Browse content similar to 03/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. Coming up on the programme: Comments | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
about the Irish language made by a leading Orangeman at the weekend are | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
criticised. I feel it was an attempt to relieve people into not learning | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
Irish and not embracing that part of their culture. It is going to fail. | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
Dissension in the DUP ranks as MLAs disagree with the Health Minister | :00:46. | :00:52. | |
over cigarette packaging. I am not a supporter of smoking but I recognise | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
that a quarter of the population for one reason or another wish to engage | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
in. And our political reporter, Stephen | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
Walker, is with me to cast his eye over proceedings. | :01:03. | :01:09. | |
The Irish language is once again at the top of the political agenda | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
after weekend comments from a leading Orangeman. George Chittick, | :01:13. | :01:16. | |
the County Grand Master of Belfast, warned Protestants that if they | :01:17. | :01:18. | |
learn Irish they're following a Republican agenda. I'm joined by our | :01:19. | :01:25. | |
political reporter, Stephen Walker. It is a subject that found its way | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
up to the Hill today. What is the background to what was said? These | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
remarks from George Chitty were made over the weekend. He told a crowd of | :01:36. | :01:43. | |
around 500 people I will quote, " the word of warning to people who | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
will learn Irish, it is a part of the Republican agenda. " He was | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
addressing this weekly gathering that is up in North Belfast. They | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
are protesting the re-routing of Norwich parade. The comments have | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
produced a reaction. Norwich parade. The comments have | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
headlines today, lots of discussions Norwich parade. The comments have | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
mixed, the Orange order have backed him. David Hume defended the | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
remarks. He said the disease section of the Protestant community who | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
believe that is a onslaught. There has been criticism from the SDLP. | :02:26. | :02:33. | |
There are criticisms from people like Linda Irvine. There has been | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
criticism from Sinn Fein. I can't understand what would make someone | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
say that. I feel it was an attempt to lead people into not learning | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
Irish are not embracing that part of the culture. Inevitably, it is going | :02:51. | :03:02. | |
to fail. People of all communities in the North are learning Irish and | :03:03. | :03:05. | |
embracing it and want to have it as part of their life. Whatever his | :03:06. | :03:12. | |
motivation for making those remarks, he is sadly misled. That was Sinn | :03:13. | :03:23. | |
Fein. It will be interesting to see if that will be the end of the | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
matter. There is another row brewing over a situation involving a teacher | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
at the Boys' Model in North Belfast. That has been grabbing the | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
headlines. Another row relating to North Belfast. This relates to | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
online abuse that was directed at a Sinn Fein councillor who teaches at | :03:43. | :03:52. | |
Boys' Model will --. Sinn Fein say she has been subjected to these | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
taunts from the Protestant coalition. That has been rejected by | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
Willie Frazer from the collation. He said he contained -- condemned the | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
threats. The online threats have been condemned by the Irish National | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
teachers organisation. They said no one should put up with this. | :04:15. | :04:25. | |
teachers organisation. They said no teacher. Governors from the Boys' | :04:26. | :04:27. | |
Model and officials from the education board have been meeting to | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
discuss this. Thanks very much. Earlier today, MLAs debated a | :04:32. | :04:33. | |
measure allowing for the introduction of plain packaging for | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
cigarettes. Introducing the legislative consent motion, the | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
Health Minister said the aim was to prevent the uptake of smoking by | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
young people. However in a rare breaking of ranks, opposition to the | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
move came from Edwin Poots' DUP colleagues. There is a massive sign | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
on every packet of cigarettes that smoking kills, smoking will give you | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
long pants and a range of other health implications. There are | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
gruesome pictures. -- we'll give you long cancer. YN Earth as cigarettes | :05:06. | :05:14. | |
companies spending millions of pounds a year designing attractive | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
packaging? That is a total waste of money. When you go into a | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
tobacconist on a newsagent UCB have spent months developing their new | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
packaging. Why? To attract new smokers. The reason is simple. If | :05:30. | :05:36. | |
you have a legal product and that is a market, you have to differentiate | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
yours product from other markets that are unavailable to the | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
consumer. That is way they look different. It is not to make a | :05:46. | :05:51. | |
glamorous glitzy packaging that nobody can say no to. Quite frankly, | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
that is not the case. It is to differentiate their product from | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
