Browse content similar to 06/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Welcome to Stormont Today. As the Queen looks back on 60 years on the | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
throne, she can rest assured that there were a kind words for most of | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
the house. I am convinced that everybody in | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
Northern Ireland will respect be significant role she has played | :00:44. | :00:52. | |
over such a long period of time. part of the Republican tradition | :00:52. | :01:00. | |
and I represent, I wish to acknowledge the role of the Queen. | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
Our Northern Irish firms being smart -- snubbed for wards? | :01:06. | :01:13. | |
All of the judges are from the public a violent -- the Republic of | :01:13. | :01:19. | |
Ireland. With me throughout tonight, heather | :01:19. | :01:25. | |
Crawford of the world carriage of speech therapists. -- and Royal | :01:25. | :01:32. | |
College of Speech therapists. Ian Paisley is in intensive care at | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
the Ulster Hospital. At the former First Minister and long-term leader | :01:38. | :01:45. | |
of the DUP was admitted to A&E yesterday. His wife, Baroness | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
Paisley, has described it as a difficult time. It has been the | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
talk of Stormont today. Whilst the politicians have been getting on | :01:55. | :02:02. | |
with the business on their diary, all of the talk has not been about | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
-- has been about the former First Minister. He is in intensive care, | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
it is said it might be a heart issue but we don't have any more | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
details. It is not the first time he has been ill. If you think back | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
to the political negotiations that led up to the power-sharing deal | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
between the DUP and Sinn Fein, Dr Paisley was involved in some of | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
those negotiations in Kent. He had a period where he disappeared from | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
view for a while and later he revealed that he had been, as he | :02:36. | :02:43. | |
put it, walking in death's shadow. Last year it was confirmed that he | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
had been fitted with a heart pacemaker after falling ill in the | :02:47. | :02:52. | |
House of Lords, where he now sits, having given up his Westminster | :02:52. | :03:00. | |
seat for North Antrim. Concern from well beyond the DUP today. It was | :03:00. | :03:06. | |
obviously mentioned in the DUP's statement and prayers were said for | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
the former party leader but of course over the last remarkable | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
five or six years he has made friendships and relationships | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
beyond the ranks of the DUP and other people are hoping for the | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
best tonight. Not wanting to say too much because they want to see | :03:22. | :03:30. | |
how things develop at a hospital. Our local -- are local business -- | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
business is losing out in a local ward programme? Eileen Foster has | :03:34. | :03:42. | |
her suspicions, has she revealed at Question Time. Here is a question | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
on the sexual orientation strategy which Peter Robinson batted to his | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
junior minister. As I have said in previous answers, it is our | :03:52. | :03:59. | |
intention to publish a sexual orientation strategy during 2012. | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
Stakeholders and organisations from this sector will be encouraged to | :04:04. | :04:11. | |
contribute to the consultation process. I would like to thank the | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
junior minister for his answer. It is important that it will be | :04:16. | :04:26. | |
:04:26. | :04:26. | ||
published this coming year. Candour junior minister advise that it will | :04:26. | :04:34. | |
be revised in line with the programme drafted by five bodies? - | :04:34. | :04:44. | |
:04:44. | :04:46. | ||
- can the junior minister. development of that, it is obvious | :04:46. | :04:55. | |
the five-party matter and we are waiting for responses from some of | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
the parties. But everybody will have the opportunity to contribute. | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
Can I ask the junior minister what is their position on civil | :05:07. | :05:16. | |
partnerships and adoption be gay couples? Civil partnerships are the | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
responsibility of finance and personnel. In relation to adoption, | :05:20. | :05:25. | |
it is my understand and that the judicial review of the existing | :05:25. | :05:35. | |
:05:35. | :05:35. | ||
adoption policy is on going. -- my understanding. Can I ask him | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
whether it in the sexual orientation strategy there will be | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
any mention of gay marriage and has any progress being made in | :05:43. | :05:50. | |
providing full and equal rights to gay couples? The questions in | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
relation to those are the subject of much discussion and have been in | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
the media over recent weeks. It is not an issue that is under current | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
consideration. On to the enterprise minister, who was in strident form. | :06:06. | :06:16. | |
Shoot fired a warning shot to the bank's. -- she fired. Small and | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
medium-sized businesses are being continually pressed in relation to | :06:20. | :06:25. | |
