Browse content similar to 06/11/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. Coming up in the next 30 minutes: | :00:28. | :00:30. | |
How a decision by the Agriculture Minister will help some sports | :00:30. | :00:40. | |
:00:40. | :00:42. | ||
manufacturers. Ash wood can only be imported under certain tech nickal | :00:42. | :00:52. | |
conditions. -- technical conditions. Also: There is a perception that | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
this Chamber is male and middle- aged. | :00:58. | :01:01. | |
MLAs vote in favour of change and call for the reduction of the | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
minimum voting age here to 16. And we'll hear from our Political | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
Editor who's been walking the corridors of power to keep us up- | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
to-date with all that's happening up here on the hill. | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
First tonight, there was a somewhat muted atmosphere around Parliament | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
Buildings today, as the thoughts of many elected representatives were | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
focused elsewhere. A large number of MLAs were keen to attend the | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
funeral of the murdered prison officer, David Black, in Cookstown | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
and the Assembly's Business Committee decided to alter the | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
agenda to accommodate them. Our Political Editor, Mark Devenport, | :01:29. | :01:37. | |
is here to talk us through the day. It was a very unusual day at | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
Stormont? It was. We had this unusual suspension in the middle of | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
the day. Normally, they have a lunch break. Instead, they were | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
stopping at noon and then not coming back until 4.00pm. That was | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
all about the funeral of the murdered Prison Officer, David | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
Black, in Cookstown. A lot of elected representatives wanted to | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
make their way there, as we were reporting yesterday. It wasn't | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
everyone from the Assembly because the family expressed their wishes | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
there should be no Sinn Fein representatives so there was no | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
presence from the Deputy First Minister, who otherwise you would | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
have thought he would have been there, he was talking about the | :02:12. | :02:19. | |
murder of David Black in the Chamber and calling those | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
responsible "idiots". The suspension finished. We went on to | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
questions. Some of the elected representatives were still having | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
difficulties getting back because Danny Kennedy was late by nine | :02:31. | :02:40. | |
minutes for his question time, which was due to happen at 4.30pm. | :02:40. | :02:48. | |
The Sinn Fein Green Party motion later today on lowering the age of | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
voting to 16 was debated and passed? Yes, passed by 51 votes to | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
29. All the parties lining up on the side of changingst voting age | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
with the exception of the DUP and the TUV. The interesting thing | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
there is that the Ulster Unionists, who you might have thought would | :03:04. | :03:14. | |
not have been keen on this, they came out for a change in the voting | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
age. The DUP weren't convinced. They came under attack from critics | :03:19. | :03:25. | |
who said some of your MPs have said they are in favour of this move and | :03:25. | :03:31. | |
Sinn Fein produced a parliamentary motion which Peter Robinson had | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
signed in 2005 supporting this move. The DUP say their assembly group | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
policy is there shouldn't be a change. What happens next? This is | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
a call for Westminster to change the law as far as the voting age is | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
concerned. The Assembly doesn't have the power to do anything | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
itself? Because Sinn Fein and the Greens were putting this forward, | :03:52. | :03:59. | |
they came under attack, but electoral policy is the prominence | :03:59. | :04:08. | |
of the Northern Ireland Office. Thank you. | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
More now on Regional Development Questions, and, as we've been | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
hearing, Danny Kennedy was one of the MLAs who attended the funeral | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
of David Black this afternoon. The Roads Minister began by apologising | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
to the House for delaying the start of Question Time after getting | :04:19. | :04:26. | |
caught in traffic. Members will know that I'm travelling back with | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
others to the very sad circumstances in Cookstown, the | :04:29. | :04:36. | |
funeral of Mr David Black, which was a very solemn and dignified | :04:36. | :04:43. | |
occasion. And I apologise to the House for my slight delay. As the | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
member will be aware, the increase in the cost of penalty charge | :04:48. | :04:55. | |
notices from �60 to �90 took effect from 4th July 2012. In the | :04:55. | :05:05. | |
intervening period to 31st October 2012, 37,277 PCNs have been issued. | :05:05. | :05:11. | |
This represents a decrease of just over one-tenth when compared to the | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
41,052 that were issued in 2011. My department is monitoring the impact | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
of this fee increase on illegal parking as well as the various | :05:20. | :05:25. | |
types of contraventions. This monitoring exercise will run for 12 | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
months to allow for a comprehensive assessment to be completed. My | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
department will carry out a statistical analysis of the results | :05:34. | :05:44. | |
:05:44. | :05:46. | ||
found in Northern Ireland compared to those in England and Wales. | :05:46. | :05:54. | |
Given 28% of tickets are issued on one road in Belfast, and 86% of | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
those issued between 4.30 and 6.30, does the Minister consider that the | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
company carrying out the contract at present is doing so in a fair | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
and equitable way across Belfast? The contract for this work was | :06:09. | :06:15. | |
retendered and has been allocated. I'm satisfied that the successful | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
