06/03/2012 Stormont Today

Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. And it's Super Tuesday in the

United States as Republicans choose their candidate to take on Barack

Obama. But every tuesday is Super Tuesday on this programme - even if

it feels like Groundhog Day in the Chamber. I think this is the third

time we have the NEETs discussed in this chamber in a short period of

time. We have no action plan yet. And is there a new Chuckle Brother

here on the Hill? Someone's been tickling ribs. That concludes a

highly entertaining question times. And with agriculture booming but

with reform on the horizon, my guest is John Thompson of the

Tonight, we're looking at the CAP and why perhaps it no longer fits.

That's the Common Agricultural Policy and how efforts are being

made to green it. It's being proposed, for example, that around

a third of farm payments will be linked to green goals such as

diversifying crops. A top official from the European Commission

dealing with the issue was at Stormont today as the guest of the

Agriculture Committee to answer questions from farmers and others.

So, did he reassure them this wasn't just more bureacracy from

Brussells? I'm joined by John Thompson,

president of the Ulster Farmer's Union. Welcome to the programme.

You attended the seminar to a yacht owned concerns. Remind us what they

are. I think the new proposals... We are certainly worried about the

proposals involving more bureaucracy. We are concerned about

the whole transition period, about the green issues and about activity

and what the definitions are. Certainly, we see these proposals

being complicated and very difficult to understand from a

farmer's level right up to the elders and I think we need a lot

more clarification. Did you receive any assurances from the official?

He's certainly given us the proposals and spelled it out why

they hope going down the lines they are going down -- why they are

going down the lines. From his presentation, a lot of the areas

targeted are central Europe where there is very little biodiversity

and hedgerows. We already meet a lot of those requirements and I

think the commission recognises that. I think he also recognises

that every farmer has to be seen to do something and although the Bar

is fairly high already in Northern Ireland, he would still like to see

them do more. What is your solution as the Ulster Farmers' Union's

President? You are not opposing reform, you recognise their needs

to be some measures taken. There is basically a new scheme. The old

scheme, the single farm payment was based on historic payments of

cattle numbers, sheep numbers. This is... Certainly, I think there is a

big transition period. Agriculture is important to the Northern

Ireland economy. I think people need time to move from the current

system to the new system. We will have to leave it there. Thank you.

Something has happened to the Regional Development Minister Danny

Kennedy. Often his question time session is a little dry, but then

roads don't provide many laughs. But today, the minister amused MLAs

with his quick wit. But before the chuckles begin, let's begin our

look at question time with justice and David Ford on the rather

serious issue of redundancy plans for prison officers.

Will the Minister confirm that it is lawful, ethical and desirable

that his department in set as a condition of severance that prison

officers will be awarded generous and schemes -- that those awarded

generous golden handshakes will not be able to reapply for jobs? Will

he bring further legislation to prevent this happening? I note his

concern and indeed the concern of other members. I can simply advise

them that the legal advice that I received was that it would have

been discriminatory to prevent any of those leaving from applying for

the new jobs which were advertised and closed last week. I can however

confirm that in the face of a very significant potential recruitment

not one of the 151 officers who will be leaving service on 31st

March will -- were among the 5000 applicants for the near post.

the new post. Following the departure of the director general,

can you outline how that will affect the staff exit scheme and

take the opportunity to explain how you intend to mitigate the loss of

the person setting up the entire reform of our prison service?

answer to the question of how his move to Edinburgh will affect the

scheme is not in any way at all. He played a vital part in setting the

foundations for the reform programme which the House will know

follows row under the old a programme, building on the

recommendations of the report. I simply want to pay tribute to date

to the work that he did in establishing that the fact that he

was serving so well that he was selected for what is effectively

the second most senior post in prisons within the United Kingdom

to return to the Scottish Prison Service, a service three times and

80 -- three times bigger than ours, that should come as no surprise.

