Browse content similar to 14/06/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Stormont Today, where we will look at the impact of | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
cuts, and whether a back lash from public sector workers is on the way. | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
Stay with us if you have a story to tell on your efforts to build peace | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
here. And, fedup with delay at Stormont, here's a promise from a | :00:41. | :00:48. | |
politician. When you go into power, you do not lie you become captive | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
of delay. I can assure the member that if there is any reason to be | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
concerned about delay, that should be brought to my attention. It will | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
not be the measure against which I will proceed. And, a shark arrived | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
at Stormont today, well, what's one more in a sea of politicians, the | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
critics might say. Protesters came to Stormont to demand new laws to | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
protect our marine life. The bask shark needs protection. Along with | :01:18. | :01:28. | |
the sponges, fish, seals, seabirds, all the Flora and florn ya needs | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
protected. Story waters in the chamber ber as members clash over | :01:33. | :01:40. | |
the new deputy principal speaker. When the budget shrinks, it's not | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
long before the workers feel the pinch. �4 billion is being cut from | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
the Stormont finances this term. The Prime Minister himself told us | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
last week that we need to start growing the private sector, and | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
there is increasing pressure to cut back on jobs, services an pensions. | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
The trade union NIPSA, is fighting back. To discuss these issues I'm | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
joined by NIPSA general secretary, Brian Campfield. You are welcome to | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
the programme. You are about to ballot your members for strike | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
action, is it going to be a Winter of Discontent? Well, we're, the | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
trade union members and the public service workers generally are in | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
the same position as the community at large facing the onslaught of | :02:24. | :02:30. | |
these austerity measures forced upon Northern Ireland by the Lib | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
Dem,/Conservative coalition. We are witnessing an attack on pension, on | :02:33. | :02:40. | |
pay and on jobs, jobs thousands of jobs, in fact, have been lost | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
across the health services and civil service. We - what we want to | :02:44. | :02:50. | |
do is stand up and make it clear, not only to our Assembly, to the | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
Northern Ireland Executive and the Westminster government we are not | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
prepared to accept it and will take a stand. We will ballot or our | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
members in September with a view to taking industrial action in October. | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
We're not doing this alone, we are working along with our sister trade | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
union yos yons, not only in Northern Ireland, but across the UK | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
generally. We will come back to that later, thank you. We have had | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
a run of new ministers stepping up to the dispatch box for questions. | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
Earlier it was the turn of Alex Attwood, who is now in charge of | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
the Department of the Environment. How green is he? Where does he | :03:25. | :03:32. | |
stand on recycling and the fiery issue of incineration. That said, I | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
do want to see, over the course of my time during this office, | :03:38. | :03:44. | |
opportunities for waste management and for recycling exploited more | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
and more. It is a fact that Wyles Belfast, for example, has a | :03:48. | :03:56. | |
recycling rate of 30% of domestic, comparable cities in Cardiff have | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
recycling of 40%. If we go down the road of reorganisational government | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
how we push the new councils in the run down about reorganisation about | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
how they can, in terms of recycle and reuse, up their game, maximise | :04:10. | :04:16. | |
the opportunities so that could mitigate against incineration. | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
Incineration is not merely merely burning. You can have waste energy | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
opportunities that makes the incinerator option more attractive. | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
And, staying with a burning issue. The TUV leader wants to know about | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
the proposal to build a chicken waste incinerator. Would ideology | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
play a part? Could I thank the member and could I also welcome the | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
member to the Assembly. Could I confirm I do have ideological | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
positions, I'm not afraid of having ideological positions, maybe in the | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
course of the next few months we could have conversations one way or | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
the another about my ideological positions they may prevail over | :04:59. | :05:09. | |
:05:09. | :05:10. | ||
yours. My experience, as an SDLP politician has always been to | :05:10. | :05:16. | |
travel more in hope than expectation, and I can assure the | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
House that when it comes to talking to the minister that would be the | :05:20. | :05:25. | |
basis on which I would have the conversation. I don't fall into | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
traps around delay. I try to demonstrate when I was DSD Minister | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
that there was a difference, which, in my view, ministers didn't fully | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
appreciate between going into government and go into power. When | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
you go into power you do not allow yourself to become captive of delay. | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
I can assure the member, if there is any reason to be concerned about | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
