:00:28. > :00:31.Good evening and welcome to Stormont Today. We've been kicked
:00:31. > :00:33.out of our usual studio in the bowels of Parliament Buildings and
:00:33. > :00:40.are coming to you from Broadcasting house. It's nothing personal. Last
:00:40. > :00:43.week's weather has played havoc with the Stormont facilities.
:00:44. > :00:49.power to Stormont had been cut off on Wednesday evening as a result of
:00:49. > :00:55.the problem with the transformer on the estate. Following that, that
:00:55. > :01:00.power was off on terms to an Friday and the weekend. Also... The Conor
:01:00. > :01:03.Murphy discrimination row spills over to the chamber. In order to
:01:03. > :01:07.ensure that the Unionist community believes that in terms of
:01:07. > :01:11.ministerial appointments, there will be fair play. There will be no
:01:11. > :01:15.upper limit legislation in this society because the manner up as it
:01:15. > :01:17.has always been an opposition. return to the Stone Age for a
:01:17. > :01:27.debate on archaeology. And we consider the Assembly's performance
:01:27. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:33.this year with Professor Rick Wilford from Queen's University.
:01:33. > :01:35.The heavy rain which brought so much misery last Wednesday also hit
:01:35. > :01:43.Stormont's facilities. Earlier, I spoke to the clerk and director
:01:43. > :01:46.general of the Assembly about how it was affected. As you will have
:01:46. > :01:51.understood from the news, the power had been cut off on Wednesday
:01:51. > :01:55.evening as a result of a problem with the transform work on the
:01:55. > :02:01.estate and following that, the power was off on Thursday, Friday
:02:01. > :02:05.and over the weekend. But staff have been working very hard with in
:02:05. > :02:10.a e to get the power restored and it was restored last night and we
:02:10. > :02:15.are operating normally again today but in these situations, we have
:02:15. > :02:18.got contingency plans and the standby generator cake tin and we
:02:18. > :02:22.could operate with a limited level of electricity but normal business
:02:22. > :02:30.was maintained. The committees met as normal and business continued.
:02:30. > :02:34.Nothing has fallen behind? Indeed not. We have managed through the
:02:34. > :02:40.plans and good work of everybody to keep business running and B are in
:02:40. > :02:44.a good place. Just the BBC is affected? You might have your own
:02:44. > :02:48.problems! Everything has gone extremely well for us. The plans
:02:48. > :02:51.have worked well and we have worked well particularly with Northern
:02:51. > :02:58.Ireland Electricity who have worked tirelessly over the weekend to get
:02:58. > :03:02.things back online. Because of the location, yes, it has been
:03:02. > :03:07.inconvenient but in terms of the water damage, you have not
:03:07. > :03:10.suffered? Thankfully, we are at the top of the hill and the water has
:03:11. > :03:19.gone down below was so the building's lower on the estate have
:03:19. > :03:22.suffered but everything is drying up here and our feet are drive.
:03:22. > :03:25.exactly a good way to see out the session, but how has the rest of
:03:25. > :03:28.the year gone for the Assembly? With me now is Professor Rick
:03:28. > :03:38.Wilford of Queen's University. Overall, what Mark would you give
:03:38. > :03:43.
:03:43. > :03:48.them? The plus. B plus. They could do better and the Assembly, it
:03:48. > :03:55.looks like a scant return to many members of the public and we are
:03:55. > :04:00.all familiar with the polls that show that the public holds our
:04:00. > :04:06.ministers in relatively low regard. It is an admission that they need
:04:06. > :04:08.to up their game. Much of the early part of the year was spent dealing
:04:09. > :04:14.with private members' business rather than executive business
:04:14. > :04:18.because there was not any. We had to wait for 12 months for the
:04:18. > :04:21.programme for government to be approved and the SDLP was supposed
:04:21. > :04:27.to be for the programme and they voted against in the chamber and
:04:28. > :04:31.that has had the knock-on effect of slowing down legislation so it
:04:31. > :04:36.looks that the Assembly chamber has not been particularly busy but the
:04:36. > :04:40.committees have, producing 20 reports over the past year. They
:04:40. > :04:44.have been beavering away and scrutinising government and what
:04:44. > :04:50.little legislation there is but if you think about this in terms of
:04:50. > :04:53.what has happened in the Assembly building after the rain, it is now
:04:53. > :04:58.underpowered and people would say the Assembly itself is also
:04:58. > :05:02.underpowered. He said the committee's have performed well.
