13/09/2011 Stormont Today

Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. On tonight's programme: no extra

parking charges in towns across Northern Ireland, but there's no

reprieve for Belfast City Hospital's Accident and Emergency

Department. While this urgent and necessary change has to go aahead

now my objective as Minister for Health is to ensure safe and

sustainable emergency provision in the long-term. Strange things have

been happening in the chamber today? This may be a first, but I

want to welcome the ministerial statement in respect of the

reprieve granted to towns faced with the threat of onstreet car

parking charges. Keeping me company tonight is political an analyst,

Henry Bell. Mitt We touched on it last night, but now we have the

full details of how our electoral map could change in the future.

Let's look at the potential winners and losers with political analysts,

Henry Bell. What are the main headlines? The big story is, of

course, that Northern Ireland will lose two MPs if these are accepted.

There is a cut down of MPs across the United Kingdom. We are not

being hit too badly. One of the reasons for that is that we had

large constituencies in terms of our electorate. Wales is being

badly hit, losing ten MPs there. That is the broad picture. If you

lose two seats, you are going to lose two MPs or potentially. That

is one that will cause the problems in Northern Ireland. Let's look at

Belfast first. How will that be re- shaped? Belfast has been losing it

is population over the last 30 to 40 years. It will be taken down to

three seats. This has been on the cards since the 1980s. Belfast in

the 1950s had four seats, four seats out of 12. That is one third

of the electorate of Northern Ireland within tighter boundaries

of Belfast has today. If you look at it now, it's four seats out of

18. Now it's brought to three out of 16. The the population has gone

into Newtownabbey and other parts of Belfast. It's reflecting the

fact. Now the other alternative was to do what they did before, bring

Belfast out into the country, which has been happening. It's surprising

when you see posters for North Belfast on the sp sandy Road Round

about. The seat goes three ways. Really, the new seat will be much

more East Belfast than South Belfast. And, although the SDLP

will put a good face on it, it would not be a seat they could ever

win. Stay with us we will talk about some of the other

constituencies later. Up for questions today was the minister

for Environment and Enterprise, Trade and Investment. In reply to

party colleague, David Hilditch, Arlene Foster told the House that

sport is very much at the heart of tourism strategy. Another member

though was interested in a different sport. Speaks Gaelic

don't know whether the Minister will be delighted or not. Given the

huge number of people who travelled to the New Zealand for the rugby

World Cup, has the Minister had or planned to have discussions with

ministerial colleagues in the Executive or the Dublin government

about the possibility of the rugby World Cup coming to this island in

the future? As an Ulster rugby nan fan I would be delighted to see the

rugby World Cup come to the British Isles, probably is a more relistic

thing for us to hope for and I will give all of my support to them in

that because we have a huge number of events coming up in 2012/2013.

