08/03/2016 Stormont Today

Delays in patients accessing health service treatment -

never far from the top of the agenda - continue to cause problems

And it wasn't women's hour - not even women's day -

but women's week, as the Speaker aimed to raise the profile of female

The Health Minister is questioned over lengthy waiting lists...

We have been trying, once we resolved welfare reform, the budget

was back on a stable footing and we have been addressing the problem and

I have made it a key priority. Calling more women to public life -

the Assembly celebrates It is up to women to put their

shoulders to the door and shove it but it is up to assembly members

that we hold the door open and encourage many others to come

through. And I'm joined by the News Letter's

Political Correspondent, Sam McBride, with his take

on another busy day on the hill... It's only Tuesday and already it's

been a week of ups and downs On Sunday, Simon Hamilton said

an extra thirty million pounds, on top of the forty million

announced in November, would be made available

in the next financial year Yesterday, he was criticised

by a patient waiting two years for surgery and a GP who called

the injection of money a 'band-aid'. The topic was bound to come up

during question time today, I recently announced that I would

ask the independent NHS pay review body for a recommendation regarding

the pay award and I said that I would honour their conclusions. I

have now received the response and they suggest that certain economic

factors could point towards the option of an ill aboard and they

suggest they have seen no evidence to suggest that large numbers of

staff are leaving Northern Ireland because of pay. They recommend a 1%

increase for all staff in Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the

UK and I am happy to confirm that I am accepting their recommendation

for a 1% pay award. This will be challenging in our tough budgetary

times but I am clear that it is an appropriate reward for our working

staff. How confident would the Minister be that waiting list will

continue to decrease and we would get seriously to grips with this

problem? Part... We can invest and we are investing and I think we

should note and welcomed the additional investment I have

announced in the last number of days on top of the ?40 million going in

this year and sometimes I think that people think that is the only money

going to waiting list, this is on top of the ordinary activity of the

trusts which ensure that cases continue and there are more

outpatient appointments. This is additional on top of that. There is

a constant churn of people going out and coming onto the list and there

has been a 14% increase in referrals, never mind issues with

finance, but there has been a 14% increase in the number of referrals

from GPs and others to hospital for outpatient and other appointments

and we have got to, keep our focus on continued investment in getting

to grips with this. I acknowledge that waiting lists are too long, it

is one of my priorities to address that and that is why we have been

investing the money to help 150,000 people across Northern Ireland to

get the procedures and operations they require. We need to continue

that investment and that is why I am pleased that the First Minister has

indicated that one of her priorities is prioritising health expenditure

and I agree with her when she says we need to reform our system, but we

need to spend a minimum of ?1 billion extra over the next five

years. The department received an additional ?80 million last year and

yet the situation in my constituency continued to deteriorate. All the

Minister be in the situation when will he be in a situation to get to

grips with the crisis in waiting times? We're in a position because

of budgetary pressures and because of that 14% increase in referrals

where we have unacceptable in long-awaited list and I think if was

standing here before the member and the house saying that is the way it

is and we are not doing anything, I think he would be right to criticise

me. We have been trying, once we've resolved welfare reform, the budget

was back at a stable footing and we have been addressing the problem and

it is a key priority in terms of the big allocations out of the monetary

rounds, for the budget for next year to tackle this issue.

Simon Hamilton - and Sam McBride from the News Letter is with me

Health is seen by many as the most challenging ministry, no matter how

much money there might be you get the sense it will never be enough.

That is true. In some ways, maybe 15 years ago, assembly health ministers

had that fact masked by the fact that the economy was booming with

the Labour government that was spending beyond its means but

spending generously in terms of the health service and we benefited.

Over the last period, we have had both the crash of the economy and

the welfare reform impasse which has taken a lot of money out of the

executive budget and health has suffered. Waiting list, as Simon

Hamilton admitted, are now seriously very concerning lead going in the

wrong direction when you look at grass, they are sharply going up.

That is the difficulty for the DUP but also for people who are waiting

for importing procedures. Health has the biggest budget and the biggest

impact on the population. It does. We all have experience of health,

from the breadth of our children to people dying in hospital 's

everyday, we all know it is a massive issue most of us it is a

good experience, the difficulty politically is that people expected

to be a good experience and if there is any issue, that comes back to

health managers or to the Health Minister. It is a thankless task, if

it goes well, that is what we expect other that does not, we complain.

