Browse content similar to 13/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to the first Stormont Today of 2014. Coming up in | :00:26. | :00:32. | |
the next 30 minutes: He may have gone home, but the talks process | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
chaired by Dr Richard Haass is still dominating the agenda at Stormont. | :00:36. | :00:44. | |
I, like many others, and disappointed by the reaction. There | :00:45. | :00:53. | |
has been a failure of leadership. Crisis, what crisis? The Health | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
Minister talks down last week's major incident at the Royal Victoria | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
Hospital. I wish our politicians and media would be more mature and how | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
they assess things. And our Political Correspondent, | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
Gareth Gordon, joins me to cast his eye over the day's proceedings. | :01:15. | :01:21. | |
Perhaps it was no great surprise that the inconclusive Haass talks, | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
which concluded two weeks ago, dominated today's proceedings. Sinn | :01:25. | :01:30. | |
Fein brought a motion to the Assembly calling for the proposals | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
on flags, parades and the past to be implemented, but were met with | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
Unionist opposition. Here's a flavour of today's debate. | :01:37. | :01:48. | |
This is not a Republican document. This is a document that Republicans | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
can support in the belief it will move our society forward. We took up | :01:53. | :02:05. | |
the challenge. It is our belief that significant progress has been made | :02:06. | :02:14. | |
on to-macro of the issues. We need to have calm reflection on what | :02:15. | :02:25. | |
happened during those topics. I know that in the final negotiations it is | :02:26. | :02:34. | |
public knowledge that the Alliance party basically rejected the | :02:35. | :02:43. | |
proposals. It has always been my position that | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
no deal is better than a bad deal. I do not believe that taken as a | :02:50. | :03:05. | |
package that this was a good deal. I start from that process. It is only | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
worthwhile if it is going to improve the situation. My Alliance | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
colleagues know what it takes to compromise and we will not be found | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
wanting. We have made a significant contribution to the process. We have | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
acknowledged that the proposals are a basis on which to make progress. | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
The Alliance party has committed to deliver what is in the document. The | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
real issue is not those who sign up and those who do not. It will be | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
those who deliver and those who do not. The strongest part of the | :03:42. | :03:58. | |
process was the input of civic society, demonstrating their strong | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
desire for resolutions of the issues that face us. It is for the victims | :04:04. | :04:12. | |
and survivors of the conflict that he must take the opportunities | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
afforded us now to deal on the heads of wheat and ethically with the | :04:18. | :04:26. | |
past. -- to deal comprehensively and ethically. | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
I believe that Sinn Fein has shown leadership. I am disappointed from | :04:33. | :04:52. | |
the reaction of their DUs be. -- of the DUP and UUP. | :04:53. | :05:05. | |
She said it was not a full social and it was not the end the process. | :05:06. | :05:14. | |
She said we should have a forum. That confirms the position of the | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
first Minister and the leader of my party in seeing that there has been | :05:21. | :05:29. | |
work carried out, but there is still much work to do. I am very pleased | :05:30. | :05:36. | |
that a meeting has been called tomorrow to try and bring that | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
about. I am in this House as a Unionist. | :05:41. | :05:49. | |
When I read the seventh two minutes from Haass -- when I read the | :05:50. | :06:02. | |
document from Haass. Jim Allister distancing himself from | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
the Haass proposals. I'm joined now by our Political Correspondent, | :06:06. | :06:07. | |
Gareth Gordon. Gareth, two weeks into the new year, Haass is still | :06:08. | :06:21. | |
dominating the political agenda. Nothing seems to have changed. The | :06:22. | :06:30. | |
time of the debate slipped until later and later. The times of the | :06:31. | :06:39. | |
press conferences got later and later stop two weeks on nothing has | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
changed. You watch the debate today. Was that any sign of movement in any | :06:44. | :06:52. | |
of the parties positions? No. Just to be more detailed, the to-macro | :06:53. | :07:02. | |
nationalist parties, say they want full implementation, and the DUP say | :07:03. | :07:13. | |
they want to concentrate on discussions tomorrow. Peter Robinson | :07:14. | :07:22. | |
said today that their work on the Haass proposals should examine in | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
detail all 340 elements of the seventh Haass document. That will | :07:30. | :07:39. | |
take some time, one would presume. The Alliance want a time limited, | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
independently chaired mechanism to reach agreement on outstanding | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
issues. That sounds like the process we have just had. | :07:49. | :08:12. | |
