04/03/2013 Stormont Today


04/03/2013

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Hello, and welcome to Stormont Today.

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Bombs primed and ready to go were intercepted by police in

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Londonderry last night. Today, MLAs united in their condemnation in

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what the police described as a reckless attack. We were within

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five minutes or 10 minutes last night of a major out rage.

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Also the environment minister issues a warning about our

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dependence on imported energy. are in a situation in the north

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where, to borrow a phrase, we could reach a perfect storm.

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And our Political Correspondent, Martina Purdy, joins us with her

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analysis of today's events. It's being claimed it had the

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potential of causing mass murder, but instead a van carrying four

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live mortar bombs in Derry was intercepted by the police minutes

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before the explosives were launched. Today MLAs gave their reaction.

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work within five minutes or 10 minutes last night of a major out

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rage. How major it could have been can be established by recalling

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that in 1985 a similar mortar bomb attack occurred on a new re- police

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station and the end result was that nine innocent officers were

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murdered. -- new three. Any police station in Londonderry area, any of

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the ones that I can think of are all in built up areas. The police

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have indicated as we all know that these mortar bombs are notoriously

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unreliable so, not only were innocent police officers being

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targeted, but innocent civilians as well. I think we need to send out a

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message today that this Assembly, in its totality, utterly condemns

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the actions of those responsible last night, that we commend and

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thank the police service and the officers responsible for at

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pretending the device -- apprehending and we also call upon

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the community upon whose information we hope last night

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occurred, to keep giving more information like this so that the

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police can keep taking the action they are taking in order to prevent

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the wholesale slaughter that could have occurred last night and

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thankfully, bright the grace of God, did not. The vast majority of

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people in our city woke up this morning thankful, thankful that

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this institute -- incident through whatever intelligence sources had

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been stopped. People who are intent on damaging our city and our people

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meet today to step up to the plate, need to come to the microphones and

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explain to the people of this city, of our city, how those actions will

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advance any city, any people, any cause or advance or build any city

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of equals or any island of equals. There is huge relief in the City of

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Derry today that these instruments of death and destruction have been

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intercepted last night. Four craze -- fault raised and credit must go

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to the police for their brave and heroic actions. We shudder to think

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what may have happened otherwise but I have little doubt that we

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would have been waking today to news and scenes of carnage. I speak

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for Derry today when I condemn those who would visit this upon

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their -- who would visit this upon our society. We must drive us for

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it and not let others drag us back. I was relieved that the security

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services indicated that a mortar had come from the old IRA stopped

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and I challenge those from the Provisional IRA that may now be in

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Sinn Fein tour actually help the security services and bring forward

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the information that is required to actually help the security services

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and stop such actions as happened last night and insure that they

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give them every piece of information as possible. Let me be

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clear, some of those people know exactly where these items of

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munitions are. Some know exactly where these Explosives are and they

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should come forward and tell it. That is the out workings of the so-

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called de commissioning process, where are all these weapons that

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were decommissioned? I thought they were all out of commission but

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obviously not. Shame on those who are carrying these acts out now and

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shame on those who carried them out in the past. It is a clear this was

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a very major threat, threat to life, as has been said, not just two

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police officers against which it was almost certainly intended but

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also against civilians in heavily populated areas of Derry City. It

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is absolutely clear how utterly wrecked as those who would carry

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out such deeds are. There is no question of having any

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justification, there is no question of them having any support. It is

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time they listened to the voices that we heard so eloquently across

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the media this morning of condemnation of what went on of the

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people in and around the area that made it absolutely clear that those

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who carried out such deeds do not speak for them.

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The Justice Minister, David Ford. Although the house united in

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condemnation of the thwarted mortar attack, there was some dissent from

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the public gallery on another issue. Our Political Correspondent,

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Martina Purdy, is here with more details.

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So, Martina, this outburst took place after the discussion had

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moved on to Willie Frazer's bail application.

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Yes, the TUV leader Jim Allister rose to put a point of order.