Simon Hamilton has been in the post for less than a year, how has he

done? He has done well, he has not dropped the ball in a political

sense. When you look at the statistics it is hard to argue that

he has been massively successful in that the waiting times are getting

very long and you could argue that is not entirely his fault, it is the

fault of not enough funding, but wider institutional. Edwin Poots was

very bold to the point of closing the Accident and Emergency unit at

his local hospital. Since then, we have seen the cutback of

streamlining your care, centralised bigger hospitals which doctors say

is what needs to be done but politically it is suicidal in some

cases for local politicians. We have had this spectre of some DUP

ministers arguing that services should be reduced at a local

hospital and some of their colleagues arguing that they should

not. That is difficult to reconcile. They have not followed through on

that. Given that challenge, do you think the DUP will want health in

the next mandate? I do not think anyone wants health. It is always

one of the last pics and I do not see any reason why that would be

different. Developing, it is more likely to be further down the line

because there are massive issues that make it bigger before they get

better. Given the number of 'final stages'

we've brought you in recent weeks, you'd be forgiven for thinking

that bills only complete their legislative journey

in the final few months The first bill to vault its final

hurdle today concerned Shared Sheard education provides the

opportunity to raise educational standards for young people, to learn

about each other from each other and for teachers, youth workers and

early years practitioners to learn from practices and share good

practice. Share and education can facilitate mutual understanding

through ongoing and purpose of engagement in learning and young

people from different community backgrounds. Shared education poses

no threat to any school sector, youth work or early years settings

or community. The hope is that the cooperation between schools will

hope -- Michael helped to lift standards and that is something for

all our children, from whatever background should be something we

are aspiring to and if that is a positive outcome, of shared

education then that is something that we can welcome. I think there

is a positive step forward with this bill, clearly as with all

legislation in this house, the key test will be as we move ahead in the

next mandate towards implementation and seen how this works on the

ground and it is important that the same effort and attention given to

this bill is also applied to our education system in terms of the

delivery of the objectives and that is something which I suspect this

house can talk about. Shared learning partnerships are working

successfully in many areas including my local area and we have schools

sharing teachers, sharing resources and now schools are sharing

buildings and there is a great variety of various types of sharing

that goes on. It, this is demonstrated the ability and

willingness of our schools, pupils and parents to move to a greater

degree of sharing across the traditional religious divide. We

believe that shared education could and should be a supportive mechanism

for developing other models of long-term sharing, such as jointly

manage schools, integrated schools and federations. The UUP is

supportive of innovative solutions developed by communities for the

children. I hope to be proved wrong, I hope in a few years' time we will

be able to look at the situation and say, the shared education agenda was

a major step forward in terms of bringing our children together,

which is what we are all about, a shared future in a small way and I

would also hope that the experience of sharing across sectors and

between schools will lead schools and parents and governors to realise

that there is no bogeyman, that the children could be educated together

under one roof and without having to worry about which sector they came

from where they lived or what the ethos of the school was, that they

would be able to go to the best school, near a school of their

choice. Today the Assembly was presented

with a report outlining potential Members called for the next

Justice Minister to take on board their recommendations

on how the entire legal and criminal process can be made fit

for the 21st century. And the Chair of the Justice

Committee, Alastair Ross, Good evening. Thank you for joining

us. The findings and recommendations in this report promised to

completely change the way much of the justice system is run, if they

implement. Yes. To set a little bit of context we recognise there is

less government money around but the public expectation is higher and

what we tried to do was find evidence -based policy is that

reduced the cost to the taxpayer but improved outcomes. We have

identified a number of areas from problem-solving courts to use

justice and early interventions to the use of technology to improve

outcomes and help engage with the justice system. Wide range of

suggestions we have in the report that they think all of them are

achievable and the committee has done the survey and we want to see a

number of recommendations included for government. There appears to be

a particular focus on how young offenders are dealt with. We

recognise that once a young person enters the criminal justice system

it is a revolving door and we need to do what we can to divert them

from entering the system and some of that is early intervention and we

will work with education, appropriate to versions, restorative

justice that can make a big difference and ensure that young

people have a second chance. We do not want them at the age of 15, 16,

17, 18 losing opportunities and that is something that the committee

agrees with. At the same time, it has to be said that if a young

person knowingly breaks the law, they have to take the consequences.

Of course and many of the diversions are around low-level first-time

offenders and the more serious offences will have to be dealt with

in a traditional system and that is appropriate. We try to ensure that

the justice system acts proportionately and rationally in

terms of the approach. Community restorative justice has been tried,

is that the next logical step? There are number of things. We need to not

only look for criminal justice responses, sometimes health care is

appropriate and if a community has been wronged, a proportionate

response might be that the young person helps to clean up the area

and works alongside the community to improve things and back and repay

their debt to society in a more constructive way.