tender does fulfil all of the requirements in terms of what is | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
necessary including increased savings to the department and the | :06:23. | :06:30. | |
cost of these services which of course is quite substantial. The | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
member has raised the issue of a particular section of clear way. | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
I'm still assessing that particular situation and will be happy to | :06:40. | :06:46. | |
liaise with him as we give further consideration to the questions that | :06:46. | :06:53. | |
have been raised. We don't seek to punish people and let me make clear | :06:53. | :07:01. | |
again that the company involved, there are no increased benefits for | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
additional tickets to be issued and it is not done on that basis and | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
the individuals who served the tickets gain no benefit on a | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
personal basis either. Can I ask him, how much money is being lost | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
to his department as a result of this delay? The member will be | :07:22. | :07:29. | |
aware that, as it's been previously indicated, the clock is now running | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
on those delays and any delay will certainly result in increased costs | :07:35. | :07:41. | |
in a number of areas. Assuming there is no change in the total | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
construction period, there would be direct quantified inflationary | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
increases arising from month on month delays to the start of | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
construction. The project team will attempt to mitigate the impact of | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
any delay, however the initial assessment of a delay to the | :07:58. | :08:06. | |
starting date is in the order of �750,000 per month. Of course, | :08:06. | :08:14. | |
there is also the postponement of the scheduled start date which will | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
result in the department having to declare back to the Northern | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
Ireland Bloc �10 million for every month of delay. | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
The Regional Development Minister, Danny Kennedy. | :08:25. | :08:27. | |
The Agriculture Minister, Michelle O'Neill, briefed Members on what | :08:27. | :08:29. | |
she's doing to protect ash trees here from the potentially | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
devastating Ash Dieback disease. It's been found in four counties in | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
England and the Minister has signed emergency legislation to try to | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
prevent its spread here. And during Question Time, she also dealt with | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
questions about the planned relocation of her department to | :08:42. | :08:49. | |
Ballykelly. I recognise that the location could cause problems for | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
some existing staff and I have therefore outlined my commitment to | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
use the time that we have available to ensure that the transition from | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
Belfast-based headquarters to the rural setting of Ballykelly is made | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
as easy as possible for all the staff. I'm aware the railway line | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
crosses the lower end of the site and I have written to the Minister | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
for Regional Development inviting him to give serious consideration | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
to a rail hub. Would she agree she showed a complete disregard to the | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
pressure on local infrastructure in the area? Would it not have been | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
bet tore have these conversations before you announced your decision? | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
The member might be surprised to know I don't agree that I brought | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
my decision on the 3rd September to the Executive. I announced to my | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
colleagues, the objective criteria, I informed them of my move and I | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
decided on the Ballykelly site. I did what I needed to do in terms of | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
informing Executive colleagues. Given Fermanagh has a significant | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
number of ash trees, can the Minister give an update on the | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
situation with the ash dieback disease? I am pleased to report | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
following a meeting with the Minister last Friday, we agreed the | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
need for additional safeguards on imports of ash wood and bark. We | :10:10. | :10:16. | |
found there are regular imports of ash logs from manufacturing | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
purposes. That is a potential pathway for disease. Today, I | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
authorise the making of a statutory rule, the plant health wood and | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
bark amendment order as emergency legislation. From today, ash wood | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
can only be imported under certain conditions as set out in the order. | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
I believe this is a proportionate response to the risk of introducing | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
disease in wood. From today, these can only be imported if they are | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
accompanied by an official statement that the wood originates | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
in an area known to be free from Chalara fraxinea. However, the risk | :10:53. | :11:01. | |
reduces substantially if the wood receives suitable treatment. It is | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
in light of what happened when ever foot-and-mouth came on the scene | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
where the carcasses of the beasts were burnt. In relation to the ash, | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
I can appreciate that certain people might say the right approach | :11:14. | :11:21. | |
would be to burn the ash and therefore probably deal with the | :11:21. | :11:28. | |
hurly stick business in a different way. Is the eradication on site - I | :11:28. | :11:34. | |
have been told by moving those spores of trees that are damaged, | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
it spreads it around the country, and that could happen. We have had | :11:38. | :11:43. | |
no outbreaks in the North. We don't have any at this stage. Hopefully, | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
we won't have to deal with it. In the South they did burn and it was | :11:47. | :11:55. | |
on site. I can confirm that with the member. For me, it is about | :11:55. | :12:03. | |
