03/02/2014 Stormont Today


03/02/2014

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Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. Coming up on the programme: Comments

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about the Irish language made by a leading Orangeman at the weekend are

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criticised. I feel it was an attempt to relieve people into not learning

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Irish and not embracing that part of their culture. It is going to fail.

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Dissension in the DUP ranks as MLAs disagree with the Health Minister

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over cigarette packaging. I am not a supporter of smoking but I recognise

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that a quarter of the population for one reason or another wish to engage

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in. And our political reporter, Stephen

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Walker, is with me to cast his eye over proceedings.

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The Irish language is once again at the top of the political agenda

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after weekend comments from a leading Orangeman. George Chittick,

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the County Grand Master of Belfast, warned Protestants that if they

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learn Irish they're following a Republican agenda. I'm joined by our

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political reporter, Stephen Walker. It is a subject that found its way

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up to the Hill today. What is the background to what was said? These

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remarks from George Chitty were made over the weekend. He told a crowd of

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around 500 people I will quote, " the word of warning to people who

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will learn Irish, it is a part of the Republican agenda. " He was

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addressing this weekly gathering that is up in North Belfast. They

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are protesting the re-routing of Norwich parade. The comments have

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produced a reaction. Norwich parade. The comments have

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headlines today, lots of discussions Norwich parade. The comments have

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mixed, the Orange order have backed him. David Hume defended the

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remarks. He said the disease section of the Protestant community who

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believe that is a onslaught. There has been criticism from the SDLP.

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There are criticisms from people like Linda Irvine. There has been

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criticism from Sinn Fein. I can't understand what would make someone

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say that. I feel it was an attempt to lead people into not learning

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Irish are not embracing that part of the culture. Inevitably, it is going

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to fail. People of all communities in the North are learning Irish and

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embracing it and want to have it as part of their life. Whatever his

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motivation for making those remarks, he is sadly misled. That was Sinn

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Fein. It will be interesting to see if that will be the end of the

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matter. There is another row brewing over a situation involving a teacher

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at the Boys' Model in North Belfast. That has been grabbing the

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headlines. Another row relating to North Belfast. This relates to

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online abuse that was directed at a Sinn Fein councillor who teaches at

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Boys' Model will --. Sinn Fein say she has been subjected to these

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taunts from the Protestant coalition. That has been rejected by

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Willie Frazer from the collation. He said he contained -- condemned the

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threats. The online threats have been condemned by the Irish National

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teachers organisation. They said no one should put up with this.

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teachers organisation. They said no teacher. Governors from the Boys'

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Model and officials from the education board have been meeting to

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discuss this. Thanks very much. Earlier today, MLAs debated a

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measure allowing for the introduction of plain packaging for

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cigarettes. Introducing the legislative consent motion, the

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Health Minister said the aim was to prevent the uptake of smoking by

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young people. However in a rare breaking of ranks, opposition to the

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move came from Edwin Poots' DUP colleagues. There is a massive sign

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on every packet of cigarettes that smoking kills, smoking will give you

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long pants and a range of other health implications. There are

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gruesome pictures. -- we'll give you long cancer. YN Earth as cigarettes

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companies spending millions of pounds a year designing attractive

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packaging? That is a total waste of money. When you go into a

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tobacconist on a newsagent UCB have spent months developing their new

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packaging. Why? To attract new smokers. The reason is simple. If

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you have a legal product and that is a market, you have to differentiate

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yours product from other markets that are unavailable to the

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consumer. That is way they look different. It is not to make a

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glamorous glitzy packaging that nobody can say no to. Quite frankly,

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that is not the case. It is to differentiate their product from

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other product in the marketplace. I am not a supportive of smoking but I

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recognise that a quarter of the population for one reason or the

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other wish to in gauge in it. It does create health problems but so

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does drinking of alcohol. He is indicating a quartered of people

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wish to smoke. A high percentage wish they don't smoke and that is an

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important element of it. Many of those people choose to smoke

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whenever the knot in the house. those people choose to smoke

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children and young people to pick up an addictive habit. The Minister

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says there are people who wish to give up. I am not disputing his

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figures, 83% wish to give up. But if banning advertising, stopping them

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smoking in public places and all of the other measures we have

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undertaken have not resulted in people giving up, the question we

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have got ask ourselves is this the way of dealing with it? It will

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impact on employment in Northern Ireland. In Mike is the truancy

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there are hundreds of people who are unemployed in Ballymena. -- in my

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constituency. Those people 's jobs or be affected not as a result of

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stopping people smoking but as the result of switching people to the

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criminal gangs who import cheap cigarettes and sell them in the

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market. The big message is smoking kills. Nothing could be clearer. Let

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me say also to the members, she is a package which does not look

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glamorous. Or seductive. There is a clear message, smoking kills. It

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tells me the brand I want to smoke as a smoker which I bought this

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morning, and I may add that so I don't does appoint the Minister.