One of those is the World Police and Fire Games. That gives us a

good opportunity to promote Northern Ireland and all we have to

offer in relation to that sort of tourism. It certainly forms part of

the package r-- pack package I want to promote. Mike Nesbitt who might

return to golf? You are wise. Would the Minister agree that the

potential for a chie achieving The Tourist Board's goals in terms of

more tourists spending more per day and staying for longer lies not so

much in the glamour of a four-day golf event but for the golfers who

are here to play than to watch? Both actually. I do think that the

member is right when we want to attract more golf tourists to come

into Northern Ireland. The amount of publicity we will again frait

holding major tournaments here will help us to do that. One of the

reasons why the campaign, which we have been running on the home of

champions, is to attract golf tourists into Northern Ireland, to

play the courses where our brilliant champions come from. That

has been proving very successful. And, he's right, in relation to our

tourism spend figures, because we all know that golf tourism and the

golf tourists do spend considerably more than just ordinary leisure

tourists. Therefore, if we are to ensure that we reach those targets,

in the emerging tourism strategy, that then we are very much needing

more golf tourism and more spending of their money in ourville aims and

towns across Northern Ireland. The Environment Minister was asked

about illegal dumping of waste from the republic. Could I thank the

member for his questions. The answer will surprise him as much as

it surprised me. Because, during the last two years there has been

only one incident of waste from the Republic of Ireland that's come to

the attention of the Department. Now, the reason why I say that

might be surprising is that you your intuewaition would tell you it

might be more than given the history of illegal waste disposal

in the North. There has only been one report as of now. I would ask

we check the PSNI to determine whether they have awareness of any

other such report. It's for the community to report to the

Department or to the police if they are concerned about potential

illegal waste being dumped in the North of Ireland. Ultimately, as

one of my officials said to me earlier yesterday, the absence of

evidence is not the evidence of absence. Thank you. Now, I thank

the Minister and, yes, I am surprised given the quite extensive

amount of media coverage, press coverage that there has been on the

issue of illegal dumping. Certainly, my perception was that there was a

strong cross-border racket, I suppose, in this area. Could I just

ask the Minister that he is convinced that he is getting as

much support as he would require from the statutory authorities on

the other side of the border to help to identify whether or not

this is a minute mim mall problem, as he has identified, whether or

not le feels there is a need for greater coverage on matter? I thank

the member for that supplementary. In one way, I can't go into some

detail because, as Minister, matters are brought it my attention.

When it comes comes to enforcement, in respect of criminal authorities,

when the northern authorities and the southern authorities work

together and work with the Gardai and the PSNI in tracking and taking

action in those involved in cross- border and illegal waste activities.

I'm absolutely certain that the co- operation is working effectively.

That's why, of the 17 sites where there has been illegal dumping

identified in the North, two of those sites have been cleared.

There's one in BaliMartin in County Down currently being cleared. They

may have been the critical sites and the other sites over the next

five years will be cleared. Cleared at a cost of disposal of 100% to

the Republic of Ireland authorities and at a cost of 0% of the cost of

removal of the offending items from the North to the Republic of

Ireland and 20% from our own coffers that demonstrates that the

Republic of Ireland authorities are fully engaged and fully committed

and very nearly fully funding this issue. The Health Minister put on-

the-record his plans for the City hospital's Accident & Emergency

department. It's been claimed the closure will place lives at risk. I

deplore such ill founded and irresponsible comment. The clear

fact of the matter, based on expert, clinical and management advice, is

that, on the contrary, seeking to maintain the status quo would

create risks that can no longer be managed safely. I recognise there

are major challenges in managing that change. That is why I want the

Assembly, and the public, to get behind the managers and clinicians

in Belfast Trust and all the other affected organisations and do all

we can to help this make this temporary change work. While this

urgent and necessary change has to go-ahead now, my objective, as

Minister for Health is to ensure safe and sustainable emergency

department service provision in the longer term. Any decision on the

permanent reconfiguration of emergency department services will

be a matter for me, as Minister, to determine. It is a decision I will

take only after I have listened to what key stake holders, in

particular the public, and their representatives have to say through

an a process of effective engagement and transparent

consultation. Back to the boundary changes now. We spoke to three MLAs

whose seats are affected. Well, obviously, the Assembly elections

are based on the Westminster elections. If there are two less

constituencies there will be 12 less MLAs. That doesn't pose any

party any particular problems. They will all have to fight in the new

16 constituencies are. I don't think it throws up any particular

problem for Sinn Fein over and above the issues that all the

parties will have to deal with. think that we all accept that we

are over governed. We have too many MLAs we need to contract. This will

reduce the numbers down by 12. That is the proposal to come from 108 to

96. That is stpil generous. I think all parties are agreed. Most

parties are agreed we need to look at that further and see a further

contraction. Bearing in mind, we are reorganising local government.

Bearing in mind, powers will go out to local government. It's hard to

justify such a large political establishment here at Stormont.

won't mean a better working Assembly, but it will mean, perhaps,

some money will be saved and times are difficult. I think we are all

prepared to take a bit, take a bit of the pinch that's out there.

While, you know, it's always better to have a large number of Assembly

members working very hard, serving the public, I think we are going to

have to live with it. There will be reduction from 108 down to 96. That

is, certainly, tolerable. Henry, we heard there from three MLAs, not

great opposition to it though? I think everyone agrees 10 is

perhaps too many. We are coming down to 96 not the end of it,

bringing it down to a reasonable number. You must remember that you

know, we have 650 MPs at Westminster. We have 10 MLAs here.