protecting our native species and the hurly makers. We have found a | :12:03. | :12:10. | |
way forward that will allow them to make hurls way into the future. | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
The Agriculture Minister, Michelle O'Neill, with a sporting offer to | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
the DUP's Paul Girvan. The Education Minister has rejected | :12:15. | :12:17. | |
DUP criticisms of his handling of computer glitches in primary | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
schools. In a statement about his aims for education, John O'Dowd | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
also told the Assembly that while most teachers are excellent, there | :12:25. | :12:32. | |
are some who need retraining or are not effective any more. On 17th | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
October the Chief Inspector of the department's education training | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
inspectorate launched the annual report on the state of the | :12:40. | :12:47. | |
education system. The inspectorate makes a key contribution to raising | :12:47. | :12:53. | |
standard. It acts as a catalyst for improvement. In the last year, 81% | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
of schools with follow-up inspections had improved one | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
performance level. The report paints an improving picture in our | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
primary schools. A picture that shows that the revised curriculum | :13:06. | :13:16. | |
:13:16. | :13:16. | ||
has bedded in well. At Key Stage 2, overall quality was good or better | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
in four-fifths of primary schools inspected. I would like to | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
acknowledge the dedication of our primary schools and the improvement | :13:22. | :13:28. | |
that has been delivered. Too many children are not well served. It is | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
very clear from the Chief Inspector's report and from wider | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
evidence that effective leadership and high quality teaching are | :13:38. | :13:45. | |
central to delivering improvement. Now it has been held accountable | :13:45. | :13:55. | |
:13:55. | :13:56. | ||
for the outcomes. We need to do more. More to acknowledge the great | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
teachers and develop more of them. And more to challenge and support | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
those who are not as effective as they should be. For that reason, I | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
have already announced action to enhance the professional standing | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
of teachers this year. I propose to bring legislation to strengthen the | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
role of the General Teaching Council as the professional body in | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
supporting teachers and upholding the highest professional standards. | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
We will also support the continuing price of the development of | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
teachers through a new strategy for teacher education that will focus | :14:29. | :14:39. | |
on attracting the right people into teaching. I also want to announce | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
that as part of our work to learn from the best, the North will be | :14:44. | :14:49. | |
participating in a major review by the Organisation for Economic Co- | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
operation and Development, OECD, looking at how assessment and | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
evaluation systems deliver improvement force pupils. Our | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
experience will help others learn from our experience. Importantly, | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
it will also help us to learn from others, too. It will involve an in- | :15:05. | :15:15. | |
depth review of our education system carried out by independent | :15:15. | :15:21. | |
experts from other OECD countries. It seems right after all that if | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
you expect our schools to be inspected and evaluated and to | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
respond with action to build on strength, we should expect to | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
subject our system as a whole to similar scrutiny. You used | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
"exciting development". There will hard I'll be few teachers who will | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
be sitting on the edge of their seat as a result of the content of | :15:44. | :15:53. | |
what is in the Minister's speech. He has tried to expand on the | :15:53. | :15:58. | |
statement that he made last year. I do have a concern, Minister, | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
however, that teachers listening to this today will be of the opinion | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
that they are being asked to pick up the tab for the failures of the | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
department rather than addressing the issues which are currently in | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
our educational system. It always amazes me how the member manages to | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
evaluate what the outside world is thinking. There will be different | :16:23. | :16:28. | |
views on what I have said today both in the teaching profession and | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
parents and also on boards of governors. I'm not pointing the | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
finger at teachers here. We have a collective responsibility to | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
improve the educational outcomes of our young people and within the | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
collective responsibility there is a role for teachers. And I have | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
said in my statement the vast majority of our teachers are | :16:47. | :16:52. | |
excellent. However, we have to accept that there's teachers out | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
there who require retraining and there's teachers who are no longer | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
effective. I don't believe we have the mechanisms in place to deal | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
with that quickly enough to make an impact. I want those discussions to | :17:03. | :17:11. | |
continue. I also set out a challenge for myself as Minister. I | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
have called in OECD to inspect our education system. The education | :17:16. | :17:22. | |
system I am in charge of. The buck stops with me. OECD are coming to | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
inspect my role as Minister and the policies I have delivered. I don't | :17:26. | :17:34. | |
think I can be any more open and transparent than that. At the close | :17:34. | :17:44. | |
of play, around 100 schools were facing difficulty. Their computer | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
experts tell me they have identified a problem in the system | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
and they have identified a way to resolve that problem. And they are | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