We need to be smart on crime and we need to look at areas where outcome

can be improved, distinguishable between what works and what doesn't

work permit shall be criminal justice system is right in response

to this. There is no absolute guarantee that your committee will

necessary pick up on this. No, it would be part of our legacy report.

The next minister will pick up some of the suggestions as well. I

suspect they will go and I suspect they will will be a hugely

successful collaboration, with the legal profession and the legal

sector, police, all of these organisations coming together once a

month to look at the evidence base outcome for all the different

initiatives. I really good report their and we could use it in the

next mandate. The Finance Minister also faced

questions today and it was his turn to answer MLAs asking about the hot

topic of Brexit. Most ministers have been asked

for their position on the EU referendum debate

and Mervyn Storey was only too happy The EU funding totalling 676 million

has been secured for the 2007 13 BC and the five A programmes and the

2000 1420 piece for the five A programmes for the delivery by SU

PB. The special EU programmes body is the managing authority for the

direct programmes. Funding under these programmes is secured why the

Northern Ireland executive, Irish, and relation the Scottish allotment.

Will the Minister offers some suggestions of how such funding

would be best attained in the future? The member was to draw us

into the debate around what would happen post the referendum. I have

made it very clear that the debate which leads us to and during the

referendum needs to be on the basis of facts, it has to be the basis of

figures and one figure that those parties who are suggesting that we

should stay within the European Union has to deal with is the fact

that we have ?20 billion which goes every year to the coppers of the

European Union. An organisation that has a looted bureaucracy, an

organisation that can't secure our borders, an organisation that cannot

resist meddling in our courts decisions and I think that that the

many other reasons, let financial reasons, there is a case that is

currently being made to ensure that our money is best spent in Northern

Ireland to the benefit of our tissues, to the benefit of our

farmers, to the benefit that of our committee. Could I ask the Minister,

has his department carried out any audit as to the potential

implications of Brexit, negative or otherwise, specifically for Northern

Ireland? Because I think that faith in the Tories to deliver to Northern

Ireland and a post Brexit, I think would be pretty much ill founded. I

hear members who are always asking for more information. All the

information is out there that needs to be out there in terms of making a

judgment on a decision. That is the fact that Her Majesty 's tragedy,

irrespective of who is the Government of the day, whether they

be the Conservative all the members colleagues in the Labour Party, and

we know how well they were able to spend money. They spent money that

well that the bust almost the Treasury so I think the memo will do

better to have a conversation with his colleagues in the Labour Party

that causes into the financial mess. The Conservative Party had to try

and resolve. However, the issue that still needs to be resolved is for

the Treasury because they will have more money which will not go to

Brussels but will come to Belfast and to other parts of the United

Kingdom and that I started back, I would have to go round all the

the members constituencies to keep you all happy.

Mervyn Storey in robust form at the despatch box.

Yet another piece of legislation made its final passage

The Rural Needs Bill obliges all public bodies to take

into account the needs of those living in the country

The Agriculture Minister and members of the Agriculture Committee

were pleased to see the bill reach its final stage.

As we move forward it will be important to ensure that the public

authorities named in the bill comply with this in a consistent and

meaningful way. This bill is to have real impact on the lives, it can't

be allowed to become a box ticking exercise. The reporting and

monitoring of arrangements will help to ensure that this will happen as a

result of these amendments, the Department is required to publish an

annual report. What I am glad that there will be a statue duty on

public authorities to take rural needs into account when incrementing

Government policies and delivering public services I'm still somewhat

disappointed with the limited scope of the bill. This bill represents

another missed opportunity. We only have to look at other parts of the

United Kingdom where there are significantly more protection than

place for rural communities, for instance, I try to place presumption

against rural school closures on the face of a bill, like Scotland and

England, given the limited scope of this bill it was not possible. This

bill has come about as a result of the brutal White paper and action

plan with the commitment to strive for an inclusive rural society where

all rural drivers enjoy the same quality of the as other people

referring in urban settings. The effective implementation of rural

proofing across central and local Government. And other public

authorities as may be specified. I think this is a historic day for the

Assembly. This rural bill, the final stage of this rural bill is

something that is the little for quite a number of years and I want

to congratulate and compound the Minister Michele O'Neil for bringing

this forward. The rural dweller and I am one of them myself, has for a

long time been an estimated within their own communities. I served

nearly 20 years as a councillor. In a rural area and it was a fighting

match year in, year out with meetings with the council to get the

right money laid aside for facilities in the rural areas. In an

act this is a great new story for our communities. I think for us, we

can be very, as Assembly, be very proud that we have left a fantastic

legacy out of this mandate. The needs of rural communities will be

reckless. For me, given that it is International Women's Day, I am a

proud minister to say that I've led the way in delivering for rural

communities and to make sure that we look to the future, broke me to stay

so the disadvantage, they do feel that they have a statue that now,

that their needs will be taken into account. It is a great newspaper

Michelle O'Neill acknowledging International Women's Day.