The mood of the debate struck me as being good-tempered. It was | :08:13. | :08:27. | |
reasonably civilised. But still very resolute. The endgame has begun to a | :08:28. | :08:38. | |
limited degree. We had a substantive motion from | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
Sinn Fein to prevent the Haass proposals. That was defeated as were | :08:45. | :08:54. | |
the three amendments. In other business today, the Health | :08:55. | :08:57. | |
Minister, Edwin Poots, has told the Assembly there is no crisis in | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
Northern Ireland's Accident and Emergency units. Mr Poots was | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
responding to an Urgent Question from the SDLP following last week's | :09:05. | :09:07. | |
major incident at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. For his part, | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
the Minister was critical of both political and media reaction to the | :09:13. | :09:19. | |
problem. Last weeks circumstances were | :09:20. | :09:32. | |
exceptional. The escalation plan which included and that is as being | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
diverted work effectively. Normal arrangement resumed within a matter | :09:39. | :09:54. | |
of hours. We were shocked to see what happened at the Royal Victoria | :09:55. | :10:01. | |
on Wednesday. This is about accountability. How a decision in | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
one area could potentially affect another. In this case it has | :10:08. | :10:15. | |
affected other areas negatively. Is the tail wagging the dog? Wednesday | :10:16. | :10:29. | |
was a symptom, not a cause. What did happen at the Royal Victoria Mr Mac | :10:30. | :10:44. | |
--? They were admitting over 110. There | :10:45. | :11:00. | |
was a degree of backing up. I wish our politicians and media would be | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
more mature and how they assess things. Three hours after the | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
emergency plan was initiated things were back to normal. Why do you | :11:12. | :11:25. | |
refer to 12 and eight our waiting beaches rather than the NHS target | :11:26. | :11:33. | |
of being seen within four hours? Things are measured differently in | :11:34. | :11:45. | |
other parts of the UK than they are in northern Ireland. I will give all | :11:46. | :11:55. | |
the support to ensure that working conditions are good and that they | :11:56. | :12:04. | |
can provide the public with a great service and that they can do it in | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
an environment where they are able to carry out their work in an | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
appropriate way. We have 100 extra doctors working in the health | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
service in Northern Ireland since I took office. We have the percent | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
more nurses in Northern Ireland. Health Minister Edwin Poots pledging | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
his backing for Accident and Emergency staff in Northern Ireland. | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
We heard earlier the Assembly debate on the Richard Haass proposals, but | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
the First Minister also covered the topic when he faced questions in the | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
chamber. Peter Robinson said he doesn't expect Dr Haass to return to | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
Northern Ireland, but he said there is agreement in some areas and more | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
work could be done to get closer to a deal. | :12:47. | :12:54. | |
How do you see the process moving forward after the Haass docs? What | :12:55. | :13:01. | |
is required if we are to move forward in Northern Ireland is to | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
reach agreement on outstanding issues. The unfortunate element of | :13:05. | :13:13. | |
the Haass process has been that we now know that what they believed | :13:14. | :13:31. | |
would be possible. It is necessary for a working group to sit down, to | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
work out where further work is required. I know that the Ulster | :13:39. | :13:48. | |
Unionist Party Alliance have indicated that they wish to be part | :13:49. | :13:58. | |
of such a process. -- the and the Alliance. I hope that when the party | :13:59. | :14:07. | |
leaders meet tomorrow they can reach that kind of agreement. who should | :14:08. | :14:17. | |
chaired the next step of the process? Does he envisage Richard | :14:18. | :14:26. | |
Haass returning? I do not know. I think there are laws against | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
inhumane treatment, so I do not know if we would want to push Richard | :14:31. | :14:36. | |
Haass to return. I think certainly, I would be very happy if he did | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
return, but I suspect when he indicated that he was leaving on | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
December 31, it wasn't going to go beyond that, but that is his fixed | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
decision. I know that the Secretary of State has offered herself to | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
chair the next phase of the process. Again, I would be quite | :14:55. | :14:58. | |
content with that. But the choice of who chairs has been left with the | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
five parties collectively, that is how Richard Haass was appointed, so | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
I suspect if the parties are agreeable to a further phase, then | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
the parties themselves will determine who was appropriate to be | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
the chair. Let me say this in relation to the programme that seems | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