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Basically he was unhappy that his matter of the day was not accepted.

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He wanted to talk about how the courts had been applying bail

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applications to loyalists and republicans. He got short shrift

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from the Speaker and was told to sit down. 10 later -- 10 minutes

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later there was a commotion from the public gallery. Most of it was

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inaudible but it was fairly clear that someone in the public gallery

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was tried to interrupt proceedings which has not allowed. Only MLAs

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are allowed to speak. People in the public gallery are any allowed to

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listen. The Speaker quickly clear the gallery and I think we have a

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short clip of this. Order! Order! Order! Order! Clear the gallery.

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That was the Deputy Speaker clearing the gallery. Who were the

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people up there? It transpired they were supporters of the flags

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protest a Willie Frazer. Some of them were members of a group

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including past a Barry Halliday. They were not expelled from

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Stormont. The last time we can recall the gallery being clear

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because of a protest was some time last year when an anti-capitalist

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protest or, he was actually a sold out egg -- expelled from the estate.

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Let's move on to talk about an intriguing story concerning the

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SDLP's Colum Eastwood and the Environment Committee. Colum

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Eastwood, it has transpired this evening, hasn't been attending the

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environment committee. He has only attended once since last September.

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He is not commenting but the BBC understands the difficulty is that

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Colum Eastwood is also the Assembly Private Secretary to the

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environment minister so he gets to see a lot of confidential and

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sensitive departmental information Andy believes it is a conflict of

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interest for him to do both jobs. But the difficult question is why

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has and the SDLP leader moved him off? I am told that Alistair

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McDonnell has been made aware of the difficulty but he has not moved

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Imam. Alistair MacDonald knows there is a potential conflict of

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interest and knows that column Eastwood would like to be relieved

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of his responsibilities and the committee but for some reason he

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has not done anything about it. Are we clear why the situation is as

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cities? The BBC understands that Alistair McDonnell was a form of

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the difficulty even before the appointment but appointed him to

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the committee anyway. In maybe there are a number of personnel

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thin on the ground and he did not have anyone else to put on the

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committee. But he does not seem to have taken this conflict of

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interest concerns seriously enough so far. What is the public position

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on this? The party is saying that the party leader will be reviewing

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the committees and will make sure there is no conflict of interest

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and there will probably be a reshuffle around Easter.

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Thank-you for now, Martina. A debate over a new Westminster

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bill descended into a squabble between Sinn Fein and the Deputy

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Speaker, John Dallat, today. Before the arguments began, Members had a

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chance to give their views on the draft bill which deals with issues

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like Stormont structures and party funding.

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It is a bill which is currently -- which has carried constituted, I

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believe lacks a certain ambition. We should be more ambitious on

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calling on the Secretary of State to take those steps towards

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normalisation. The biggest and most significant step she could take his

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in supporting the establishment of official opposition in this house,

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an opposition will to the institutions of devolution. What

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would that mean? It would not mean a return to majority rule. The

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Ulster Unionist Party is clear that if we do introduce an official

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opposition that you will still need a cross-community government. An

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official opposition would offer a choice and it would be given some

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resources. We are not talking about a party walking away from executive,

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as some of my former colleagues promoted, we are talking about the

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establishment of an official, recognised opposition. It means the

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same as what happens in Dublin and London and Cardiff and Edinburgh by

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calling the Secretary of State to review her draft bill. She should

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push ahead on this huge step towards normalisation. Karen in

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members of this House must report to the electoral commission details

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of any payments over �1,500. Political parties in Northern

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Ireland at to contribute information to the commission about

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donations of over �7,500 from a single source. The names of donors

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are not made public as they are in the rest of the United Kingdom. In

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April of last year my party colleague Naomi Long MP asked the

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Prime Minister to commit to changing the legislation, to make

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local parties publish their list of significant donors. We believe that

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the public in Northern Ireland should have access to the same

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information as people in England, Scotland and Wales. How about

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political parties and how political parties are funded and who their