running further tests before they put that into the system. We don't | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
have wide scale problems. We do not have a crisis. We have a difficulty | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
and a problem. The Education Minister, John O'Dowd. | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
As we heard from Mark Devenport earlier in the programme, the | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
Assembly voted in favour of reducing the voting age to 16. | :18:11. | :18:13. | |
Changing the law remains the responsibility of the Government in | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
Westminster but today at Stormont, the DUP was the only main party not | :18:17. | :18:24. | |
calling for a change. I have been extremely politically active and | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
aware since my early teens but was only entitled to a vote three years | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
ago. I want to ensure young people are given a greater say. The | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
argument that older people know what is best for younger people was | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
used to deny women the vote in the 1900s. This motion should be a | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
motion of confidence in the younger generation. I urge everyone to | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
support it. To those who don't, it shows the fear of becoming | :18:51. | :18:57. | |
irrelevant. I can't help but notice a huge reason for political | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
detachment is the very make-up of this Chamber. There is a real | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
perception that this Chamber is male and middle-aged and too much | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
so. It is time for change. Can I say that whilst the people who are | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
involved in the vote at 16 movement are clearly well educated, clearly | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
well motivated and take an interest in the political process - there is | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
no doubt of that - I don't think that that can be said for the vast | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
majority of 16-year-olds across the country. I don't think that every | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
16-year-old will be watching proceedings today with a huge | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
degree of interest. The party is opposed to voting at 16. Could he | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
explain is his party united in this? We are given to understand | :19:41. | :19:47. | |
that one of your MPs does support voting at 16 so is that a united | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
position, or...? I think that members are able to hold their own | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
individual views on this. I don't think that would be unique. The | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
Assembly party here is united on this vote. We don't believe in | :19:58. | :20:05. | |
voting at 16. I could list the number of things you cannot do at | :20:05. | :20:13. | |
16. You cannot drive, you can't rent out films such as Robocop. So | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
the reason that society has said you can't do that is because of | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
protection. It is somewhat ironic that some of the individuals here | :20:20. | :20:25. | |
today who will argue to give 16- year-olds more responsibility are | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
the very people who also argue and supported raising the smoking age | :20:29. | :20:38. | |
up to 18 and want to have further restrictions on young drivers. | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
Another aspect is the issue of citizenship training. Our young | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
people are being taught in our schools about the importance of | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
voting. What happens at present, they are given this information, | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
many come 16, they leave school, and it is a minimum of two years | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
before they have an opportunity to exercise their vote. They forget | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
what they have learnt at school and they haven't had a chance to | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
exercise it. How much better would it not be having gone through your | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
citizenship training that you were presented at the first chance of an | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
election to exercise that vote and participate? The habits learnt in | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
our younger years tend to be what follows on in our latter years. It | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
is vital we encourage more people to vote. If young people are able | :21:25. | :21:31. | |
to go and fight wars, they should be entitled to vote for the | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
Government that would send them. I do think that I am fed up hearing | :21:36. | :21:40. | |
politicians say young people are apathetic. They aren't interested | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
in politics. I often speak to young people as do many people in this | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
House. They are far from apathetic. They are very, very interested in | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
many issues in society. One thing they are not interested in is how | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
this political process and these bodies engage with them and attempt | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
to try to encourage them to become involved in politics. None of us | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
know for certain whether such an extension would lead to a | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
significant increase in young people voting. We need to qur and | :22:11. | :22:19. | |
implement measures that deal with - - everyone in this chamber should | :22:19. | :22:28. | |
agree with me that that is a good thing. It certainly is not a reason | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
to deny politically active 16-year- olds their democratic rights. | :22:31. | :22:32. | |
The Alliance Party's Stewart Dickson. | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
Joining me now is one of the proposers of that motion, the Green | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
Party's Steven Agnew. Why does lowering the age of voting to 16 | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
make sense in your view? I think more and more young people are | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
engaged in politics. We are doing citizenship courses in schools. We | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
do have a problem of 18 to 25-year- olds voting and research suggests | :22:54. | :23:03. | |
that 16s is a much better age to get younger people engaged. At 16, | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
you are in school, you can be in school getting registered to vote, | :23:08. | :23:17. | |