There is another team available which also contains those doing

work. It was not entirely driven by one man. I have no doubt that when

I discuss the arrangements for a new director general, we will

ensure that the post is filled as soon as possible to enable the

current team to continue working. Crime and the fear of crime. What

does the Minister seek as the best way to tackle the issues? Would the

Minister agree that the possible closure of rural police stations

could impact on fear of crime? think what members of this have so

need to do is address the rail -- reality of rural crime. It is not

dealt with by having police officers sitting behind desks. It

is addressed by the where the chief constable has done by putting 600

officers are out on the street in response teams and neighbourhood

teams. That is the best way of achieving it. The sick -- decision

as to which stations are required is a decision for the chief

constable. Does the Minister not recognise that the present proposal

for the wholesale closure of rural police stations is very much

sending out the wrong message, a message of encouragement to the

perpetrators of rural crime and a message of discouragement to their

victims? Having officers stationed behind a desk 20 or 30 miles away

is little comfort to those who are the subject... Could we have the

question, please? Does he not agree that having officers stationed

there to Mars away behind a desk is a source of great annoyance --

stationed 20 to 30 miles away. think the greatest comfort we can

have is what I highlighted earlier. The chief constable putting 600

police officers out on the streets. Onto the new joker in the assembly

pack. Danny Kennedy. Here is the first joke of the day. Can I ask

the minister if he has any plans to review criteria for all traffic

calming measures in built up areas? Am thinking of villages. That

village has a severe problem... In that it has the honour to be

represented by the minister. Rural crime again. This time, cable

thefts. A serious issue. I can inform the House that road service

has introduced a range of measures aimed at combating this crime.

Among the steps taken to date, it has changed the way new street

lighting cables are laid. That is in order to make them more

difficult to steal. In addition, cables at certain locations have

been marked with special smart DNA Greece that allows stolen cables to

be identified. Road service has also investigated the possible use

of CCTV monitoring and remote alarm systems to protect cable

installations. However, these options have proved to be

prohibitively expensive for widespread use. My officials will

continue to engage with the... To prevent further cable thefts was a

can ask the Minister to give us a geographical breakdown of these

deaths? I think you mentioned 76. I could probably take you to 76 lamp-

posts in Derry that have been attacked. We will not ask what a

DNA read-out for the member... That is a joke by the way! Such

seriousness did not last long. Order. That concludes our highly

entertaining question time. Nearly 50,000 young people here are

classified as NEETs - that means not in employment, education or

training. It is not a statistic to be proud of. And MLAs are fustrated

by the lack of progress by the minister Stephen Farry. The DUP

today called for a working group to be set up to tackle the problem.

is my contention that although much work has been done by various

agencies and educational institutions, the time has come for

a more joined-up approach to tackle the barriers that exist today for

hour-long people -- young people contributing effectively to act --

our economy. There have been many reports about the nature of the

barriers our young people face when attempting to fulfil their academic

and vocational potential. The reason for disadvantages and low

achievement of buried ranging from poverty and deprivation to being in

our care system and getting involved in crimes. It is therefore

important that all agencies in an interest with addressing these

issues are involved in creating any possible solutions. I think this is

the third time we have the NEETs discussed in the chamber within a

short period of time. We are not seeing any action plan coming out.

I think the minister needs to... He may say later on that, I needed to

discuss it with the executive first. I think the minister needs to come

to the house and explain to us all his intentions. We have over 40,000

young people across Northern Ireland who are not in education,

employment or training. With the welfare reforms coming in, Mr

Speaker, there is going to be a tsunami of further young people who

may be caught in the culture of benefits and forced us to seek

employment or education or training. What is to be done? What I cannot

stand is parochialism. This emphasis on one sub-regional

college, I cannot stand it at all. At least the Alliance Party

amendment try to tidy up one aspect of the original motion and it made

reference to all of the further education colleges. But still no

reference to the Department of Education when it strikes me as

very obvious that there is a major role for the Department of

Education in this matter. It would appear that in the sub-group of

ministers that the proposals envisaged to join have our eyes

only for certain colleges. Definitely the Department of

Education needs to be represented. While I welcome the suggestion, it

would be premature to establish the second group dealing with an area

that is an integral part of existing and planned future

structures. In conclusion I have listened with interest the members'

views on this extremely important issue. I particularly welcome the

acknowledgement that the problems being encountered by young people

as they make a transition from school can't be solved by one

department alone. It is incumbent on us all, working within service

deliverers and stakeholders, to a line of our services in the best

way to support every young person on their journey from school or

college into the world of work. discuss the problem, I am joined by

Basil McRae who chairs the employment and learning committee.

Much hand-wringing, but why has it taken so long to Agate progress?

That is where the committee are so disappointed. Not just with needs,

but also with the skills agenda for young people. Youth unemployment

soaring. We don't seem to be getting much progress. We've said

repeatedly to the minister and the department that this is a matter

that is really urgent and the need to take action. Is this the failure

by the minister? He is ultimately responsible. Although we have

cordial relations with him, it is simply not acceptable that we have

almost 50,000 that we are not doing anything for. The way youth

unemployment is going, one in five young people. It is simply

unacceptable for us to do nothing. We need to sort something out.

this a matter solely for Steven Farrer? We had some mention in the

debate that other ministries should be involved, perhaps the Department

of Education should be involved? what was interesting about the

debate was the emphasis on F E colleges. They have a good pastoral

care system where they check whether you have been to college

and if not, why not. They make sure young people turn up. If it happens

earlier, in school, the key statistics are that people drop out

between 14 and 16. Nobody picks it up and it can go even earlier.