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major donors are. The public and then judge to themselves whether

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these donors will have any undue influence on party policy. We

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cannot, on the one hand, talk about normalisation and tell people that

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Northern Ireland has transformed into a safe destination for inward

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investment and tourism and require companies to publish their accounts,

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details of their directors and shareholders, and on the other hand

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use of security concerns as a reason to avoid being transparent

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about party political donations. do not have to - but we do not wish

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to have a return to majority rule. It is an argument we have made and

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we do not want that. We have outlined where we think we can

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reach some sort of consensus. That ensures that a minority community

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is always going to be protected. It may develop a better form of

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democracy than currently exists in this place and nothing that is

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something that should be explored. I listened to the lyrical waxing of

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- a waxing lyrical of how they are not for majority rule yet we have

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to look at how the abused power in the Assembly commission in a

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desperate attempt in the recent flags debacle. I would be

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interested to see what the members opposite can actually do to

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reassure people from the nationalist republican community on

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how they would ensure a quality, given the sad record over the last

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number of years. Were you betide anyone to lecture others about

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equality after judgments made against senior members. Also in

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relation to transparency, given many of their members stated dual

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membership of an organisation which extorts it hundreds of thousands of

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pounds from the community that we all represent here in this house.

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Coming back to Sinn Fein, I do have to say that they never cease to

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amaze me. They never cease to surprise me with their attitude.

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Openness and transparency? Maybe you can tell us whether �26 million

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has gone from the northern bank robbery? Maybe they could tell us

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where some of those bodies are buried that their comrades in arms

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in the IRA buried and have disappeared? Maybe they could tell

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us some of those action that they carried out since 1970? It is not

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for me to tell the chair his responsibility but in terms of Sinn

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Fein I disagree with some of Commons that have been made. It is

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not your place to tell the chair. Can I remind a member, please, and

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this is the second time, that he has an important asked to sum up

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the debate and stick rigidly to wit. You did not need to remind the

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chair because I was discussing it with my clerks. It is a serious

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offence to challenge the church. colleague raised a point of order

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on the basis there had been no intervention from the Deputy

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Speaker on this occasion were asked a number of scurrilous remarks were

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made by a member against our party. As far as I am concerned, I stand

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by my colleagues need to get up on our behalf to make an intervention.

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Whether that is revising or reminding is a moot point but I

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would ask you to reflect on the fact that it took a member from

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this side of the piles on behalf of our party to make an intervention

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before the matter was dealt with and I think that was regrettable

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and not acceptable. It is important for the member to accept and

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understand that I was in the process of doing that. I was about

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to remind Mr Elliott that he should not make remarks about a political

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party in connection with bank robberies and other things for

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Does the Minister except that there are significant changes -- chances

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in losing too many presents staff within a short timescale?

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member certainly has a point about that and that is why there has been

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some difficulty with some staff. Staff are not being released

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without it being acceptable on operational grounds that they are

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able to be released. I am glad to confirm that we have received

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approval from the park -- department of finance which all are

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all those who were granted the scheme to leave. Some funding has

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been released which will allow some to leave at the end of this month.

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Others will be raising as -- leaving as operational

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circumstances permit. There is an issue about the loss of experience

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staff, there is also an issue of them being replaced by well-

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qualified, enthusiastic, well- trained new staff and I believe

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that the prison second month -- service will be better for it.

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the Minister agree with me that too often tackling hate crime is

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undermined because we have no legislative definition of

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sectarianism in relation to hate crime? I think the Member raises an

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interesting issue about the difficulty of ensuring that we get

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there necessary definition of the crime. I am not sure that the

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defining of sectarianism as opposed to the improving of sectarianism is

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the difficult issue that has to be crossed. When the Justice Bill was

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being debated in the last assembly we were unable to reach that

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agreement. In interest of prisoners and the families of prisoners, when

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we they -- where the prisoners are housed actually be a matter with

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some empathy with their families in terms of travel time? Deputy