The United States America has a Congress, lower house 450 and Upper

House has slightly more. changes at Westminster will have a

knock-on effect on the MLAs. Back to the Westminster seats then. What

happens in the west, Pat Docherty's seat is likely to disappear? West

Tyrone was one of the flaky seats. It only came in recently tsm was

the last seat to come in moving us up from 17 to 18. It was blow what

we call, "quota" it's the number of people in a constituencies. This

bill is trying to make the seats as equal as possible. This is an old

situation, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

There has to be changes it's a reorganisation of the west of the

province. West Tyrone goes, mid- Ulster is split. New constituencies

of GlenShane comes in. GlenShane should probably go to Sinn Fein. If

that happens, there will be no unionist in the west of the

province for the first time in the history of Northern Ireland. That

might cause a bit of concern because there are large pockets of

unionism within that area, but no representation. So, that's

something that maybe will come out when the inquiries begin in a few

We will talk about the timetable a bit later. The department

responsible for roads has done a U- turn on its plans to introduce on-

street parking charges in 30 towns. We do not develop at minister Danny

Kennedy said he did up believe it was the right time to implement a

proposal. The chair of the committee, Jimmy Spratt, made the

case that Belfast motorists would have to pay more to park. The

announcement went down well with members, one in particular. Having

listened to the key points from across Northern Ireland, I have

decided I will not now introduce a new, on-street car parking charges

in the proposed 30 towns and cities. I have heard a united voice in

opposition to these proposals and I believe that not introducing these

charges is the right decision in the current economic climate. Mr

Speaker, I recognise that on-street charging can provide vital traffic

management improvements. Indeed, on St charging has been operating in

Belfast since 1987 and in Lisburn at Newry since 2008. I am very

familiar with the skiing in Newry and I know it has brought

significant improvements to traffic flows and access to retail and

tourism attractions in the city. I am always open to requests to

introduce on-street charging from traders and local councils in any

town or city where they anticipate traffic management and commercial

benefit. I that the Minister for his statement. It is disappointing

that we see a 100% increase in on- street car parking fees over the

next few years. Whilst there is the argument Belfast should not be the

only place to bear the pain, it is equally true Belfast enjoyed a

greater public transport trends -- provision and like towns in rural

areas where the in adequate transport structure necessitates

bringing cars into towns. This will adversely impact on rural dwellers

and I also note from the Roads Service website that there are

approximately 60 car parks with about 15,600 spaces where no

tariffs are charged at all, and perhaps spreading the load would

have been bettered. This may be a first, but I want to welcome the

ministerial statement in respect of the reprieve granted to towns faced

with the threat of on-street car parking charges, and particularly

in Ballymena. The minister referred to the fact in regard to the pain

there are 28 car parts coming into the charging regime. Can he

identified those in respect of my constituency? Can he explain why D

R D car parks run so much at a loss, whereas private car parks where the

charging regime is not that different are very profitable

operations? That must suggests inefficiency in the running of the

departmental car parks. I am flattered to the extreme that the

member has found it in his heart to welcome my ministerial statement.

It really is a celebration of unrelenting destroyed on my behalf.

The whole house will share in the enormity of the statement the

member has made to date will stop Government red tape is holding up a

building projects and leading to job losses according to the

construction industry. 30,000 jobs have been lost in the sector since

the downturn. Those representing builders, plumbers and politicians

came to Stormont to press MLAs to do more to end bureaucracy. We feel

money needs to come from the Assembly and pushed out onto the

street to be spent on projects that will bring orders into work again.

We have lost 30,000 jobs over the last three years. How do you get

people back to work? What can the Government do? This a backlog of

bureaucracy and holding up planning issues and procurement problems

that does not allow the money to flow quickly enough to resolve the

issues we have. Are there projects that could be going ahead at the

minute that I stalled? Yes, they could come more quickly. That is

the sort of issues we are bringing forward to the all-party group to

see if they can approach ministers to alleviate these problems and get

money released. What sort of projects are we talking about?

projects I am aware of our infrastructure and fairly big

projects. The money has been approved it would appear and we

wonder when that is going to come out into the street. What feedback

did you get? We got the feedback from the committee they will now go

forward and strike and had a meeting with ministers, secretaries

and people from various departments that these issues relate to.

Hopefully we can sit in a room together and try and resolve the

issues because the construction industry in Northern Ireland is the

second biggest employer and his relative to a lot of people. With

me now is the SDLP's Patsy McGlone who chairs the all-party group on

construction. What is the hold up? The big things coming forwards were

issues around procurement, getting new capital projects started, new-

build schemes, hospitals, schools, getting those projects started.