And the Assembly isn't just marking the day,

it has devoted the entire week to raising the profile

Earlier, a cross-party motion marked the creation of a women's

parliamentary caucus here in Stormont.

A political career path is deemed as not family friendly due to long

sections and the demands placed on member's times. It remains true that

women are main carers in our society and as such we need to expose

strategies to prove worklife balance and improve issues around childcare

and other caring responsibilities. This will be another key protein for

the women's caucus. If more women will take up more high-profile and

positions, it will help the media will inspire more women to take up

higher positions. I would commend it to everybody. We can't sit back and

wait on the societal changes. We must change our own society and it

is my hope that the women caucus will drive these changes so the male

and female ratio of this Assembly is much closer to 5050 by 2020. I want

to thank you for your commitment that you have had at women in

politics and in public life and I know a few months ago, Catriona

Ruane and I ambushed you in your office and have some ideas that

would be good for International Women's Day. You took those ideas

are not needed you make this Assembly celebrate International

Women's Day, you brought it into International women's week. I would

like rabbit in the headlights. I was so nervous and so intimidated by

this chamber but it has been through this support that I've had from my

party colleagues, from other people within this chamber, but I can stand

here today and not feel like that rabbit in the head lights. We also

have a First Minister who is a women, we have two junior ministers,

we have a Minister for agriculture and culture arts and leisure. That

didn't happen by accident. That happens because women were taken

power and also being supported by men in parties who understood the

importance of true equality within each of our parties. I lost my mum

in December and she was a strong women who had a great life, reared

seven children and freely in different times she read those

children. It is because of women like my mother and all our mothers

who fought the good fight in their way, in their time. You won't make

the progress you want to make in this place without the support of

men, that is a given. I am hoping that a lot of other men who maybe

don't need much persuasion will come on board with the initiative as time

goes on. 2016 saw the first of First Minister in Northern Ireland and I'm

kind God she's not here because I must admit Arlene Foster is someone

I've always admired. I would be quite embarrassing visit she was in

room. I dyed my hair because -- I admire her because she is a good

politician. She is not only a good team are politician, generally she

is a good politician. We are forced to be reckoned with. We have

achieved much in our numbers and we have much to be proud of. Is up to

women to put their shoulders to the door and give it a hard shell. It is

up to Assembly members here that we hold that door open and encourage

many others to come through. Sandra Overend and Sam

McBride has rejoined me. Do you think we need great is to

encourage more women to play in active part in Northern Ireland

politics? Some say we do. It has to be said that has been some

criticism. I think waiters are ultimately not the answer because I

think they can be quite demeaning to women. They could suggest that women

really need some sort of like to get on in politics. These strong

political figures show that actually it you are good enough, you can get

on. Ideally at this point in time, there has never been bettered by

good time in which to be a female pills politician in Northern Ireland

going forward for election. If you are women going forward for

election, parties are my full that they need a certain percentage. If

there is not a crater, your other pretty good chance of getting in

there. There are some pretty impressive female politicians in the

parties that. Having as female first Miller has got to be an

encouragement for all parties. It is like Margaret Thatcher when she was

Prime Minister. Particularly in a party like the DUP that has been

criticised sometimes unfairly, it is a bit like the Conservative Party,

they were the first to have a female Prime Minister and the DUP have

surprised many to have the first female leader. They have chosen them

in seats where they are likely to win and that is quite significant

and if you that is where potentially could have people put in where they

never have a chance of winning but instead you are really addressing

the issue. Join me for a special edition

of The View from Dublin on Thursday But before we go, can I assure

the Justice Minister Can I is usual welcome the support

from the vast number of members who've spoken and in GB huge crowds

we can here. I suspect the whole BBC Stormont Today team are hunched over

their laptop screens watching in the basement.

It's a huge weekend of sport, live across the BBC.

The FA Cup quarterfinals and round four of the Six Nations.