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That is a compliment to him for badgering at times about smoking.

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The evidence that the emerge from it was that smokers would indicate they

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had less satisfaction with their was that smokers would indicate they

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South Wales which showed a 78% increase in the number of calls to

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quit lines in the months after standardised packaging was

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introduced. There is evidence from Australia it was happening and

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having impact on smokers. What we are targeting here with standardised

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packaging is not smokers, what we are targeting is younger people to

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ensure that they don't get the habit of taking nicotine. Edwin Poots

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making the case. Those packaging and the motion passed on an oral vote.

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Stephen Walker is still with me. It is unusual to see DUP MLAs

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disagreeing like that in public. That was the most fascinating thing

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about the debate. It was to see members of the DUP not just

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disagreeing with each other on the benches that also disagreeing with

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the Minister. From the clips we have seen, you can see there may well be

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a geographical split. You had East Antrim taking one position and then

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you had the Minister and Jim Wales from Southdown taking another

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position. It was fascinating to see not just a difference of opinion

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that fascinating to see people questioning eight DUP minister. In

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the minds of people like Sammy Wilson he is worried about jobs, he

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is worried about the people in his constituency. Sammy Wilson and Edwin

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Poots art to Executive colleagues, two senior members will stop you

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almost think he has got rid of the shackles of office, he feels he is a

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free man and he feels he can speak. He feels as if he can argue with his

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colleagues in public and from the clips we have seen he did that. He

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is a big beast on the backbenches. He may cause problems for Peter

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Robinson. He is still an MP and the big question that

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Robinson. He is still an MP and the House of Commons? Thank you very

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much. The DUP says it has made a formal

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complaint against an academic who wrote an email claiming the party

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may have been responsible for young gay and lesbian people taking their

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own lives. Jim Wales confronted Dr Graham Ellison from Queen's

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University at a meeting of the Stormont Justice Committee last

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week. The meeting concerned Lord Morrow's Human Trafficking Bill. If

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passed, the bill would make it illegal to pay for sex in Northern

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Ireland. Do you remember writing an e-mail to an academic on the 13th of

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September 2013? Due remember what you said? This is in reference to

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clause number set. Why have you hooked yourself up to that lot in

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the DUP? Have you any idea where they stand for on social issues

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around women's issues, gay and lesbian issues and so forth. In

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terms of gay and lesbian politics, that I have an interest in the now

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one of the most social Aqua parties you can imagine. -- backward parties

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you can imagine. I wonder how many gay people in Northern Ireland have

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committed suicide because of this bloody party? I can remember the

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party... VI simply latching onto this idea that sex described in

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biblical in teaching. Your opposition to this clause and this

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will is more because of York prejudices against the key... It is

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nothing of the sort. There are a number of issues I do feel strongly

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about. I thought I could talk around it. There are a number of

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fundamental issues where she and the DUP do not agree. You may agree on

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the criminalisation of paying for claimed rape within marriage was

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allowed. That was made about six years ago. There are a lot of gay

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and lesbian young people in Northern Ireland who have committed suicide

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because of issues around their sexuality. Your party is opposed to

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those. That is not what you said. Because of this bloody party.

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Because of the stands your party takes on these issues. I am not

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involved in the local politics. What I do find interesting is I just

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presented evidence from 100 sex workers, some of them work in

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Northern Ireland, to say what they feel. Here we go and talk about...

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It is important we establish the integrity of the individuals in

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front of us. He has brought the attention of the committee and the

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public something which I believe is material. We will come to the

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evidence you have come to. We both have research. The phrase you used

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about the DUP was extremely offensive. I wish to apologise for

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that. I've tried on about 20 occasions, I've got records of

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e-mails and stuff, to contact you both, way before this research

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started asking for an interview in connection with the project. I've

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spoken to Lord row's PA, I've spoken to your press office. I've had no

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luck whatsoever in getting anyone from the party, nor indeed from

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care, to come and speak to me. I guess I was a bit frustrated. I was

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thinking, why is this party, Hugh is promoting

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thinking, why is this party, Hugh is Committee. The Social Development

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Minister faced questions in the Assembly today and he was in the

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mood to set the record straight on housing allocation in his own

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constituency. Nelson McCausland was also asked about overspending by the

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Housing Executive, but first he defended an accusation of 21st

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Century gerrymandering from an SDLP MLA. She said, any objective

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analysis or examination of the fact, this was in the context of

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north Belfast, can come to only one conclusion. That Catholics in need

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of housing are being discriminated against. The conditions that the

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people of north Belfast have been subjected to an intolerable, she

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said, and would not be accepted by any other functioning democracy. She

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emphasised again her words, Catholics in need of housing being

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discriminated against. She went on to use the term, she said, this is

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nothing short of 21st century gerrymandering. I want to put on

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record today the actual figures for North Belfast. Not the myths that

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have been manufactured and peddled by the SDLP and by Republicans and

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by the dissidents who were out on the streets of Belfast on Saturday,

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about 50 of them turned up for their rally. But the truth of the matter

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is they have manufactured and peddled myths. There is no

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disadvantage. There is no determination. The waiting lists in

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the North Belfast constituency as of September last year were as follows.