to have stirred up this interest, Ian Paisley has been a major figure | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
in public life in Northern Ireland for many generations. He was active | :15:27. | :15:33. | |
while most of us in this chamber were not born or were in short | :15:34. | :15:39. | |
trousers or plaid skirts. The fact remains, he made an enormous | :15:40. | :15:43. | |
contribution to the lives of Northern Ireland and have a | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
fantastic legacy that he has left. It saddens me that it is being | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
betrayed in the way that this programme appears to do it. But it | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
does not take away from the very significant role that he has | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
played. I honestly believe that if we are going to have interviews | :16:02. | :16:04. | |
about the past, it is far better to have them when they are fresher in | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
people 's memories. The First Minister, Peter Robinson. | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
The Environment Minister took the opportunity of a Ministerial | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
statement to reflect on recent road deaths. Mark H Durkan will meet | :16:15. | :16:17. | |
members of the Northern Ireland Road Safety Forum tomorrow. Six people | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
have died on the roads since the start of the year. | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
Members will be aware of my consistently expressed view that one | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
death on our roads is one death to many. I have personal experience, as | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
do other members, of the effects of a life lost on our roads and the | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
impact that it can have on a family, and I join with Minister Kennedy and | :16:42. | :16:48. | |
all contributors in extending my condolences to all the families that | :16:49. | :16:51. | |
were briefed in this tragic manner over the past couple of months. -- | :16:52. | :16:58. | |
were briefed. We all have responsibilities to ourselves and | :16:59. | :17:01. | |
others when we use the roads. Recent events have reinforced that is | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
travelling on our roads is inherently dangerous, but on | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
occasions, we forget that. I, therefore, urge all road users to | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
take their responsibilities seriously. One lapse can last a | :17:15. | :17:21. | |
lifetime and can cost a life. I know that I can rely on all members to | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
work together to reinforce this message and thank those leaders of | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
society who have done so already. I have also called a meeting of the | :17:31. | :17:36. | |
rolled safety stakeholder Forum tomorrow to discuss these events. -- | :17:37. | :17:45. | |
road safety. Every road safety casualty is a tragedy. We have made | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
tremendous strides in recent years to reduce casualties on our roads. | :17:50. | :17:53. | |
Further progress requires ongoing, joined up effort will stop I am | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
personally committed to playing a full part in leaving this work. -- | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
leading this work. Mark H Durkan making clear his | :18:04. | :18:06. | |
commitment to tackling the number of deaths on our roads. The Christmas | :18:07. | :18:09. | |
court case between the Agriculture Minister and her Executive | :18:10. | :18:11. | |
colleague, the Finance Minister, came up quite a bit today during | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
Question Time. Simon Hamilton took legal action to prevent Michelle | :18:16. | :18:18. | |
O'Neill going ahead with her plan to transfer 7% of Common Agricultural | :18:19. | :18:21. | |
Policy funding to rural development projects. But first up, flooding. | :18:22. | :18:30. | |
Given the fact that my understanding is water when it is in Belfast Lough | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
is the responsibility of one agency and when it enters the rivers, it is | :18:36. | :18:38. | |
the responsibility of the Rivers agency, if it goes on to the ground | :18:39. | :18:45. | |
it is the responsibility of the Department of the Environment, if it | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
goes onto the roads, it is responsibilities for the Department | :18:50. | :18:55. | |
of the roads. Rivers agencies, with all of responsibilities it has, at | :18:56. | :19:02. | |
times of flooding, why should they continue... Can they see the logic | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
perhaps having it included in another department, perhaps the | :19:07. | :19:09. | |
Department of regional development. The Rivers agency is about advising | :19:10. | :19:16. | |
the entire group under the elements in terms of the weather and the | :19:17. | :19:20. | |
potential that could have occurred. In terms of the overarching... It | :19:21. | :19:27. | |
was a multi-agency approach, it was multi-agency because of the various | :19:28. | :19:30. | |
responsibilities and this comes back to the point that was raised on the | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
back of the report for it looked at what is the responsibility, should | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
there be on responsibility for the overarching flooding issue. It is | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
something that will be considered on the wider view of departments and | :19:47. | :19:55. | |
what should be done. I wrote to all ministers and Department seeking | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
