20/01/2013 Sunday Politics Northern Ireland

Hello and welcome to the Sunday Politics. The first major event of

the Derry - Londonderry UK City of Culture gets under way this evening

with the Sons and Daughters concert. With the Executive promising

investment of �30 million, will the year deliver on the economic and

cultural legacy promised? The Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin

is with me. And presidents and Prime Ministers praise his

leadership, but back home there are fewer plaudits as political

opponents put pressure on the Taoiseach. It did make reckless

promises in advance of the election and they have broken almost every

promise at this stage. People feel somewhat betrayed. And to discuss

this and much more, journalist and commentator Susan McKay and

Economist Neil Gibson. Liverpool's year as European

Capital of Culture earned the city around �800 million in extra income,

half of which came directly from tourism. It's been estimated that

up to one million visitors could visit the north west this City of

Culture year. As the first major concert kicks off this evening,

what can the city expect? And can it deliver? With me is the Culture

Minister Caral Ni Chuilin. Obviously it is a big night tonight

and in some ways the proper launch of this year. Sons and Daughters,

no better way to launch the programme than this evening, and we

hope they can get to Derry with the weather. Now it has started, and

with all the expectation and build up, tonight a lot of people will be

biting their nails but I think it will be great. I think there will

be some negativity along with the excitement and celebration of the

year. When it comes to the marketing, there seemed to have

been a few issues - what role has your department taken? We meet

directly with Derry City Council and the issues have been sorted out.

They have a licence for the city of Culture, taking the operational

day-to-day responsibility including marketing, but negativity, I had

this with the Olympics and the Paralympics last year and look how

that turned out. �30 million from the Executive, about 12 million

from your department, what will we get back? For the north-west has

not received the Investment it should have over the last decade

and we will get investment back. It will increase tourism and leave a

legacy that was not there before. In what way? Will it be jobs? We

didn't get the hotels we expected to be built. There will be jobs,

retail, tourism, arts and crafts and music that were not there

before and that in itself will help people with talent who were not

recognised through the economy. There has been some criticism of

the musical instruments forever child and there needs to be more

than that. What can you offer people as reassurance what they

get? When you look at the figures for Liverpool, �800 million, an

enormous amount of money and visitors say that you still get the

vibe. And you will get that in Derry. It is about introducing

music, arts and culture, and if people have a career in that that

is well and good. I think supporting local artists were there

was not employment before, this is what Derry has to offer. When it

comes to Infrastructure, you said yourself you can't control the

weather obviously, but we didn't get the flights we thought a few

years ago that might be introduced to get people to Derry. If they

come to Belfast up the road, we have discussed the difficulties are

with certain areas and the weather, did the recession scupper things?

No, we are not finished yet. The people of the North are very hardy,

they will get to Derry. We have also root on the hour, every half-

hour, and people will get to Derry not just for this evening but for

the rest of the year. Is it too late to be tweaking some of those

issues on the year it is happening? I'm not aware of any tweaking that

needs to happen. We need to look at the flexibility and make sure the

success of Derry is felt across the north-west. When it comes to some

of the funding, the report after Christmas that the �6.5 million,

some of that will be handed back. That is not a good sign, is it?

It's not, but over �600 million will be spent so it is on target.

When it comes to the concert, it is a big event. I have seen some of

the pictures, it looks very impressive but it is only temporary.

There will be no legacy from the venue. But the venue can be used

elsewhere. That is an important thing. Every space has been opened

up, it has brightened up the city, opened up the city. It is good news.

Let's hear now what our Guests of the Day think. Neil Gibson, you

carried out this report in 2010, half a million extra visitor

nights', for �2 million additional visitor spending, and it is

difficult because we are not at the end of the year yet but how much of

that has come to fruition? It is difficult to say but we are already

seeing significant event planning going ahead. None of the

significant events have not materialised. This is a difficult

time to gather international money, but I am encouraged that the

signature events we were hoping for are still scheduled so we should

still get significant tourist impact and most crucially bring

some people to the City who have never been before. They may be

future residents, future investors, and that is the real potential for

the legacy. That, and bringing people into their own city for the

first time to get involved. The legacy will be the responsibility

not just of experts and politicians, but also the responsibility of the

people of the city. Susan McKay, is it on the radar in Dublin? I think

maybe it has fallen down a little bit on that marketing outside Derry.