:05:02. > :05:08.Are there any departments or ministers that stand out?
:05:08. > :05:13.really. I don't think anybody has had a stellar performance, but
:05:13. > :05:18.there has been steady progress. When you think back, we had this
:05:18. > :05:24.agreement among parties to allocate the departments so there was a
:05:24. > :05:28.relatively smooth beginning, not as tricky as the first time around,
:05:28. > :05:32.but the slowness in getting the programme going, the slowness in
:05:32. > :05:38.getting the legislative package together. If you remember the early
:05:38. > :05:42.part of the year, the speaker himself was complaining about the
:05:42. > :05:49.lack of legislation and on the economy there has been some attempt
:05:49. > :05:54.to promote growth in Northern Ireland. The issue has been the
:05:54. > :05:57.imbalance between the private and public sector and a lot of parties
:05:57. > :06:02.are pinning hopes on the reduction in Corporation Tax but that looks
:06:02. > :06:06.as though it is flailing in the water and drowning. That will
:06:06. > :06:11.affect any prospect for the economic minister and Arlene Foster,
:06:11. > :06:17.who has an opportunity to shine, but she will be hampered as a
:06:17. > :06:20.consequence. Thank you. More bad news for customers of the Ulster
:06:20. > :06:23.Bank as it emerged late this afternoon that the problems aren't
:06:23. > :06:25.going to be solved this week. It is nearly a fortnight since a computer
:06:25. > :06:28.breakdown left thousands of customers unable to access their
:06:28. > :06:36.accounts. The First Minister, Peter Robinson, was asked about the
:06:36. > :06:42.crisis this morning in the Assembly. It is inexplicable to many of us
:06:42. > :06:46.how it can take so long to resolve this issue. Also, why it takes
:06:46. > :06:51.longer in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Meanwhile, people are
:06:51. > :06:56.being refused easy access and in some cases out of the country,
:06:56. > :07:00.access at all, to their funds and I do implore the Ulster Bank to put
:07:00. > :07:04.the necessary resources in place to get this matter finished within
:07:04. > :07:07.hours rather than further days. Later, the Deputy First Minister
:07:07. > :07:10.was on his feet taking his last question session today before the
:07:10. > :07:13.summer break. Given that Martin McGuinness has hardly been out of
:07:13. > :07:16.the news for the past fortnight, he might be grateful for the rest. So
:07:16. > :07:23.when he was answering a question on the Commissioner for Public
:07:23. > :07:28.Appointments, it wasn't long before the topic switched. The current
:07:28. > :07:32.Commissioner is Mr John Keaney, appointed by the First Minister and
:07:32. > :07:36.myself and he took up office in 20th August 11. He has the
:07:36. > :07:40.important role to play in sustaining public confidence in the
:07:40. > :07:44.appointments process by holding ministers and their departments to
:07:44. > :07:49.account and he operates independently of government and set
:07:49. > :07:52.standards for the department's by publishing a code of practice. He
:07:52. > :07:56.got it's the process to check whether his code of practice has
:07:56. > :08:01.been followed and he investigates individual complaints and publishes
:08:01. > :08:05.its findings in an annual report. The commissioner provides an
:08:05. > :08:11.effective, credible external scrutiny role and that is something
:08:11. > :08:17.that I am sure everybody welcomes. I thank the Minister. Could he
:08:17. > :08:20.outlined what further actions his department might be considering
:08:20. > :08:24.after the finding on behalf of Conor Murphy to guard against
:08:24. > :08:30.further discrimination on the grounds of religious belief in
:08:30. > :08:34.public appointments. I am aware that the fair employment tribunal
:08:34. > :08:38.has found against the Department of Regional Development and a case
:08:38. > :08:39.involving the appointment of the chair of Northern Ireland Water.
:08:39. > :08:44.The Department of Regional Development is currently
:08:44. > :08:50.considering the judgment and I'm sure they will wish to consider all
:08:50. > :08:55.the options available to them, including an appeal. The judgment
:08:55. > :09:00.raises a range of serious issues. The implications on public
:09:00. > :09:03.procedures will be fully considered by all concerned and any changes to
:09:03. > :09:11.the Commissioner for Public appointments and the code of
:09:11. > :09:16.practice arising from this case are a matter for the commissioner.