People that are known to the police or people a nursery school. The

problem with the system is we run into difficulties at every stage

and yet nobody picks it up. Do you support the call for a Working

Group? What we thought... The motion was a bit awkward in trying

to put in all sorts of people. What is clear is you need a co-ordinated

response across multiple agencies, multiple departments, and you

probably need one department to take the lead. The Department of

Employment and learning is about to go so what difference will that

make? Will it end up in the Department of Enterprise or the

Department of Education? department going has not helped. If

the department does, the issues will still remain. Wherever they go,

will they have the same priority? We do think these issues do need

priority, they are probably the single most important issue the

executive and the assembly can tackle. We are removing the one

department looking at it. We also have welfare reform coming down the

pipeline and we heard Pat Bradley are talking about a tsunami of

people looking for jobs. Are we prepared for this? It is a tsunami

and I don't think we are prepared. I don't think we are doing enough

and in three or four years, people will look back and say why did you

take so long? They will point the finger rightly at the executive and

the assembly and say you did not done enough. What is the

committee's next move? We are bringing the minister in front of

us. We want to ask him in detail. We have already demanded his

officials turn up, but we want to see the minister and he will get a

fairly rough ride. Healthy eating seems to be less

likely that more money you have. That link was a concern for the

health minister as he reported back from a North-South meeting. He

expressed his concerns that skills were being lost through the

generations. One of the concerns we have associated between food and

poverty is that many people who don't have a lot of income are

spending it in them -- on the wrong types of food. Very often they will

go up to the supermarkets or the pound shops and they will buy the

wrong sorts of food. That contributes to obesity and ill

health. We do need to encourage people to get back to basics.

There's an awful lot of skills that have been lost in the last two to

three generations. As a consequence of that, people don't seem to know

how to go to the local greengrocer and buy good quality vegetables, to

actually buy some of the cheaper cuts of meat and prepare that for a

nutritious dinner for their family. To me, there's a course of work

that needs to be done, training and educating young people in providing

good quality food within their own homes. Unless we get this through

to young people, we will be defeated because the skills are not

being passed on within the homes any more. Therein lies the

challenge. There's a challenge there. Back-to-basics. Is there a

gap in the market the farmers' union should be encouraging the

health minister to speak to the farming minister? I think the

minister has a point. A lot of people have got into the habit of

using convenience food. Sometimes that is a lot more expensive. It is

handy. It is easy to prepare. But if they bought local produce and

made up their meals, it would work out quite a bit cheaper, maybe 30

to 40% cheaper. He has a point. sells like you might be talking

yourself into a scheme to promote local produce. We have every right

to remote local produce. It is excellent quality. I would

encourage everybody to use it. Returning to the issue of the

reform. What impact do you think those changes might have on food

prices when you are encouraging farmers to think more about

diversity? With our system in Northern Ireland, about a third of

our land... Not being allowed to plough, not being allowed to seed,

we will lose productivity and the ability to produce. That will

decrease the amount of production we can obtain. Thank you.

Many schools are now under stress according to the Department of

Education. Figures released today show 8.4% of secondary schools are

experiencing difficulties with either the quality of their

education, budgets or enrolments.35% of grammar schools

and half of primary schools are suffering the same fate. Stephen

Walker asked the Education Minster what action he was going to take.

My job is to put in place a plan to ensure we have a sustainable

schools system where parents can be confident their children are being

taught in schools to a very, very high level. When it comes to

educational criteria, there is a huge gulf between the controlled

sector and the maintained sector. Presumably you find that worrying?

It is. But there's good and bad in each sector and sometimes these

figures hide the good and bad. In the controlled sector, there's been

an ongoing debate about educational under-achievement, particularly in

working-class communities. The report highlighted that. I would

like to see the debate continuing, I want to hear the voices of the

community from all sectors coming forward and the debate around

education. In many ways, there is working-class communities that have

been left behind in this debate. You haven't ruled up school

closures. Does this report reinforced this view? This isn't

about school closures, it is about ensuring young people receive

greater education. If I have to make a decision around the future

of a school based on the needs of young people, I will close that

school. You have said you want swift action, but when will we

start to see action? You've seen the results of the audit. I will be

writing to the managing authorities of a number of schools, asking them

what immediate action they are taking to protect the education of

young people. We currently have a plan which will see a sustainable

schools estate going into the future with high quality education

at the centre of that. You talk about hastening it. I know you say

it is not primarily about closures, but is it likely that in the next

two to three years we will see schools merging, closing? Yes. That

is the way forward in terms of the direction this report is pointing a

sin. It's an action which the modern curriculum is pointing a sin.