I didn't see it listed in a lot of the big UK destination events over

Christmas but it will be an overwhelmingly positive thing for

Derry. I am from Derry, I have a great loyalty to it, and I think

the City is a great venue for international events. People are

always surprised how lovely it is, the Donegal mountains, but one of

the best things about the city of Culture is that it is not just the

big set-piece events which are only going to appeal to a minority of

the population, it is the fact that culture company has gone to great

lengths to make sure kids in disadvantaged areas will get some

benefit. They have got the music, staying, but when they have world-

class performers coming over they are making sure they do some work

with children in primary schools. They are involving talented young

people in Derry with world class people they would not normally be

exposed to. They are making it work for the whole city, not just a

cultural elite. Interesting about the marketing - is it on the radar

in London? In Dublin? It doesn't seem that it is. I think it will be.

There have been challengers for example I spoke to people in Dublin

talking about the flag coming, but not talking about anything else.

People will pick certain things out but we need to know what the

overall package is. Susan has raised this, the people in Derry

know what is coming and they should be involved in the planning, the

benefit. We need to get people from Dublin and London and Belfast.

Belfast people will not travel to Derry and invest.

It is interesting - it is a lot of money to go to one project. But why

not? Why not more than that? It is the whole balance in the economy.

Disadvantaged areas are like people waiting on a bus. In deprived areas,

the bosses don't past at all. Derry is an area where the boss has not

passed at all. With your economist hat on, well people in other areas

look at this and think that is money well spent and miss out on

events in my area this year? what hope they will. What happens

often here is that people disagree about where money... And nothing

occurs. That is one of our major urban centres and people will be

curious to see it. What I have to think is, if I was in the manner,

how might I get visitors to come and see me as well? Let's get

people to come down because most importantly we need new people

coming into the island who might potentially have money in the

future, or may be want to bring their family to. It is always a

game in which some will get, some will not. There will be future

investments that might have a different pattern, but there can't

think why did I not get. Let's celebrate and look for other

opportunities. Susan, the message was that we need to be proactive.

You were in Derry on Friday, did you feel the vibe in the City?

was extremely cold, and as it happens I was talking to young

people in one of the most disadvantaged parts of Derry and

they felt there was nothing in it for them. There is a serious issue

of poverty in Derry, but at least the minister is correct that making

an investment of the kind the end to kitted is making, it is correct

in historic legacy of neglect and that is important. Thank you for

In the Republic, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been praised abroad as a

heavyweight for putting the Republic's bailed-out economy back

on track, but criticised at home as the Taoiseach whose government is

introducing measures that hit the poor and vulnerable. And now the

abortion debate has returned. Here's our Dublin correspondent

Shane Harrison. Kenny house until relatively recently, a relatively

unremarkable political career, been blessed with good fortune. That

continued good luck marked his first year in office, according to

John Downing, a political columnist. The previous government were so

wildly unpopular he had to be popular. He was very lucky in the

timing of his criticism of the Church. The public had just had

enough. For rape and the torture of children were downplayed or managed

to walk hold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, its

standing and its reputation. He was very lucky in the arrival of Queen

Elizabeth II and that whole visit also of Obama. We have the republic

meeting its targets, there has been praised from abroad. By one to

applaud the Irish government under your leadership for making some

very tough decisions to shore up the Irish economy. The Taoiseach

has got the time magazine front cover treatment, and was recently

given a special award for putting the country back on the path to

recovery. But the Dublin correspondent of the newspaper here

is a sceptic. The journalists think Kenny is doing a good job because

the success story has come out of Ireland, and they compare it with

Greece where nothing seems to work. I don't think there austerity

programme is going to work because it hits the poorest people the

hardest. It is true there was little Christmas could chip in the

Budget last month, but the Labour coalition would argue that during

this recession by and large it is those who can afford it who have

taken the biggest hit. How much more can people take in the form of

tax rises and spending cuts? Especially as the seismic game

changer under the banking debt has yet to materialise. The Fina for

leader says it is a different story at home although he has been lauded

abroad. Principally I think the promises have been broken. They did

make reckless promises in advance of the election and have broken

almost every promise at the stage and people feel somewhat betrayed.