other product in the marketplace. I am not a supportive of smoking but I | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
recognise that a quarter of the population for one reason or the | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
other wish to in gauge in it. It does create health problems but so | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
does drinking of alcohol. He is indicating a quartered of people | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
wish to smoke. A high percentage wish they don't smoke and that is an | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
important element of it. Many of those people choose to smoke | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
whenever the knot in the house. those people choose to smoke | :06:29. | :06:40. | |
children and young people to pick up an addictive habit. The Minister | :06:41. | :06:49. | |
says there are people who wish to give up. I am not disputing his | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
figures, 83% wish to give up. But if banning advertising, stopping them | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
smoking in public places and all of the other measures we have | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
undertaken have not resulted in people giving up, the question we | :07:08. | :07:15. | |
have got ask ourselves is this the way of dealing with it? It will | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
impact on employment in Northern Ireland. In Mike is the truancy | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
there are hundreds of people who are unemployed in Ballymena. -- in my | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
constituency. Those people 's jobs or be affected not as a result of | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
stopping people smoking but as the result of switching people to the | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
criminal gangs who import cheap cigarettes and sell them in the | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
market. The big message is smoking kills. Nothing could be clearer. Let | :07:48. | :07:58. | |
me say also to the members, she is a package which does not look | :07:59. | :08:10. | |
glamorous. Or seductive. There is a clear message, smoking kills. It | :08:11. | :08:19. | |
tells me the brand I want to smoke as a smoker which I bought this | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
morning, and I may add that so I don't does appoint the Minister. | :08:25. | :08:32. | |
That is a compliment to him for badgering at times about smoking. | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
The evidence that the emerge from it was that smokers would indicate they | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
had less satisfaction with their was that smokers would indicate they | :08:42. | :08:54. | |
South Wales which showed a 78% increase in the number of calls to | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
quit lines in the months after standardised packaging was | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
introduced. There is evidence from Australia it was happening and | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
having impact on smokers. What we are targeting here with standardised | :09:08. | :09:14. | |
packaging is not smokers, what we are targeting is younger people to | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
ensure that they don't get the habit of taking nicotine. Edwin Poots | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
making the case. Those packaging and the motion passed on an oral vote. | :09:27. | :09:32. | |
Stephen Walker is still with me. It is unusual to see DUP MLAs | :09:33. | :09:39. | |
disagreeing like that in public. That was the most fascinating thing | :09:40. | :09:42. | |
about the debate. It was to see members of the DUP not just | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
disagreeing with each other on the benches that also disagreeing with | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
the Minister. From the clips we have seen, you can see there may well be | :09:52. | :09:59. | |
a geographical split. You had East Antrim taking one position and then | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
you had the Minister and Jim Wales from Southdown taking another | :10:05. | :10:07. | |
position. It was fascinating to see not just a difference of opinion | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
that fascinating to see people questioning eight DUP minister. In | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
the minds of people like Sammy Wilson he is worried about jobs, he | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
is worried about the people in his constituency. Sammy Wilson and Edwin | :10:22. | :10:30. | |
Poots art to Executive colleagues, two senior members will stop you | :10:31. | :10:37. | |
almost think he has got rid of the shackles of office, he feels he is a | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
free man and he feels he can speak. He feels as if he can argue with his | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
colleagues in public and from the clips we have seen he did that. He | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
is a big beast on the backbenches. He may cause problems for Peter | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
Robinson. He is still an MP and the big question that | :10:58. | :11:08. | |
Robinson. He is still an MP and the House of Commons? Thank you very | :11:09. | :11:10. | |
much. The DUP says it has made a formal | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
complaint against an academic who wrote an email claiming the party | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
may have been responsible for young gay and lesbian people taking their | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
own lives. Jim Wales confronted Dr Graham Ellison from Queen's | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
University at a meeting of the Stormont Justice Committee last | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
week. The meeting concerned Lord Morrow's Human Trafficking Bill. If | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
passed, the bill would make it illegal to pay for sex in Northern | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
Ireland. Do you remember writing an e-mail to an academic on the 13th of | :11:38. | :11:45. | |
September 2013? Due remember what you said? This is in reference to | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
clause number set. Why have you hooked yourself up to that lot in | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
the DUP? Have you any idea where they stand for on social issues | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