Let's ensure we do that. Schools have history, there's an emotional

connection with schools and those things go with it. But the school

is a building and it is to provide education to young people. If that

building is no longer fit for purpose in terms of size or if it

is not attractive -- attracting enough pupils to make it

educationally viable, let's move on. Let's ensure we have an education

system which is fit for purpose going into the 21st century. That

will mean amalgamations in some instances, and also closures.

The Chair of the Education Committee said the findings of the

report are worrying. Mervyn Storey said more needs to be done to

address educational decline. What it does is it gives us a picture of

the crisis there is a cross our schools. Both primarily in

educational terms, because while it is very easy to look at the numbers

and whether schools measure up to the intake and all of that, the key

issue for educationalists surely has to be the quality of education

to children are getting. Clearly this report is saying there are

major problems in the educational outcomes in some schools. That is

very worrying and the question is, what is being done to address that

educational decline? What I would encourage parents not to do is go

through this audit and look for their school and come to the wrong

conclusion solely on the basis of the figures as they are presented.

The figures have to be presented in some context around the school. I

would encourage parents to support their local school, to ensure their

school get all the support it can. In some places, and I'm well aware

my own constituency of particular problems and particular issues, we

have to find a different solution. That solution is not simply just

about rubbing this call-out and starting over again. We have

recently produced figures that clearly indicates there is minimal

savings to be had if you just close schools. Let's concentrate on

educational outcomes and let's put the resources up. This is a time

for more teachers. Now to Cafe Recess, where Stephen

Walker, who usually hangs out with our MPs on the terraces at

Westminister, has been filling me in on the latest talks on

corporation tax. I asked him if we can expect anything dramatic when

they get round the table at the Treasury tomorrow. This is a

routine meeting, a meeting between Stormont ministers. Basically it is

an opportunity to get down and talk about the nuts and bolts of

devolving corporation tax, the timescale and exactly how much it

would cost. One DUP source has told me this is routine, they are not

expecting anything dramatic. Another DUP source there's an

element of frustration creeping in because we've been talking about

devolving corporation tax for some time now and there is a feeling

from the DUP quarters and perhaps from the Sinn Fein quarters that

people want to see a bit of action now. How significant is Scotland in

this? People in the Treasury are looking over their shoulder at

Scotland and wondering if Northern Ireland gets these tax-raising

powers and the ability to vary the rate of corporation tax, clearly

Scotland will want to. People from Scotland are looking to Northern

Ireland. It has muddy the waters. It will be a busy day in London

because the DUP have secured a debate dealing with the issue of

promoting Northern Ireland as a tourist destination. The DUP get an

opportunity to hold debates. They can choose debates on any topic. On

this occasion they have chosen the topic of Northern Ireland and they

are using the strap line, our time, our place, 2012. They want to

showcase Northern Ireland during this debate and tried to encourage

people to come to Northern Ireland and use Northern Ireland as a

tourist destination. You'll see reference to centenaries and the

Titanic, the Ulster Covenant. From the DUP point of view, it is an

opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland and they see it as a debate.

You have news of the special visitors to storm of later this

week. Stormont get a lot of visitors and very often in Stormont,

politicians like to regard themselves as being the people that

get all the attention. On Thursday there is going to be a lot of

attention here. Terry George, the Oscar winner and his daughter, are

coming to us Stormont. There will be a lot of attention on them. And

a little golden statuette. And like many American visitors to

these shores, Oscar has Irish roots - his designer Cedric Gibbons was

born in Dublin. So there you go. John, Stephen was talking about

tomorrow's meeting on corporation tax in London. That is something

the farmers union has been encouraging, but it doesn't sound

like Scotland is making things even more complicated. With us having a

land border with another member state with a different rate of

corporation tax, we feel it is a disadvantage and veena -- in these

times we think we are competing in a lot of the same markets. If we

had lower tax, nearer the level they have, it would be to our

advantage. We're disappointed it is not moving quicker. Be seen as

Scotland is a fly in the ointment. Yes. Alex Salmond has pushed for an

independence vote and that is one of the issues. Thank you.