They thought it was going to be the dawn of the new year, wonderful

change, none of that has happened. What has happened is the return of

abortion as a political issue. The coalition seemed set on introducing

legislation. The credible threat of suicide seems set to be included as

a grounds for termination. Unlike the Labour Party, many here believe

that could lead to abortion on demand. The party's Meyer

constituency colleague of the Taoiseach opposes a liberal

abortion law. The have to sit down and tease this through and that is

a challenge to us to show leadership in the years of the

economy when we have to make tough decisions, and in relation to this

particular issue that we have to make a tough decision on. How he

deals with both abortion and the economy will determined Kenny's

future. To date, as Taoiseach fate has been fortunate and he will hope

he can remain a looking leader. Obviously the tricky abortion

debate will be difficult given the promise before the election. It was

very foolish and wrong of the Taoiseach to make that promise

before he was elected because we have known for a long time that

successful governments have avoided legislating for abortion when they

were clearly required to do so 20 years ago in the X case. He is

living with the consequences of that. We have since had a European

Court of Human Rights ruling which puts pressure on the government to

regularise the situation and we had an outpouring of public sympathy

late last year in the case of the Indian lady living in Ireland who

died during a pregnancy. What about the 25,000 people who went out,

pro-life campaigners, yesterday? Will that make the politicians more

nervous when they see the strength of feeling? A lot of the anti-

abortion people are willing to go on the streets to demonstrate their

position and they have been given some strong backing by the Catholic

Church, but the polls have shown that the majority of Irish people

are now in favour of some degree of liberalisation of the abortion laws.

Not abortion on demand but in circumstances where for example a

woman has been raped, she is carrying a foetus that is not

viable, a child has been raped and so on. There are these situations,

but they don't want to go out and demonstrate on that. A lot of

people who support a woman's right to choose abortion don't want to go

out on the street and shout about it. They think it is a private

thing for a woman to make her own decision. There has been a

civilised debate within the committee system on this, and I

think most people hope they can introduce the legislation in that

kind of temperate manner without seeing a return to the very nasty

scenes that we saw back in the 1980s. And Neil, in terms of the

economy, do you think he is doing a good job? The Germans think he is

doing a fine job. The tough hand he has been dealt. It is a much better

time across the western world to be in opposition, but Ireland is not

in the same position as the UK. It can't print its own money, it has

to have someone to lend the money, so this is extremely important.

it fair to compare Greece to Ireland? No, Ireland has a much

stronger economy, a higher skills profile, and also as a have seen it

has been able to make changes. Its people have taken some

responsibility for the difficulties they have found themselves in. The

most fundamental difference is Island has a route to future

economic success in a way that is not so easy to see in Greece.

with us. Thank you. There was a bad-tempered return to

Stormont this week after the festive break. Stephen Walker looks

back in 60 seconds. A veteran Ulster Unionist joined the DUP and

said his former party were finished. I think it is politically exhausted.

I don't think it has any new ideas. Alex musky found himself in the

firing line in a war of words about stone-throwing. Traders said profit

was being damaged. Is trouble brewing in the Executive? There

were strong words in the Short Strand. This is an occasion where

we need to be seen to be standing together. Politicians sat round the

table but Peter and Martin would not face the pressed together. The

Secretary of State visited Alliance party offices and the flag issue

was not far away. The want to know when this flag is going to go up in

Belfast? Because it is going back to the 70s, and my childhood was

ruined. So far so good in terms of the violence but the protests are

continuing. What do you may covet? I think it shows a dreadful failure

of leadership within Unionism. I was at the protest yesterday and I

was listening to stuff I have been listening to as a journalist for

decades. This no surrender politics, no compromise, they are getting

everything, we are getting nothing, completely sectarian, abuse being

shouted at the police along sectarian lines, and I think the

Unionist leadership needs to tackle the sectarianism going on and stop

people feeling that... It has got to be made clear that the Executive

has left Northern Ireland with areas of extreme deprivation, but

they are in republican and nationalist parts as well as

loyalist parts. When you have major spokespersons for these protesters

talking about part of the problem being that too many Catholics are

in the police, Unionism has got to speak out against that kind of

thing. It is unacceptable and dangerous. Neil, we have had a lot

about the economy, what real impact is this having? It is devastating

in many ways because it comes at a difficult time for things like the

retail sector at the minute. Whilst not wanting to trivialise the

political and cultural issues, from an economic point of view, for the

business owner and the international investor, violence