access to finance and banks and even those who have a banking | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
relationship and I use the term relationship very loosely, because | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
some of the banks at present are bearing down very heavily on some | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
of our companies and I think it is a matter that everybody in this | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
House should be very concerned about. I say to the banks that if | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
you put businesses that are trying to get through difficult times out | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
of future then in the future you will not gain finance from those | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
businesses and the consequent job losses that will occur and our | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
economy will not be able to sustain it. The banks have to work with the | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
rest of us to take our economy through very difficult times. Short | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
term measures are not going to help in the medium to longer term. | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
next finance minister will be Simon Hamilton and he wanted to know what | :07:19. | :07:27. | |
the minister thought of an All- Ireland awards scheme. Northern | :07:27. | :07:37. | |
:07:37. | :07:44. | ||
Ireland does not have a monopoly on innovation. Food producers say that | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
there is an increasingly protectionist stance. I am hugely | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
disappointed that there is only one Northern Ireland company | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
shortlisted. As I understand it, this is not a new phenomenon. When | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
I looked into this matter there were only two listed last year. | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
There is a pattern here and I have to ask why this is the case. When I | :08:09. | :08:18. | |
asked about who was judging these awards, apart from a few, all of | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
the judges were from the Republic of Ireland. This causes me great | :08:23. | :08:31. | |
concern and it is something I am writing to the new chairman about. | :08:31. | :08:38. | |
I was astonished about the nomination, giving what I said | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
about the protectionist prices in relation to Northern Ireland food. | :08:43. | :08:52. | |
I am taking this up with the new chair and the chief Executive. | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
Could I thank the Minister for her answer in relation to this question. | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
I would also share your disappointment that there are not | :09:00. | :09:08. | |
more Northern Ireland firms being nominated to the short list, but | :09:08. | :09:16. | |
the minister is not in any way, I would think, the value of having | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
such competitions, particularly for innovations, which provide an | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
excellent basis for the development of industry, both north and south. | :09:26. | :09:33. | |
Would the Minister agree? Certainly a welcome any competition that | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
encourages and it -- innovation but surely the chair of the committee | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
must be concerned that only one of our companies have been put forward | :09:41. | :09:47. | |
into the short list for this award. I have task, why is this the case? | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
Is at the judging panel, is it the media partner, the Irish Times? | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
What is the problem in relation to getting more companies from | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
Northern Ireland? The previous question about the important -- | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
importance of innovation, it is massively important for our | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
economic development to continue to encourage companies and they get | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
encouraged by short lists and all those things. The education | :10:15. | :10:22. | |
minister has set out his plans to help children with special needs in | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
schools. Heather Crawford, what is your take on the proposals he has | :10:26. | :10:33. | |
outlined? The proposals are actually quite confusing for us as | :10:33. | :10:39. | |
professionals in the field because they are wide and varied. I think | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
there are lot of positives include -- in them, inclusion being one, | :10:44. | :10:50. | |
support for children with all difficulties in schools being | :10:50. | :10:56. | |
another, the plan to include parents' health, that is all very | :10:56. | :11:03. | |
positive, but what I think we would say is lacking is confirmation that | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
it is going to work absolutely smoothly and effectively for the | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
people concerned. There is going to be a huge amount of responsibility | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
put into individual schools. Individual school principles will | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
have to look at those children with special needs in their schools, | :11:21. | :11:28. | |
devolve their budgets, and they have a total budget for all of the | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
children in the schools and a certain amount will be ring-fenced | :11:31. | :11:40. | |
for children with special needs. How do you prioritise to get the | :11:40. | :11:48. | |
priority in terms of money? We have particular concerns about hidden -- | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
be hidden disability of speech and communication problems. I heard on | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