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Speaker, I am certainly well aware of their issues. In certain

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circumstances there are a number of prisoners that have to be housed at

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at prison whose families do not necessarily live near by. A

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statement will be made in a couple of weeks' time. The Minister will

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not that there is over 1,000 prisoners in that prison, which is

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already struggling with a capacity issues there, and that hundreds of

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prisoners are already doubled up and yet the demand on the

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republican side is to take the other landings. Will he assure us

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that he will take action against those who are considered -- to

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continue to demand special status. It is not for me to either resist

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our support demands for separated accommodation. Those are issues

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which he might wish to raise what the Secretary of State. What I will

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ensure is that the accommodation pressures are managed as best they

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can be in the interest of all prisoners, and that provides a wide

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variety of different categories of prisoners currently there. A how

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much it 10 JUN did you pay in size class and more to the.

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How much do you think our politicians know? -- how much

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attention DTP. What is this all about? There was a

:20:06.:20:16.
:20:16.:20:16.

bit all The Geek Manifesto which was published last year. It was

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published by Mike Henderson. The thesis of the because that the

:20:21.:20:31.
:20:31.:20:36.

demographic of the key -- they geek is people who ogres on things that

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rabbit different to other parts of the world. Was their way of getting

:20:44.:20:54.
:20:54.:20:54.

this information about this large demographic of people who are

:20:54.:21:00.

voters. You like the ideas of evidence based decision-making. Is

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there any evidence that you have to show that our MLAs do not know

:21:04.:21:09.

about science? You might look it ever politics and say that there is

:21:09.:21:12.

a lot of evidence for that particular assertion, but one may

:21:13.:21:17.

be badly placed if one was trying to say that our MLAs are not trying

:21:17.:21:22.

to take care of this. They are a lot of decisions which had been

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taken that we think have been influenced by the evidence. A lot

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of them at least have made lip- service to science and scientific

:21:29.:21:34.

advice. We're hoping that people will use sounds much more

:21:34.:21:40.

explicitly and evidence much more explicitly. It is a very expensive

:21:40.:21:45.

structure here. MLAs have researchers paid for out of the

:21:45.:21:50.

public purse. Ministers have special advisers who are paid a

:21:50.:21:53.

very handsome salary. They are there to help and that of research

:21:53.:21:57.

and policy making process. That is correct and one would be making a

:21:57.:22:00.

mistake of one said that there was not a good job being done there.

:22:00.:22:04.

There is a lot more to be done and in particular there is still this

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very strong insistence and emphasis on what would largely be seen as

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the arts and humanities side of things, which is very important and

:22:13.:22:17.

vital, but we would like to see signs as a much more explicit part

:22:17.:22:20.

of the cultural discourse and part of the decision-making process up

:22:20.:22:25.

front. Some will tell you that politics is an art and not a

:22:25.:22:35.

science? Some people tell you that art is a science. It is a skilled.

:22:35.:22:38.

It has a huge potential to revolutionise our economy. Our

:22:38.:22:42.

background, environment, health, so many aspects in which science is

:22:42.:22:47.

important and we would like to see people emphasise that more. That is

:22:47.:22:53.

some thought for bedtime reading. Thank you very much.

:22:53.:22:57.

Northern Ireland potentially faces a perfect storm which threatens its

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energy supply, the Environment Minister told the chamber this

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afternoon. In order to guarantee self-sufficiency exploiting

:23:04.:23:08.

renewable sources is essential. This is a very important question

:23:08.:23:17.

indeed. I keep saying that in my judgment renewables is arguably

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Ireland's biggest economic opportunity. That includes Northern

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Ireland because of our wind and wave and tidal power. And because

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of the quality of the manufacturing and services that we could provide

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in terms of a renewable applications. The answer to the

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question is that on average it takes 37 weeks to process a

:23:38.:23:45.

renewable application. 37 weeks. In my view that is too long. When you

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look especially in the last 18 months at the scale of renewable

:23:49.:23:54.

applications that have gone to the point of decision compared with any

:23:54.:24:01.

time here to four, I think that tells a much bigger and better

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story. And the last two quarters a lawn, in the quarter up until 20th

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September 12, they were 326 renewable applications approved.