around women's issues, gay and lesbian issues and so forth. In | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
terms of gay and lesbian politics, that I have an interest in the now | :12:07. | :12:13. | |
one of the most social Aqua parties you can imagine. -- backward parties | :12:14. | :12:21. | |
you can imagine. I wonder how many gay people in Northern Ireland have | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
committed suicide because of this bloody party? I can remember the | :12:28. | :12:35. | |
party... VI simply latching onto this idea that sex described in | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
biblical in teaching. Your opposition to this clause and this | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
will is more because of York prejudices against the key... It is | :12:45. | :12:55. | |
nothing of the sort. There are a number of issues I do feel strongly | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
about. I thought I could talk around it. There are a number of | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
fundamental issues where she and the DUP do not agree. You may agree on | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
the criminalisation of paying for claimed rape within marriage was | :13:10. | :13:22. | |
allowed. That was made about six years ago. There are a lot of gay | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
and lesbian young people in Northern Ireland who have committed suicide | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
because of issues around their sexuality. Your party is opposed to | :13:33. | :13:38. | |
those. That is not what you said. Because of this bloody party. | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
Because of the stands your party takes on these issues. I am not | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
involved in the local politics. What I do find interesting is I just | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
presented evidence from 100 sex workers, some of them work in | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
Northern Ireland, to say what they feel. Here we go and talk about... | :14:00. | :14:10. | |
It is important we establish the integrity of the individuals in | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
front of us. He has brought the attention of the committee and the | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
public something which I believe is material. We will come to the | :14:22. | :14:31. | |
evidence you have come to. We both have research. The phrase you used | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
about the DUP was extremely offensive. I wish to apologise for | :14:38. | :14:50. | |
that. I've tried on about 20 occasions, I've got records of | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
e-mails and stuff, to contact you both, way before this research | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
started asking for an interview in connection with the project. I've | :15:02. | :15:08. | |
spoken to Lord row's PA, I've spoken to your press office. I've had no | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
luck whatsoever in getting anyone from the party, nor indeed from | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
care, to come and speak to me. I guess I was a bit frustrated. I was | :15:19. | :15:25. | |
thinking, why is this party, Hugh is promoting | :15:26. | :15:37. | |
thinking, why is this party, Hugh is Committee. The Social Development | :15:38. | :15:39. | |
Minister faced questions in the Assembly today and he was in the | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
mood to set the record straight on housing allocation in his own | :15:44. | :15:45. | |
constituency. Nelson McCausland was also asked about overspending by the | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
Housing Executive, but first he defended an accusation of 21st | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
Century gerrymandering from an SDLP MLA. She said, any objective | :15:52. | :16:01. | |
analysis or examination of the fact, this was in the context of | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
north Belfast, can come to only one conclusion. That Catholics in need | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
of housing are being discriminated against. The conditions that the | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
people of north Belfast have been subjected to an intolerable, she | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
said, and would not be accepted by any other functioning democracy. She | :16:24. | :16:26. | |
emphasised again her words, Catholics in need of housing being | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
discriminated against. She went on to use the term, she said, this is | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
nothing short of 21st century gerrymandering. I want to put on | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
record today the actual figures for North Belfast. Not the myths that | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
have been manufactured and peddled by the SDLP and by Republicans and | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
by the dissidents who were out on the streets of Belfast on Saturday, | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
about 50 of them turned up for their rally. But the truth of the matter | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
is they have manufactured and peddled myths. There is no | :16:59. | :17:05. | |
disadvantage. There is no determination. The waiting lists in | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
the North Belfast constituency as of September last year were as follows. | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
That the people in the Protestant community, there were 2059 | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
Protestants on the waiting list. There were 1986 Roman Catholics. The | :17:23. | :17:30. | |
need in both communities is roughly the same. It is not the level of | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
disadvantage and discrimination that has been manufactured and invented | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
by people like Dolores Kelly, who concocted these ridiculous figures, | :17:40. | :17:50. | |
matter is these are the facts, these are the figures and people like | :17:51. | :17:54. | |
Dolores Kelly come as much as they want an it, argue about it, dispute | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
it, query it, calculate what ever they want to do. They can't get | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
around the fact that these are the Housing Executive's own formally | :18:05. | :18:10. | |
presented figures. On the 10th of June you came to this House and | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