Radio Ulster this morning about visual disabilities where, if you | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
can see there is something wrong with somebody, that can be | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
addressed, but for children with difficulties with speech and | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
language and particularly the social use of those things, unless | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
you're have learnt to recognise those, you might not see them. -- | :12:15. | :12:22. | |
unless you have learnt. It can have an impact not just on school life, | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
the social life, but long-term effects on behaviour and social | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
interaction. Thank you. Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Queen | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
as ceding to the throne when her father, George VI, died in his | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
sleep. Members today were keen to pay their tributes, with a | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
representative of each party offering congratulations. Well, not | :12:45. | :12:54. | |
all parties. The Queen's public life has spanned that of 12 prime | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
ministers in the UK and 140 prime ministers in the Commonwealth rain | :13:00. | :13:09. | |
:13:10. | :13:10. | ||
-- realms. It has included six prime ministers, 3 First Ministers | :13:10. | :13:17. | |
and 17 secretaries of state. In Northern Ireland there are | :13:17. | :13:23. | |
different perspectives of royalty but I am convinced that everybody | :13:23. | :13:29. | |
in Northern Ireland will respect the significant role played by her | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
Majesty the Queen a lot -- such a long period of time, will recognise | :13:34. | :13:41. | |
the many achievements that she has, not least her recent visit to the | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
Republic of Ireland and the ceiling of better relationships between our | :13:45. | :13:54. | |
two countries. I believe that the Queen's visit to the Republic of | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
Ireland last year signalled new relationships for two nations that | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
are so close geographically but maybe so far apart in other | :14:04. | :14:11. | |
circumstances. I welcome that moved and that visit. It may encourage | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
the Republic of Ireland to look good possibilities to rejoin the | :14:16. | :14:26. | |
:14:26. | :14:34. | ||
My non-violent republican tradition aspires to and works well a | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
republican model of government. My political tradition understands | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
there are a large number of people in Northern Ireland who value the | :14:44. | :14:49. | |
link with Britain, the monarchy and the contribution of Queen Elizabeth | :14:49. | :14:56. | |
the second. We acknowledge that and respected. The Alliance Party | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
leader and the Davids voiced their tributes but nothing from the Green | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
Party or the other Green Party, Sinn Fein. The Justice Minister | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
David Ford promises to cut the time young people wait before their | :15:09. | :15:14. | |
cases come to court. Young offenders often wait as long as a | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
year. The minister told me what will change. Since I became | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
Minister we have seen work across the agencies to speed up justice, | :15:24. | :15:29. | |
some improvements and other things have not improved. We now need a | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
specific time limit to underpin the good work elsewhere and inshore | :15:33. | :15:40. | |
young people are in court when they can remember what they have done | :15:40. | :15:45. | |
and have not reoffend. What will the time limit be? I have asked the | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
board to look at the detail and expect a report in the near future. | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
The board brings together the justice agencies say they will make | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
a formal recommendations which I would take to the committee as we | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
look at what we can do. I am determined to see progress in the | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
next few years and the lifetime of the Assembly. What about adults, | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
many people are spending lengthy periods in remand. We need to look | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
at adults but the key issue from the reports I see is the youth | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
court because there is a problem with young offenders. If we can | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
deal with that and learn the lessons I hope we will move on to | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
address the issues for adults as well. What time, you have to put it | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
out to consultation but are you thinking of 100 days? At the moment, | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
I am open to see what the consultation produces. That is a | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
figure which applies in other jurisdictions but we need something | :16:47. | :16:54. | |
challenging and realistic. If the air in either direction they could | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
be progress. Another concern about the special educational needs has | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
been schools would have the money to spend but there doesn't seem to | :17:02. | :17:08. | |
be any compulsion expenditure on special educational needs. That is | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
very important and we would want to see some levels of accountability | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