:24:13.:24:21.

That builds upon the 401 renewable applications approved in 2011-2012.

:24:21.:24:29.

Find excess of previous years. Thank you. I'm sure the Minister is

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aware of the 40 % target for renewable electricity. Is he aware

:24:37.:24:41.

that there are expects to think that the first 20 resent will come

:24:41.:24:48.

at a cost of �80 million, the second at the cost of �800 million.

:24:48.:24:53.

Does he feel that the consumer should foot the bill? That is an

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important question. Whilst we are on track to achieve a 40 %

:24:57.:25:06.

renewable target by 2020, if all the wind approvals to date that had

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been built and consented to were actually constructed and then went

:25:10.:25:16.

into an National Grid, that alone in 2013 would account for her 30 %

:25:16.:25:22.

of our energy renewable -- electricity needs in the north. We

:25:22.:25:27.

are on the right path, but the member needs -- makes two valid

:25:27.:25:36.

points in my view. The first is that if you have a pre-payments --

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approvals or if the cost of connections is disproportionate,

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then there will be a rest of the 40 % not been achieved by 2020. We are

:25:45.:25:51.

in a situation in the north where, to borrow a phrase, we could reach

:25:51.:26:01.

a Perfect Storm. A Perfect Storm in that we will not have on the island

:26:01.:26:05.

of Ireland, sufficient interconnection, and this is only

:26:05.:26:09.

one of the factors that would lead to a Perfect Storm, sufficient

:26:09.:26:12.

interconnection in order to keep the lights on when it comes to

:26:12.:26:20.

Northern Ireland. This would be an issue of energy cost, the cost of

:26:20.:26:23.

connection with renewables, which is a one about which we need to

:26:23.:26:27.

more collectively gather were thoughts. In connection to the time

:26:27.:26:31.

that it takes far an application to go through for a wind turbine,

:26:31.:26:37.

applicants at this point in time appear to consider that there is a

:26:37.:26:42.

considerable amount of delay in terms of one of the Council teas.

:26:42.:26:47.

Given that that is within the Minister's we met in his department,

:26:47.:26:54.

could he in sure that that process is speeded up? It used beat the

:26:54.:26:59.

renewable energy industry they will tell you that at any time up until

:26:59.:27:03.

now given the scale of the renewable applications that run the

:27:03.:27:08.

system, and these cover nine categories, not just wind farms,

:27:08.:27:12.

but solar plants and so on and so forth, they will tell you that

:27:12.:27:20.

given that historic that Lord and given the surge of applications,

:27:20.:27:23.

particularly for a wind turbines. The fact that so many are now

:27:24.:27:28.

coming to the point of decision, especially in the last four

:27:28.:27:32.

quarters, is actually demonstrable of the fact that the planning

:27:32.:27:37.

system is more and more managing that scale of applications and

:27:37.:27:42.

getting decisions out. Martina Purdy is with us again.

:27:43.:27:46.

First of all, I do have some news on the next meeting between the

:27:46.:27:50.

Prime Minister and a were first and Deputy First Ministers. Peter

:27:50.:27:56.

Robinson and Martin McGuinness will go to Downing Street on March 26th,

:27:56.:28:03.

to meet David Cameron. They want to lower corporation tax to give

:28:03.:28:07.

Northern Ireland a competitive edge. It is controversial and will

:28:07.:28:12.

require a political decision from the Prime Minister. Finally, it is

:28:12.:28:15.

likely to delight the tomorrow as far as business is concerned

:28:15.:28:18.

because the justice minister is not proceeding with the next stage of

:28:18.:28:23.

his bill. The Criminal Justice Bill was supposed to have its further

:28:23.:28:29.

consideration stage tomorrow but it was not -- there was not the

:28:29.:28:39.

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