:09:16. > :09:19.Speaker, the day after that handshake last week, the Deputy
:09:19. > :09:23.Minister talked about the history of nationalist and a quality. Here
:09:23. > :09:28.in Northern Ireland. And there for 40 years of his life he was
:09:28. > :09:34.addressing that inequality. A is the inequality on appointments
:09:34. > :09:40.recorded last week recorded through Conor Murphy, the change that he
:09:41. > :09:45.was talking about then? As someone who comes from a community that has
:09:45. > :09:49.been long discriminated against until these institutions were
:09:49. > :09:55.formed, it is certainly not in the interests of myself or any body
:09:55. > :09:59.associated with me to be involved in discriminating against anyone. I
:09:59. > :10:03.understand that as a result of the ruling last week by the Fair
:10:03. > :10:09.Employment Tribunal, a number of people associated with it every
:10:09. > :10:14.decision was taken at the time and they're considering legal advice.
:10:14. > :10:19.At this stage it is too soon to say what the outcome will be. I would
:10:19. > :10:24.be very surprised if there isn't a very vigorous challenge to the
:10:24. > :10:29.decision. The record did not change when John O'Dowd faced education
:10:29. > :10:33.questions. Here is Gregory Campbell... Dos the Minister
:10:33. > :10:37.appreciate the difficulty that he has been placed in courtesy of the
:10:37. > :10:43.outcome of the tribunal last week in terms of his former colleague,
:10:43. > :10:46.Conor Murphy? Does he appreciate the extent he will have to go to to
:10:46. > :10:49.ensure that the Unionist committee believes that in terms of
:10:49. > :10:56.ministerial appointments, there is going to be fair play from the Sinn
:10:56. > :11:04.Fein minister? The Deputy First Minister outlined in detail were
:11:04. > :11:08.that case is. Do you want the answer? OK... I will put this to
:11:09. > :11:12.the member - if the member had his way, there would be no fair
:11:12. > :11:16.employment tribunals because a member has always been imposed --
:11:16. > :11:19.opposed to that in legislation and there would be no Equality
:11:20. > :11:22.Commission because he was opposed to that and there would be no
:11:22. > :11:26.employment legislation in this society whatsoever because the
:11:26. > :11:31.member opposite has always been in opposition and has always been in
:11:31. > :11:34.opposition to any form of equality being in legislation whatsoever.
:11:34. > :11:40.That is where we would be if the member opposite had his way, so no
:11:40. > :11:43.member of the public, no member of this assembly or anybody else will
:11:43. > :11:47.be aware of the appointment process to my department or any other
:11:47. > :11:50.department but I will assure the member this - I share the views of
:11:50. > :11:58.the Deputy First Minister and I don't think there is a sector in
:11:58. > :12:06.bone in Conor Murphy his body. Mr McCartney? -- sectarian bone.
:12:06. > :12:11.raibh maith agat. Thank you very much. Can I thank the Minister for
:12:11. > :12:17.his answer. It seems that some members have long memories
:12:17. > :12:21.stretching back to me 2007 and I wonder if the Minister has any
:12:21. > :12:29.opinion on the comparative figures under direct rule or under Jim
:12:29. > :12:36.Allister and perhaps Gregory Campbell's old Stormont regime?
:12:36. > :12:40.record shows that any attempt to introduce fair employment and
:12:40. > :12:43.equality legislation in the society has been opposed by the two
:12:44. > :12:49.gentlemen who have previously questioned me regarding this matter.
:12:50. > :12:53.It is quite clear that they would be happy to return to a one-party
:12:53. > :12:57.state which failed not only the Catholic community but the
:12:58. > :13:02.Protestant community on the island of violent and we haven't place now,
:13:02. > :13:06.despite the continued opposition, a much more equal society and I can
:13:06. > :13:13.assure everyone in this house that I am none of my ministerial
:13:13. > :13:16.colleagues will apply to the rigour of the law. --. Aghadrum, Bannagh
:13:16. > :13:18.Beg, Ballysooragh. All townlands in County Fermanagh. And residents of
:13:18. > :13:21.that county are appealing to the Environment Minister to protect
:13:21. > :13:31.townland names. A petition of 6,000 signatures was presented to the
:13:31. > :13:41.