put in place if there is a budget to schools to be spent on children | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
with special needs, there must be assurances the money is spent and | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
targeted towards those children. That will require training and | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
monitoring. And a collaborative approach between schools and | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
agencies. The consultation has taken a long period and 90% of | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
people were not happy with the proposals. It is a difficult | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
situation, you want people to comment but it appears the views | :17:49. | :17:59. | |
are ignored. Well, I think that we would be saying there were many | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
responses to the consultation, I understand from colleagues in | :18:03. | :18:09. | |
education they have had many responses. As we understand it, the | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
document lists some of the responses but not all of them have | :18:13. | :18:20. | |
been taken on board. Again, we are hearing that parents have concerns | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
about how they will be guaranteed the budget will go directly to | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
children. The high level of youth unemployment continues to worry | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
members and it was on the agenda today. A discussion on widening | :18:33. | :18:42. | |
access to education maintenance allowance. The words neat macro is | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
not the most attractive of words. It is better than the alternative | :18:47. | :18:54. | |
which is zeros. It is an issue that we have to deal with. The cost of | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
youth unemployment in Northern Ireland alone is someone in the | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
region of �250 million. Some young people have seen emigration as the | :19:03. | :19:08. | |
only option while others have disengaged from education and | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
training and also society. In the current economic climate where they | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
are so few jobs for young school leavers we must help and encourage | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
students to stay on and get the best education available. The | :19:22. | :19:29. | |
statistics show 87% of young people in full-time education are in | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
receipt of the allowance which proves the need for the allowance. | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
Our party has always argued that access to education is a right not | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
a privilege. It should be based on the ability to learn and develop | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
not the ability to pay. I did not think the government should be | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
looking to simply give young people checks for getting involved in | :19:52. | :19:59. | |
education to attend college and school. To do that is to create a | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
culture almost this says as long as you turn up and clock in you | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
receive a payment irrespective of whether you go to learn or not. It | :20:08. | :20:15. | |
is something to be cognisant of. Ali serious about this issue | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
because on the information we have gathered to date in the absence of | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
tracking facilities, and in the urgency that seems to have attended | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
any investigation of how this programme could be improved, we | :20:28. | :20:35. | |
seem to be demonstrating an almost horizontal attitude rather than a | :20:35. | :20:42. | |
proactive one. And that, I think, is a tragedy for the young people | :20:42. | :20:50. | |
in this country many of whom are struggling with eight morale issue | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
about how they are ever going to make it in society and a society | :20:56. | :21:02. | |
dares do what it can, it cannot spoon-feed a society but it does no | :21:02. | :21:08. | |
to do what it can to help young people into employment and E M A | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
may be working, the truth is we do not adequately know because we do | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
not track its implementation. support can and should be better | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
targeted. Any expansion of the scheme needs to be governed by | :21:24. | :21:31. | |
affordability. There is pressure on the existing budgets due to the | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
economic downturn. The forthcoming review and any additional savings | :21:36. | :21:40. | |
realised from this are linked to the bass lines of departmental | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
budgets. However, if members are prepared to be more radical in the | :21:45. | :21:53. | |
nature of reform then further savings can be made. I would like | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
to see those savings redirected into other vehicles to support from | :21:56. | :22:02. | |
people. How important in speech and therapy turns his early | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
intervention to get speech improved? Well, the earlier we can | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
intervene with young children with speech language and communication | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
problems the better because speech and language is the most important | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
development scale we have to learn. We do know that one in seven | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
children in primary school will have problems, we want to avoid | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