their views on the issue of my pillar transfer and the potential | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
for transfer. EDF P Minister made no response to that. They thought it | :20:03. | :20:10. | |
appropriate to take a court case without going through the executive | :20:11. | :20:13. | |
and the normal procedure, so that is the correspondence I had with | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
ministers prior to the decision. The minister has been alluding to the | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
discussions with the Finance Minister. Does the Minister realise | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
and accept that there is a substantial difference that has | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
occurred between before 2007 and since 2007 that issues like this too | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
needs to be brought before the executive for approval, rather than | :20:37. | :20:40. | |
simply proceeding on a stand-alone basis? I took this decision on the | :20:41. | :20:46. | |
basis that this is the core business of my department, I saw no reason to | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
take it to the executive. The remote of my department is to improve the | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
infrastructure of local communities, and this is a decision on a balanced | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
approach on the back of a consultation on engaging with | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
stakeholders, that looks towards the needs of farmers, the environment | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
and road dwellers and rural businesses, so for me, the transfer | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
rate was logical to take forward. The court, the minister had no issue | :21:12. | :21:19. | |
with the transfer rate when he was written to and made no response to | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
that, but yet, they failed to have executive discussion but wanted to | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
go to court, we need to look at the motivation and is at a politically | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
motivated the session. In view of the early comments from the Minister | :21:34. | :21:36. | |
and the public, political slapping about which the DUP Finance Minister | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
applies against her and her department, did she have any | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
comments to make on the failure of political leadership which were the | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
words used in the judgement as a result of the case taken by her | :21:49. | :21:56. | |
ministerial colleague? It is unfortunate that the minister went | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
to the court as opposed to going to the executive to have a reasoned and | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
logical discussion will stop I would question the motives as to why that | :22:04. | :22:06. | |
would happen? I will not be sidetracked. This decision has been | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
taken and we have no transfer rate, we have an opportunity to review | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
that and we will look towards that. We have to be serious about looking | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
at and supporting rural communities, so some people are | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
attempting to portray this as it is farmers and versus the environment, | :22:25. | :22:28. | |
but the farmers are the natural custodians of the environment and | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
depend on it, so it is about a balanced approach. | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
Michelle O'Neill. MLAs took time today to pay tribute to the former | :22:37. | :22:39. | |
NIO Minister, Paul Goggins, who died last week. Mr Goggins came to | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
Northern Ireland as a Junior Minister in 2006, and was Minister | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
of State for three years from 2007. Paul Goggins came here some years | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
ago as a junior minister. Many of us met him as a stranger. But he very | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
quickly became a trusted Minister and in time, a valued friend to all | :23:01. | :23:07. | |
of us. Many former Northern Ireland office ministers, when they become | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
ex-ministers, they will be periodic the referring to their time in | :23:13. | :23:15. | |
Northern Ireland, it was not the same with Paul Goggins. He had a | :23:16. | :23:26. | |
deep sense of companionship, of humanitarian work, until of the | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
people of Northern Ireland. I took over some of the Wallace is he had | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
in the health departments, the smoking ban in public places, the | :23:36. | :23:42. | |
suicide policy, and also work in negotiations with him to make sure | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
that the foreign to rescue service was part of the new police training | :23:46. | :23:52. | |
college. In those respects, he touched the lives of everybody in | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
Northern Ireland. He had a very personal style and genuine approach | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
to politics. He was contrasting in a lot of ways to the kind of what was | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
expected of new Labour politicians, he seemed to offer a warmth that was | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
genuine and honest and in no way orchestrated. | :24:12. | :24:14. | |
Tributes paid to the former Northern Ireland Minister, Paul Goggins, who | :24:15. | :24:17. | |
died last week. Gareth Gordon has rejoined me. Paul Goggins was | :24:18. | :24:29. | |
