but there are warnings not to get | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
carried away. House prices in Northern Ireland are worth around | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
53% what they were at the end of 2007 and many people are still | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
struggling with mortgage payments or are trapped in negative equity. We | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
have a lot of people, we see them every day who are struggling with | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
housing debt. We have people who have lost their jobs, health issues, | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
relationship breakdown, it's too simplistic just to see a small | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
increase in house prices as being a salve to our woes. House prices are | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
at the highest in the North Down and Ards area. A home there will cost | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
you more than ?140,000. There's still a long way to go. In 2007, | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
standard house prices have were nine times the average salary. Today, | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
they're just four times what you earn. | :27:07. | :27:08. | |
The IFA confirmed today that the final home warm-up game | :27:09. | :27:11. | |
for Northern Ireland in the run-up to Euro 2016 will be against Belarus | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
Following the game, Northern Ireland will travel to Austria | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
for a week-long training camp before playing their final preparation game | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
against fellow Euro finalists Slovakia on the 4th of June. | :27:25. | :27:32. | |
Plenty of rain that cleared up. Some lovely sunshine around this | :27:33. | :27:43. | |
afternoon but it was a dodgy start this morning with that mix of rain | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
and sleet and snow in places. This was the scene agree to does. Quite a | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
covering there as there was across the mountains. Not so much a low | :27:56. | :28:02. | |
levels. It has been a chilly day and those temperatures now that the | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
skies clearing are falling so quite quickly we will have a widespread | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
frost overlapping and will start to see a few showers pushing in the | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
wars in North and west through the evening. There will be a wintry mix. | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
Temperatures drop to freezing, maybe two or three degrees below. The | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
other problem will be ice. The Met office has a warning in place for | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
the night and into tomorrow morning because there is a risk that there | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
could be minor disruption, slippery and untreated roads and services so | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
something to bear in mind. Once we get into tomorrow, for many, there | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
will be a good deal of try weather, sunshine around as well. Through the | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
morning, it is icy. Showers running their way through, particularly in | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
the north and west and they will still be quite wintry but as we head | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
towards the afternoon increasingly they'll be turned to rain at low | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
levels. Most of the wintry staff in the hills. Not too many making their | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
way across the eastern part of the Southeast, some places avoiding | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
altogether with a fair and of sunshine but chilly with more breeze | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
and hides of 6 degrees. That takes us into tomorrow evening. Again, we | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
start with clear skies will be chilly enough a time, temperatures | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
close to freezing. If anything, they will creep up a degree in the night. | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
A bit more at the breeze, cloud increasing and spells of rain | :29:25. | :29:30. | |
approach from the West. That is the next weather system that moves in | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
for Friday. That has the effect of bringing the cabbage is up but it | :29:35. | :29:37. | |
would feel that way because we'll have cloud and rain for a time. A | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
breeze before drying in the day. Into the weekend, it is if the | :29:43. | :29:45. | |
temperature wise but more rain in the forecast. | :29:46. | :29:48. | |
You can also keep in contact with us via Facebook and Twitter. | :29:49. | :29:53. |