it is time - you are talking - so make it real. When we look at | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
things, we had a debate about the age of criminal responsibility. We | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
say young people are responsible at the age of ten for their actions. | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
At 16, we are arguing you are not responsible enough to vote. At 16, | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
you are well enough informed. they interested? Critics of the | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
idea say there is a huge amount of apathy as far as 18 to 25-year-olds | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
are concerned. Where is the evidence that 16 and 17-year-olds | :23:44. | :23:47. | |
will take the opportunity to vote? I remember being 16. I remember all | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
the young people I went to school with and went on to university with. | :23:51. | :24:01. | |
:24:01. | :24:02. | ||
Young people are the most energetic, passionate opinionated group. This | :24:02. | :24:07. | |
is a time when you are exploring all these thing. You have the time | :24:07. | :24:15. | |
to. You can research them. So they are interested. There has been a | :24:15. | :24:21. | |
failure of politicians to engage young people and to reflect their | :24:21. | :24:31. | |
:24:31. | :24:31. | ||
views. OK. You have to address the issues that matter to young people. | :24:31. | :24:37. | |
OK. You won the motion today, the vote 51 to 29. What happens now? | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
You hand this over to Westminster and there is no guarantee that | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
Westminster will do anything about it? There is a Private Members' | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
Bill in the House of Lords looking at lowering the voting age. We are | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
sending a clear message that in the Northern Ireland Assembly, they | :24:55. | :24:57. | |
support the reduction. Steven Agnew, thank you. | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
Legislation which will reform the welfare system has been the source | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
of significant controversy here at Stormont in recent weeks. Well, | :25:02. | :25:04. | |
last week, the Social Development Committee took evidence on whether | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
or not the bill is compliant with human rights legislation, as we can | :25:08. | :25:15. | |
hear now in our weekly look at committee business. I must record | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
that the Commission is disappointed that there is a lack of evidence | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
that the department has undertaken the required human rights scrutiny | :25:24. | :25:30. | |
of the bill. We noted that last Monday that the Minister for social | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
development advised the Assembly that the department had conducted a | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
full analysis of the bill against the European Convention on Human | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
Rights. The Commission would point out to you that the department is | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
obliged to analyse the bill against all relevant human rights standards | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
in the Treaty obligations in the Council of Europe and United | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
Nations systems, not just on the European Convention. This | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
commission's focus is testing the bill against human rights standards | :25:55. | :25:58. | |
and not the politics of welfare reform. The Commission can support | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
the stated aim of the bill to assist people into work. The right | :26:02. | :26:08. | |
of people to work is recognised in the European social charter. The | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
measures included within the bill intended to assist and encourage | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
individuals in exercising the work however must take into account the | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
particular circumstances of the individual. On the issue of | :26:22. | :26:32. | |
:26:32. | :26:33. | ||
sanctions, paragraphs 28 to 38, we have raised concerns on the | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
potential for the sanctions regime relating to the various work- | :26:37. | :26:44. | |
related requirements, our concerns are about these being imposed | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
unduly harshly with the result that an individual may become destitute. | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
The bill does contain numerous safeguards that the sanctions | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
should not be imposed without good reason. And that those who have had | :26:57. | :27:02. | |
a sanction imposed upon them may apply for a hardship payment. But | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
our concerns about this still remain. It says here as part of the | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
process for bringing the bill to the Executive, my department's | :27:10. | :27:19. | |
already conducted a full analysis of the proposals contained. Then it | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
goes on to detail the various articles. But I finish - the | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
department's view and mine is that the bill is compatible with the | :27:29. | :27:37. | |
Convention rights as defined in Section 1. That view has been | :27:37. | :27:43. | |
confirmed by the department's solicitors office. Yet you are | :27:43. | :27:46. | |
concerned about the absence of detailed human rights analysis of | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
the bill and its potential implications. Now, either you are | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
right, or he is right? We are not disputing the Minister has | :27:54. | :27:58. | |
undertaken a human rights analysis. In fact, we have noted he has made | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
that remark to the Assembly. The only thing we are drawing to the | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
committee's attention is has the committee seen sight of that impact | :28:05. | :28:12. | |
analysis? Also, with regard... we seen sight? No, we haven't. | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
you requested that? No, we haven't. The Commission did meet with the | :28:18. | :28:21. | |
Minister when ever the Welfare Reform Bill was passing through | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
Westminster and it was made clear at that stage to both the Minister | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
and his officials that the Commission was willing to engage at | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
whatever level it saw fit but in the interim period there has been | :28:31. | :28:36. | |
no approach made by the department. Have you approached the department | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
yourselves? No, we have not. Sammy Douglas and David Russell | :28:40. | :28:41. | |
ending that look at committee business. | :28:41. | :28:45. | |
That's it from Stormont Today for this week, but do make a point of | :28:45. | :28:47. |