universally popular. Yes, as is the case with all walks of life, some | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
people are held with more genuine affection than others, and he seemed | :24:35. | :24:38. | |
to be well liked across the political spectrum. I looked at the | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
tributes paid to him in Westminster last week and they were similar to | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
those paid in Stormont from all sides, it's not all people get warm | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
tributes from Sinn Fein and the Orange order, Paul Goggins was one | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
man that did. The Richard Haass talks are a big issue of discussion | :24:58. | :25:03. | |
today, but also, road safety. From having one of the worst road safety | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
records in the world, Northern Ireland seems to have turned a | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
corner. Year-on-year, things were improving, that reversed last year. | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
In the first 13 days of 2014, six people had been killed on our roads, | :25:18. | :25:21. | |
in different circumstances, but it is a figure that has shocked many of | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
it has shocked the Minister responsible. He feels he must do | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
something about it and has called the stakeholders together tomorrow | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
for a meeting to discuss what, if anything, can be done. The | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
government can do so much, it is ultimately up to the road users to | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
do something as well. And what you think the impact is likely to be of | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
the 2-part BBC television series on the life and times of Ian Paisley, | :25:50. | :25:56. | |
the former DUP leader? That is still unfolding, he was a major political | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
figure. He is, for some people, a figure dating into history. He is | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
largely retired from public life, but his words can still have an | :26:09. | :26:11. | |
impact when he speaks. The first part of that documentary has already | :26:12. | :26:20. | |
caused waves. It is believed to please many nationalists about civil | :26:21. | :26:23. | |
rights and the state of Northern Ireland in the 60s, but it has | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
annoyed others I saying that the Irish government brought the Dublin | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
and Monaghan bombings on themselves. What he is said about the DUP in the | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
next programme, that will have the real impact. Gareth thank-you. Well, | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
the Haass talks dominated the political agenda here for more than | :26:42. | :26:43. | |
six months. As today's proceeding showed, there's still little sign of | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
consensus, though that's not for the want of trying on the part of | :26:48. | :26:49. | |
Richard Haass and Meghan O'Sullivan. For those of you have not met me, I | :26:50. | :27:05. | |
am Richard Haass and this is Meghan O'Sullivan. We are all here to | :27:06. | :27:08. | |
launch this political process. Nice to see you. How is it going? It | :27:09. | :27:35. | |
is going. The not so good news is that we do | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
not have an agreement. There continues to be significant | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
differences, and if it does make sense to return, we will do just | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
that. Richard Haass's Christmas in America lasted a mere three days. | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
This afternoon he will share another round table meeting involving the | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
five executive parties. Let me be clear, Monday is our absolute | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
deadline. After weeks of discussions, the | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
talks have ended without multiparty agreement. We would not have had to | :28:12. | :28:20. | |
spend the last six months commuting back and forth, but if you ask me do | :28:21. | :28:27. | |
we now have in place a foundation and a serious possibility for | :28:28. | :28:29. | |
meaningful political progress, the answer is yes. This has truly been a | :28:30. | :28:36. | |
real privilege and we have worked with some extraordinary people and | :28:37. | :28:38. | |
it is safe to say that we will remember this for ever, but that | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
does not mean that we are eager to get home. I expect we will see some | :28:43. | :28:49. | |
of you have not all of you again in the future. Thank you very much. -- | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
if not all of you. That's it for tonight. I'll be back | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
tomorrow night at the same time, 11.20 on BBC Two. Until then, from | :28:59. | :29:00. | |
everyone in the team, good night. A Napoleonic fig5ra a3p-dd 1 | :29:01. | :29:53. | |
histgr9 A Napoleonic fig5ra a3p-dd 1 | :29:54. | :29:54. | |
histgry, sithall ph!t A Napoleonic fig5ra a3p-dd 1 | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
history, with all that that i-plie3. He's not someone that you see and | :29:59. | :30:01. | |
you can stay indifferent about. You have an opinion. You love him or you | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
hate him, you're afraid of him or you want to be with him. He had so | :30:07. | :30:10. | |
much political strength that he could do almost everything he | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
wanted. A | :30:15. | :30:15. |