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That the people in the Protestant community, there were 2059

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Protestants on the waiting list. There were 1986 Roman Catholics. The

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need in both communities is roughly the same. It is not the level of

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disadvantage and discrimination that has been manufactured and invented

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by people like Dolores Kelly, who concocted these ridiculous figures,

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matter is these are the facts, these are the figures and people like

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Dolores Kelly come as much as they want an it, argue about it, dispute

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it, query it, calculate what ever they want to do. They can't get

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around the fact that these are the Housing Executive's own formally

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presented figures. On the 10th of June you came to this House and

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announced there was an overpayment of some ?18 million likely to be a

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conservative figure. Do you regret rushing into the House at that

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time, given that the figures now seem to be considerably less than

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that? First of all, in terms of the report being provided to the

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committee, it is not for me to either hold back or inhibit in any

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way the work of the committee. And therefore he will receive very soon

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the document. As regards the announcement last year in regard to

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the contracts, what is clear from the report is this. That the manner

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in which the Housing Executive grew up contracts, monitored them and

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managed them was deeply flawed. It is a pretty damning indictment in

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that regard as to the way in which the Housing Executive managed and

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monitored contract. It was not done properly. It was open to all sorts

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of difficulties that would arise. And that is one of the issues that

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goes back quite a number of years, because the contracts were basically

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set up a number of years ago, in fact, I think it was just towards

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the end of the period of direct rule before the assembly came into

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operation again. It goes back a number of years. It is a problem

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that was there, it was endemic within the organisation, all

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institutional within the organisation. In that regard, I

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think we are in a better place now because the report has identified

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what the because the report has identified

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Social Development because the report has identified

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during questions to the Agriculture Minister today, as Michelle O'Neill

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was asked about flood defences. But first on the agenda were Single Farm

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Payments, and just how many farmers have yet to receive their 2013

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allocation. This has been an accident due in terms of processor

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payments. The highest ever number of farmers have received their payments

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prompted this year. My priority is to speed up the process of the

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inspection cases that occur every year. I anticipate the last case

:20:33.:20:35.

will be paid approximately two months faster than last year and oar

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months faster than the year before. They have been concerns expressed

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about remote sensing cases, and I can reassure farmers that those

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cases have now been put through for the final stages before payment. I

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expect a significant number to be in the accounts by the end of the

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month. It's been an excellent year for the payment of Single Farm

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Payments. Not if you are one of my farming constituents. Who, utterly

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unexpectedly, have had their payments withheld because of the

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remote sensing. Why could those payments not have been paid in

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December and recovery in subsequent years, if there was anything found

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wrong? Rather than punish them all with this punitive approach across

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the board will stop We are working under European rules, and one of the

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rules as you can't make any payment until the whole Rowe says has been

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completed. That's the reason we're not able to make payments. We are

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trying to improve things and do more inspections by remote control

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sensing so the we are able to get in a position where we are able to make

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the repayments. The House has called for that repeatedly. We've had quite

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a few debates on it. I want to be in that position to pay people early.

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That's why we have taken forward these measures in terms of the

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remote control sensing. Given that the greater volume the river can

:21:58.:22:02.

help the less likely it will flood, and given that the corresponding

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bodies in England are now reviewing the policy of the non-dredging of

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reverse to help alleviate the of the agency. They will be carrying

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out a postevent analysis of how things performed. They will bring

:22:21.:22:24.

forward recommendations on any measures that need to be taken. Will

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the Minister commit to an audit of all coastal defences, to ensure

:22:34.:22:36.

investment is available to secure our homes, farms and businesses when

:22:37.:22:41.

there is future high tides or coastal erosion around the North of

:22:42.:22:46.

Ireland? If I can correct the member. I didn't say... I said the

:22:47.:22:52.

coastal agencies that they were held responsible held up where they were

:22:53.:22:56.

needed to. There will be a postevent analysis of the events that

:22:57.:23:01.

happened, how everybody responded, and then there will be

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recommendations coming forward from the agency if need be, if there are

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areas where we need to strengthen our defences. I look forward to

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getting that. When they do come forward, we have to look at any of

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the measures that come forward and look towards what funding we have

:23:16.:23:24.

available. Question five. Apologies, can I ask the Minister,

:23:25.:23:28.

it was bound to happen at some point, can I ask the Minister will

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to update the assembly on the progress of the Rivers agency flood

:23:33.:23:37.

alleviation works in east Belfast? The member will be aware that there

:23:38.:23:41.

is already work ongoing. We are on target, we had set out we'd have the

:23:42.:23:47.

work completed by 2016. There were delays at the start because we are

:23:48.:23:50.

working in conjunction with Belfast City Council. Quite a number of

:23:51.:23:54.

works have been started and we are pleased with the progress. Michelle

:23:55.:23:56.