:13:41. > :13:46.Townlands in a tractor and green Norman tie-ins. They were there
:13:46. > :13:52.before parishes and counties came into existence. The first instance
:13:52. > :13:57.can be found before the 12th century, but it was believed many
:13:57. > :14:03.where in existence for at more than a thousand years. They're not
:14:03. > :14:10.against changed but the what a robust system which incorporates
:14:10. > :14:15.postcodes, house numbers and effective postal delivery.
:14:15. > :14:20.Ministers will be making a historical decision. After
:14:20. > :14:28.thousands of years, he can legitimise of Fermat townlands as a
:14:29. > :14:31.legal address. How the law deals with young people
:14:32. > :14:34.is a sensitive subject and one which has seen angry exchanges in
:14:34. > :14:37.the chamber. The justice minister David Ford is backing the findings
:14:38. > :14:41.of a report which has called for, among other things, changes to the
:14:41. > :14:44.age of criminal responsibility. But the issue is a red rag to the bull
:14:44. > :14:50.that is the justice committee chair. I can't recall when this was
:14:50. > :14:53.initially announced, you Lamb bustard quite a few people are
:14:53. > :14:57.about the age of criminal responsibility, those people were
:14:57. > :15:05.deflecting away from a lot of other issues which people would say was
:15:05. > :15:11.more important. Yet, it is still in this document and I think it is
:15:11. > :15:16.clear in their DUP position on this matter. Why continue to push this
:15:16. > :15:22.agenda which will, in my view, detract from a lot of the other
:15:22. > :15:27.recommendations which people are willing to engage with? The issue
:15:27. > :15:35.around that is how we handle recommendations from the review
:15:35. > :15:41.which were overwhelmingly supported by those who responded. It is
:15:41. > :15:47.almost like the first. You raised about the age limit - most people
:15:47. > :15:52.winter woodlands rather than high Bank. We have in reality their tiny
:15:52. > :16:00.number of offenders end that the 10 plus age group been tell -- being
:16:00. > :16:09.dealt with by methods other than criminal sanctions. Should we say
:16:09. > :16:15.it they should be enshrined as a statutory arrangement? I see the
:16:15. > :16:20.benefit of statute recognising that we are not by a large applying the
:16:20. > :16:27.full criminal sanctions to very young offenders. We deal with them
:16:27. > :16:32.through care. All of the criminal justice agencies are extremely
:16:32. > :16:38.reluctant, to give someone a criminal record below age of 18,
:16:38. > :16:43.therefore why increase this age limits. In the face of growing the
:16:43. > :16:47.young people who feel they are immune from the potential
:16:47. > :16:52.prosecution that can come, you remove that threat and I asked
:16:52. > :16:58.myself or where we going when we have some young people who have no
:16:58. > :17:02.fear or at all of the criminal justice system. In your view, this
:17:02. > :17:08.may be a view of as being progressive as a society and
:17:08. > :17:13.recognising the rights of children and all of that, whenever I think
:17:13. > :17:17.for a lot of people, they think we have moved too far with a hands-off
:17:17. > :17:22.approach and young people do not respect the laws. The vast majority
:17:22. > :17:28.do but there is a big number who do not and people think society have
:17:28. > :17:33.gone too far to trying to beat what she would characterise as a
:17:33. > :17:39.progressive society and that is why we should make this change. -- to
:17:39. > :17:44.be what you would describe. We are talking about a recommendation to
:17:44. > :17:48.increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to
:17:48. > :17:55.12. We can agree there is a big difference between 10 and 11-year-
:17:56. > :18:01.old and 16 year olds. You mention the surveys earlier, did the floods
:18:02. > :18:06.in some way show up the cracks in the system? I think it probably
:18:06. > :18:11.dent because most people are crying out and one's heart goes out to the
:18:11. > :18:16.people who have been suffering. The Executive could announce an major
:18:16. > :18:25.infrastructure project to tackle the source of the problem rather
:18:25. > :18:31.than offer people �1,000 each as a salve and sticking plaster. That
:18:31. > :18:37.represents the tough financial Executive -- tub financial
:18:37. > :18:42.constraints the Executive exercises under. Do you see a point in the
:18:42. > :18:45.future, Sinn Fein are calling for greater fiscal powers, do you see a
:18:45. > :18:54.point in the future where we will have some other way of raising
:18:54. > :18:59.revenue? I think so. The obvious issue is the introduction of water
:18:59. > :19:06.charging. There are ways of doing it which her sensitive to
:19:06. > :19:11.relatively deprived circumstances. In terms of greater fiscal autonomy
:19:11. > :19:18.for Northern Ireland, last week has seen that take a step backwards
:19:18. > :19:22.over the issue of corporation tax. All political parties agreed but it
:19:22. > :19:26.has been bounced back to the Treasury and the Treasury shows no
:19:26. > :19:29.appetite to devolve that to Northern Ireland.