Infrastructure like roads and other things we could probably call red

tape issues, procurement issues, tender issues and issues around

planning. We identified a lot of the problems today. There were a

number of solutions, such as the new green deal, which is much

talked about. That means home insulation projects, for example

for older people. They can stay in their homes and it costs them less

to heat their homes. As a consequence, many can be kept out

of hospitals. What they were saying was the capital projects are bare.

The plans have been given the go- ahead, they cannot get the money

out of the Government. If that is quite right. The issues coming

before us today were issues of frustration and we had many sectors

of industry involved today. We had professional people, people

involved with the building trade, and those who were representative

of builders and contractors. The big issue emerging today it was we

have blocks of departments and what we agreed with the industry is that

our next meeting should be with representatives of each department

at very senior level, either ministerial or the more junior

secretary at each department. The Parliamentary Secretary.

construction representative said that Scotland and the Republic have

particular schemes in place to try to hurry up the money so they can

get working and get people back into work. Is that something

Northern Ireland's Maze to have urges Lib? I absolutely. As their

representative from Mid Ulster there is no place worse hit, such

as Dungannon, where the unemployment levels have almost

trebled. The reason is the downturn in the construction industry. There

were solutions identified today. Well any of them happen? That is

the purpose of today. The whole purpose was there were issues

identified, solutions identified, problems are identified. Some of

those problems involved payments coming out from the public sector

pay. It is for us to take it to the next stage and bring all

representatives together in one room with representatives of the

industry and each one here from the other what the problem is and

identify solutions. Unemployment is growing, people are finding it

difficult to put a loaf on the table for their families and that

is not good enough and we must deliver to the community. I have to

ask you about the leadership campaign. The deadline is

approaching. Who is going to be running against you? I am sure

there is a lot of speculation in the media at the moment. There is

one thing for certain, I am going to be there. I have been speaking

to branches, listening to councillors and have covered a

whole range of Spectrum in the party. I am enjoying it, it is

political engagement, discussing politics. Where are you supporters?

I will put it you this way. There is a broad spectrum of support for

me. That is not for me as an individual. It is for a change in

the party and for the benefit of the party and it is for us to move

forward in the best interests of the people who elect us and in the

best interests of the community. There was something of a love-in

around the corridors of power yesterday following the Sinn Fein

conference at the weekend. But as our political correspondent Martina

Purdy told be, there is a notable exception.

Sh in Fein are still spreading the love Tower, but the TUC leader put

a question saying he was not happy with the Irish language bodies

having a huge delay in their annual accounts. Her response did not

making any happier. I detected a statement rather than a question.

If the member was to write to me, I will be happy to answer his

question. We have become firm friends. If he is going to ask a

specific question, I am happy to answer him. Order. Is it in order

for a minister to mislead the House? To suggest I wrote to her

the other day? Order, order. Sense that exchange, Gemma Alastair has

issued a statement insisting there is no truth to suggestions he

writes regularly to the minister and they certainly are not firm

friends and he is also asking the Speaker to review his ruling.

are standing beside this impressive painting of the former deputy prime

minister and you have news of other artwork. This was done in 2003 by

the Belfast artist Rita Duffy after the commission decided there should

have portraits of the first and deputy ministers as well as the

speakers. Since then, there is no money any more. There is now a cap

on how much you can spend on a portrait. It is fired 1000. It is

limited to 25 inches by 37 inches. There is no projects on portraits

around Lord's trembled and the Deputy First Minister. Their

portraits are being done now. The Speaker of the transitional

Assembly, Irene Bell, her portrait will be unveiled next month.

A talk about the timetable and are these changes likely to happen?

There are two things which could derail them. It will not derail the

number of MPs. The 16 are set now. Unless the whole thing comes off

the rails. There are significant problems in England and Wales. It

is possible it might be postponed and not happen at the next election.

That is distinctly possible. The Lib Dems are getting cold feet

about this one. In Northern Ireland there will be an opportunity for

people to go to tribunals. There is a whole raft of issues. If you cut

a bit out of the constituency, you have got to compensate somewhere

else. There are towns like Ballymena which are going to be

left on the edge of the hinterland. There will be local issues,

political issues and the dreaded word gerrymander will come up at

some stage. The problem with single-member constituencies is

they are basically dictated in where they are. Patsy McGlone, your

party will be affected. What are your views are Ed? Essentially we

have to sit down ourselves and consider what the implications are.

My initial reaction is it seems crazy. It is a gerrymander. The

type of society it will lead to, the polarisation East and West,

where communities, and indeed the polarisation within the smaller