announced there was an overpayment of some ?18 million likely to be a | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
conservative figure. Do you regret rushing into the House at that | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
time, given that the figures now seem to be considerably less than | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
that? First of all, in terms of the report being provided to the | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
committee, it is not for me to either hold back or inhibit in any | :18:38. | :18:45. | |
way the work of the committee. And therefore he will receive very soon | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
the document. As regards the announcement last year in regard to | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
the contracts, what is clear from the report is this. That the manner | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
in which the Housing Executive grew up contracts, monitored them and | :19:01. | :19:09. | |
managed them was deeply flawed. It is a pretty damning indictment in | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
that regard as to the way in which the Housing Executive managed and | :19:15. | :19:17. | |
monitored contract. It was not done properly. It was open to all sorts | :19:18. | :19:23. | |
of difficulties that would arise. And that is one of the issues that | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
goes back quite a number of years, because the contracts were basically | :19:29. | :19:31. | |
set up a number of years ago, in fact, I think it was just towards | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
the end of the period of direct rule before the assembly came into | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
operation again. It goes back a number of years. It is a problem | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
that was there, it was endemic within the organisation, all | :19:46. | :19:48. | |
institutional within the organisation. In that regard, I | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
think we are in a better place now because the report has identified | :19:53. | :19:53. | |
what the because the report has identified | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
Social Development because the report has identified | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
during questions to the Agriculture Minister today, as Michelle O'Neill | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
was asked about flood defences. But first on the agenda were Single Farm | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
Payments, and just how many farmers have yet to receive their 2013 | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
allocation. This has been an accident due in terms of processor | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
payments. The highest ever number of farmers have received their payments | :20:25. | :20:27. | |
prompted this year. My priority is to speed up the process of the | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
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 | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
months faster than the year before. They have been concerns expressed | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
about remote sensing cases, and I can reassure farmers that those | :20:45. | :20:47. | |
cases have now been put through for the final stages before payment. I | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
expect a significant number to be in the accounts by the end of the | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
month. It's been an excellent year for the payment of Single Farm | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
Payments. Not if you are one of my farming constituents. Who, utterly | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
unexpectedly, have had their payments withheld because of the | :21:05. | :21:07. | |
remote sensing. Why could those payments not have been paid in | :21:08. | :21:14. | |
December and recovery in subsequent years, if there was anything found | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
wrong? Rather than punish them all with this punitive approach across | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
the board will stop We are working under European rules, and one of the | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
rules as you can't make any payment until the whole Rowe says has been | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
completed. That's the reason we're not able to make payments. We are | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
trying to improve things and do more inspections by remote control | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
sensing so the we are able to get in a position where we are able to make | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
the repayments. The House has called for that repeatedly. We've had quite | :21:47. | :21:49. | |
a few debates on it. I want to be in that position to pay people early. | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
That's why we have taken forward these measures in terms of the | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
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 | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
bodies in England are now reviewing the policy of the non-dredging of | :22:06. | :22:07. | |
reverse to help alleviate the of the agency. They will be carrying | :22:08. | :22:20. | |
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 | :22:25. | :22:33. | |
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 | :23:02. | :23:04. | |
recommendations coming forward from the agency if need be, if there are | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
areas where we need to strengthen our defences. I look forward to | :23:08. | :23:11. | |
getting that. When they do come forward, we have to look at any of | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
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 | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
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 | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
act of any responsible authority. The point of order I wish to make | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
is, have you spoken to the director-general to get a report on | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
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 | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
of the situation. I think that is where we should leave it. There has | :26:06. | :26:14. | |
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 | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
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, | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
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. |