:19:29. > :19:31.The early years strategy for children aged up to six came back
:19:31. > :19:34.to the chamber this afternoon having been discussed by the
:19:34. > :19:39.education committee. But there was some bad behaviour by two members
:19:39. > :19:44.who should have known better. Here's the minister John O'Dowd.
:19:44. > :19:49.Enough time has been spent debating the issues, the time has come to
:19:49. > :19:54.decide the strategic approach. It is vital we continue to build on
:19:54. > :19:59.the positive actions we are undertaking. In May announced
:19:59. > :20:06.additional funding of the 13 million for early years service.
:20:06. > :20:10.This will expand services to 25 % most disadvantaged awards in the
:20:10. > :20:20.north. It will increase in the availability of pre-school places
:20:20. > :20:25.and close the gap in funding. This will mean that my department's
:20:25. > :20:30.investments in early years service it is 84 million which compares
:20:30. > :20:34.with 73 million when the strategy was launched. How does the Minister
:20:34. > :20:39.propose to measure the success of his strategy, will there be
:20:39. > :20:45.specific targets at varying stages or will we have to wait until a
:20:45. > :20:51.child reaches the end of their education to find how successful it
:20:51. > :20:58.has been? I suppose the ultimate test of how successful the strategy
:20:59. > :21:03.will be when the child reaches young adult to it. We are involved
:21:03. > :21:12.in many programmes currently which may take 10 to 15 years to know the
:21:12. > :21:17.outcome. We are working on an evidence based programme which I
:21:17. > :21:21.believe this fast. My feeling at the moment is we get the strategy
:21:22. > :21:26.and I will build in measures and out comes within that and report
:21:26. > :21:33.back to the Assembly. Let us get the strategy down on paper and move
:21:33. > :21:37.on with fat. I refer to the Minister's statement and it would
:21:37. > :21:43.appear that we are now here in response to the consultations two
:21:43. > :21:49.years on. Does the Minister agree this is shambolic and appalling,
:21:50. > :21:55.was the a strategy to begin meths? How did he and his predecessor get
:21:55. > :22:02.this strategy so wrong up in the first place? Can he could so meet
:22:02. > :22:07.on the bones of the action plan? waited the response of the SDLP in
:22:07. > :22:14.the coming months. No doubt they have a strategy sitting waiting to
:22:14. > :22:23.be wheeled out into the public domain. Listen to their member's
:22:23. > :22:28.answer, they know how it should be done so I will listen to the SDLP.
:22:28. > :22:34.Order please. Could I ask people to address their marks through the
:22:34. > :22:39.chair. I was studying their early years strategy and will use those
:22:39. > :22:42.elements which are workable. Historical artefacts were under
:22:42. > :22:45.discussion after it emerged that nearly one and a half million of
:22:45. > :22:48.them have not been passed onto local museums by the commercial
:22:48. > :22:50.companies that have found them. The Northern Ireland Archaeology Forum
:22:50. > :23:00.is pushing for more joined up thinking between the departments of
:23:00. > :23:01.
:23:01. > :23:05.culture and environment. This debate for archaeologists and for
:23:05. > :23:12.their heritage sector in Northern Ireland is massive. We believe they
:23:12. > :23:18.are currently about 1.7 million artifacts held in private companies
:23:18. > :23:25.across Northern Ireland. This is the fruit of results of well over
:23:25. > :23:33.thousands of licence are Kiddish -- excavations. The material is all
:23:34. > :23:38.that is left of the sites being excavated before those sites which
:23:38. > :23:42.have planning permission. The problem we have is there is no easy
:23:43. > :23:47.manoeuvre for this material to leave those country -- those
:23:47. > :23:54.companies who extracted things and put them into at museum or another
:23:54. > :23:58.accredited body. How interesting are some of these artefacts?