O'Neill. There was an unusual item on the agenda at Stormont today as

:23:57.:24:00.

Sammy Wilson raised a point of order with the Speaker over a data breach

:24:01.:24:04.

at the Assembly. Mr Wilson said that the personal details of some MLAs'

:24:05.:24:07.

employees have fallen into the wrong hands. Mr Speaker, this morning a

:24:08.:24:14.

number of members received in their pigeonhole notification from the

:24:15.:24:18.

director of corporate services that they had been a breach of data

:24:19.:24:20.

security, which resulted in the they had been a breach of data

:24:21.:24:34.

released to a third party. Although the letter states that like any

:24:35.:24:39.

responsible authority the assembly commission has developed protocols

:24:40.:24:42.

to deal with such circumstances through its data breach management

:24:43.:24:47.

plan, it appears that this breach occurred on the 24th of January.

:24:48.:24:53.

Employees were not notified until either this morning or at the end of

:24:54.:25:00.

last week. Indeed, the casual way in which this notification came to some

:25:01.:25:04.

members, namely the letter appearing in their pigeonhole, is hardly the

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act of any responsible authority. The point of order I wish to make

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is, have you spoken to the director-general to get a report on

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this, what action is being taken on it and what explanation has there

:25:22.:25:26.

been for the delay in informing those whose information was passed

:25:27.:25:31.

on to a third party in this way? First of all, if I could say to Mr

:25:32.:25:41.

Wilson that this has been fully discussed, both with the

:25:42.:25:44.

director-general and at our last commission meeting as well. All

:25:45.:25:49.

commission members were informed of the issue as soon as it happened.

:25:50.:25:55.

And they have been well kept up to date on the issue. So I would say to

:25:56.:26:01.

members of this House, a la commission members are fully versed

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of the situation. I think that is where we should leave it. There has

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been a very wide discussion around this, both with myself, with the

:26:15.:26:20.

director general and especially with our commission members. I am not

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prepared to take any further point of order on this. We really need to

:26:25.:26:31.

move on. But it members really want to talk to me about this issue,

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please talk to me outside the chamber or

:26:38.:26:46.

totally and absolutely kept up to date of the situation. That is

:26:47.:26:50.

really where we should leave it. The Speaker, Willie Hay, reassuring the

:26:51.:26:53.

House that everything is under control. Stephen Walker has rejoined

:26:54.:26:58.

me. Stephen, we had more talks today about the Haass process, did

:26:59.:27:01.

anything of interest come out of them? No great breakthrough.

:27:02.:27:09.

Today's meeting was an extension of the meeting from last week. I am

:27:10.:27:14.

told the mood was workmanlike and businesslike. I'm told the mood was

:27:15.:27:17.

better than last week. I understand that last week things were a bit

:27:18.:27:21.

fraught and tetchy. Today there was a discussion on parading paper that

:27:22.:27:26.

had been put forward by officials. Those discussions will continue

:27:27.:27:29.

tomorrow. I also understand there will be discussions tomorrow on the

:27:30.:27:34.

past. But in terms of agreement, no agreement but clearly more talks

:27:35.:27:37.

going on. Finally the Ulster Unionist MLA Michael Copeland is in

:27:38.:27:45.

the news? Yes, this story broke this afternoon. This relates to an

:27:46.:27:49.

incident, an alleged incident, that took place last year during a

:27:50.:27:55.

loyalist demonstration against a Republican anti-internment parade in

:27:56.:27:59.

Royal Avenue in Belfast. You may recall that 26 police officers were

:28:00.:28:04.

hurt during trouble. Afterwards, the Ulster Unionist MLA, Michael

:28:05.:28:07.

Copeland, accused an officer of striking his wife with a bat on. He

:28:08.:28:11.

lodged a complaint. That investigation has concluded that he

:28:12.:28:15.

accidentally hit himself. Mr Copeland told the BBC he didn't want

:28:16.:28:19.

to comment. The ombudsman and the PSNI also declined to comment.

:28:20.:28:23.

Interesting. That's it for tonight. I'll be back with more tomorrow

:28:24.:28:26.

night. Same time, same place - 11.20pm on BBC Two. Until then,

:28:27.:28:28.

goodbye.

:28:29.:28:30.

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