that and get into the nursery schools and pre-school places and | :22:30. | :22:37. | |
this report does talk about the place is in pre-school settings, we | :22:37. | :22:45. | |
would like to work collaboratively to develop the most effective | :22:45. | :22:47. | |
communicative environment the children will offer right in and | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
for those children who cannot understand or pay attention we need | :22:51. | :22:57. | |
to put in strategies to change the way we communicate to facilitate | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
more effective communication skills and teach them how to communicate, | :23:01. | :23:07. | |
lots of children learn those naturally but up to 50% in some | :23:07. | :23:14. | |
areas do not. Did you know how healthy the health service is? | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
Apparently the best in the world in many areas. That is what the | :23:18. | :23:23. | |
British Medical Association has been telling MLAs. It came in an | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
answer to the health committee. know it has exercised the committee | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
in the past. 10.5 million consultations a year we provide in | :23:34. | :23:43. | |
Northern Ireland, 30% above the average. 20 million tests, 25 | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
million prescriptions, that is what we provide, above what everybody | :23:49. | :23:58. | |
:23:59. | :23:59. | ||
else provides. I refer you to the Commonwealth report, just published, | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
shows the best access same day and next day access in the world is | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
here, 79% in the UK and we are better than the UK average. 79% of | :24:10. | :24:16. | |
patients get same day or next day access. The lowest percentage the | :24:16. | :24:23. | |
waited six days or more is 2%, these are facts. This is data. Out | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
of hours actress, best in the world, reviews, best in the world, | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
communication with patients best in the world. I will not bore you. | :24:32. | :24:42. | |
:24:42. | :24:50. | ||
it fair to say you are selling it, is there a fair hearing? We had | :24:50. | :24:57. | |
meetings with members but there has been sufficient consultation. We | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
felt they should have been wider consultation. We put our views | :25:01. | :25:09. | |
forward. We have not had the opportunity to critique that final | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
report and give feedback and a professional opinion. Members of | :25:13. | :25:20. | |
the panel met with GPs and elements of GP fraternity and we did not | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
deny opportunities to meet with anyone. We responded to any request | :25:24. | :25:31. | |
made to us and I can say that after the clinical meetings there was | :25:31. | :25:36. | |
general practice involved in all the meetings which were handled and | :25:36. | :25:41. | |
sponsored by some of the review team. We also had specific meetings | :25:41. | :25:50. | |
in Belfast where we had GPS and doctors to discuss issues that were | :25:50. | :25:54. | |
pertinent as far as they were concerned. Then maybe some | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
individuals that would have liked more contact and engagement but we | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
can arrange for continued engagement. That is where we would | :26:02. | :26:12. | |
:26:12. | :26:12. | ||
would be. Regarding... I do not agree. Some individuals, that is | :26:13. | :26:19. | |
dismissive. The comments came from the chair of the practitioners, it | :26:19. | :26:26. | |
is not about a disgruntled doctor. It was very clear... I met the | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
chair and he seemed entirely satisfied with the meeting I had | :26:30. | :26:36. | |
and it no point did he ask or request further meetings. I met | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
with the BMA and other representatives and they asked for | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
further meetings and they were arranged. Had there been asked for | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
further meetings I would have arranged it. You may have spotted | :26:45. | :26:52. | |
the crutches, she has been hobbling around for two weeks and her | :26:52. | :26:57. | |
committee colleagues were curious as to what happened. What happened, | :26:57. | :27:03. | |
I fell down the stairs. I did, a fortnight ago. I broke a leg but I | :27:03. | :27:09. | |
had a good pair of boots. I did not realise it was broken. So, I got | :27:09. | :27:15. | |
the cast. It happened in Dublin. it happened in -- at home I would | :27:16. | :27:24. | |
not have to drive. I got the cast on and eventually I went in | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
Thursday and was plastered down to the knee. There was her last | :27:28. | :27:33. | |
committee meeting. She has stood down. I think she will be laid up | :27:33. | :27:40. | |
for a few weeks. In terms of how we go forward with | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
the strategy and in a general sense, do we need to set targets for | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
schools to say you need to reach this level and to ensure children | :27:49. | :27:54. | |
get the help they need? I think to reassure parents, and to be a | :27:54. | :28:00. | |
support to teachers and principles, we need to set out what it is we | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
need to achieve with children within schools. That will require | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
collaboration between all parties and an agreed set of how we do it, | :28:09. | :28:14. | |
what we do, and how we know we make a difference. Does the document we | :28:14. | :28:20. | |
have been talking about, does that reassurance? There is lots of | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
examples of good practice across Northern Ireland, good | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
collaborative practice between health and education and we need to | :28:27. | :28:31. |