:23:58. > :24:04.the artefacts are interesting weather Ritter's stone things from
:24:04. > :24:11.a prehistoric past, right through to material from industrial
:24:11. > :24:18.heritage sites. It can range from pieces of pottery right through to
:24:18. > :24:26.the objects that we see in museum collections in boxes, you will find
:24:26. > :24:31.objects of gold or occasionally, high-status items. This material
:24:31. > :24:36.reflects the everyday objects that people had write a throughout her
:24:36. > :24:42.cultural past. Who would benefit from seeing it? I think the public
:24:42. > :24:50.would benefit from seeing it. There is a lust opportunity here. If we
:24:50. > :24:54.estimate the size of the Op material that is out there,
:24:54. > :25:01.researchers would have fantastic benefit from having access to this,
:25:01. > :25:07.helping us discover more about our cultural past. Put it into
:25:07. > :25:14.perspective for us about the quantities involved. The know that
:25:14. > :25:21.in 2007, the National Museums estimated that there are probably
:25:21. > :25:27.around 320,000 artifacts or objects classified as archaeological. If we
:25:28. > :25:31.look today at how much material is sitting in company hands, as a
:25:31. > :25:34.result of development led excavations, that is four times the
:25:34. > :25:41.amount of material which is currently held in museum
:25:41. > :25:45.collections. What would you like to see the ministers do? We would like
:25:45. > :25:51.them to be able to see whose responsibility this is to solve the
:25:51. > :25:58.problem. It is not a problem which can be sold by one department on my.
:25:58. > :26:04.The Minister for the Environment, they have the responsibility for
:26:04. > :26:09.protection of the monuments. Where they give licence permission to do
:26:10. > :26:14.excavations, then of course when the material is out of the ground,
:26:14. > :26:20.this is where the gap seems to happen. Museums would ideally be
:26:20. > :26:24.the repository. But at the moment there is nothing in a legislative
:26:24. > :26:27.framework which allows that framework to pass to them.
:26:27. > :26:30.Evicted from Stormont, our political team have spent the day
:26:30. > :26:34.like fish out of water here at Broadcasting house. I managed to
:26:34. > :26:41.pin down Gareth Gordon, who's definitely not in Kansas anymore.
:26:41. > :26:46.For reasons which have already been explained, we are doing Stormont
:26:46. > :26:50.sedate in Broadcasting House. We're not at Stormont but we have not
:26:50. > :27:00.missed a second of the action. there was plenty of action to watch
:27:00. > :27:00.
:27:00. > :27:05.today. When approaching the end of term, any means winding down. At
:27:05. > :27:09.Stormont it is the opposite. There has not been enough business for a
:27:09. > :27:17.MLAs to do in the last few weeks. There had been a lot of early
:27:17. > :27:24.finishes. This week it is completely the opposite. A lot of
:27:24. > :27:28.end of term cramming going on. Lots of the sense been tied up. A very
:27:28. > :27:37.long day today with lots of ministerial statements. Tomorrow
:27:37. > :27:42.looks like being even longer. No lunch break. We have our fair share
:27:42. > :27:48.of bizarre events that parliament buildings and we had won today.
:27:48. > :27:54.That's right. Stormont had a visit from one of the most successful
:27:54. > :28:00.Irish teams of recent times. That is the team which represented
:28:00. > :28:06.Ireland in the Cup stacking competition. It is a recognised
:28:06. > :28:11.sport. The committee invited the team to Stormont and we had an
:28:11. > :28:17.exhibition of Cup stacking. Some committee members even had a go.
:28:17. > :28:27.They should have left it to the professionals. The Irish team
:28:27. > :28:29.
:28:29. > :28:33.amassed 32 medals. Wreck looking ahead to the next session. One of
:28:33. > :28:39.their it big thing it is reducing the size of Stormont, you have had
:28:39. > :28:45.you say, what do you think you will do for the Assembly? They have got
:28:45. > :28:50.to seize the nettle on this one. They have to reduce to a least 96,
:28:50. > :28:56.given that there will be 16 constituencies. I think they should
:28:56. > :28:59.go further and reduced to 80. One thing I had been concerned about is
:28:59. > :29:03.the fact that the members of the committee had been looking at this
:29:03. > :29:07.issue and they had been party animals rather than committee
:29:07. > :29:12.creatures because they have deferred to their respective party
:29:12. > :29:16.leaders to make the decisions on both issues. That is a failure of