delay, that should be brought to my attention. It will not be the | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
measure against which I will proceed. Then road safety, in | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
particular drink drieg driving. Wyles we still continue to scope | :06:03. | :06:10. | |
those out within the Department, some of the examples would be | :06:10. | :06:15. | |
further measures to deter drink- driving. Have we come to a point in | :06:15. | :06:21. | |
time where, not only should we reduce the limits of alcohol in a | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
person's blood, leading to prosecution, but are we come to the | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
point in time where, for certain designated drivers, let's say our | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
drivers, that there would be a requirement for effectively a nil | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
reading of alcohol in the blood, in terms of potential prosecution? Nil | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
meaning, not necessarily being no reading, because there may be | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
reasons, such as taking of medicine that is could give rise to partial | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
traces of alcohol in a person's blood. It does seem to me that | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
reducing the alcohol level in someone's blood, leading to | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
prosecution, is one example of an area we should explore. Finance | :07:02. | :07:08. | |
questions. The economy minister standing in for her colleague Sammy | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
Wilson attending the funeral of Mr Lenihan in Dublin. She had this | :07:14. | :07:23. | |
update on a scheme to help small businesses. Large retailers are | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
generally better placed to cope with the economic downturn than | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
small businesses. These measures need to be introduced as soon as | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
possible and with Executive support the Finance Minister will seek | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
assembly approval to have them in place by next April. They would | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
apply for three years through to the end of the budget period. | :07:43. | :07:49. | |
Consultation will begin on the way forward, and the Finance Minister | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
hopes final decisions can be reached in the autumn. She got a | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
chance to remind members while she believed a reduction in corporation | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
corporation tax would be a good thing nor Northern Ireland and news | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
of an extension to the consultation period? I believe the lowering of | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
co-operation tax would be of huge benefit to us in Northern Ireland | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
in a number of ways. It would bring in more foreign direct investment. | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
It would bring many more jobs into the economy and my economic | :08:20. | :08:26. | |
advisory group have indicated up to as many 4dm 500 new jobs every year. | :08:26. | :08:32. | |
It would increase our productivity levels so that the productivity gap | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
would close between yourselves and the rest of the United Kingdom, | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
something which we have set as a target as far back as 2007, at the | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
start of devolution. I think that convergance between living | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
standards for people here in flirl, regardless of where they live, | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
regardless of what they do for a living, would be something that | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
everybody would feel right across Northern Ireland. So, that | :08:56. | :09:02. | |
convergance of living standards, I think, for me, is the key part of | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
gaining Corporation tax and the lowering of corporation tax in | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
Northern Ireland the consultation still continues, as I understand it, | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
from my own Department, that consultation date may have been | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
extended to July 1st. It will give businesses and everybody else the | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
opportunity to engage in that consultation with treasury. After | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
that consultation is closed there is much work to do in relation to | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
the detail of how that, hopefully, will happen here in Northern | :09:31. | :09:36. | |
Ireland. She may have been standing in for him, was she singing from | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
the same hymn sheet as the Finance Minister. I think I detect a slight | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
difference in emphasis regarding the enthusiasm for corporation tax | :09:47. | :09:54. | |
between the deputy minister and the Finance k minister. Be that as it | :09:54. | :10:00. | |
THE SPEAKER: Could I have a question, please. In her view, what | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
measures can be introduced to ensure that Northern Ireland is not | :10:04. | :10:10. | |
subject to a rash of practice known as, "brass plating" where by | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
companies seek to gain advantage from the lower corporation tax | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
without the accompanying economic activity? I did lava little, I have | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
to say, Mr Deputy Speaker, when I read the Belfast Telegraph today | :10:25. | :10:34. | |
saying that the Firs Minister was a nice cop, the Finance Minister was | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
an assy cop Iowa nicer cop. The Finance Minister is charged with | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
the public finances of Northern Ireland. Therefore, he will, of | :10:41. | :10:47. | |
course, be concerned about the cost of corporation tax. As Economy | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
Minister my job is to build the economy for Northern Ireland and to | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
try and close the productivity gap between yourselves and the United | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
Kingdom. That is my primary aim. Having looked at the independent | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
evidence that corporation tax would bring about benefits fofr -- for us | :11:03. | :11:10. | |
here in Northern Ireland that we would not otherwise achieve. | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
everyone is convinced. Some critics say it's too big a risk because we | :11:15. | :11:20. | |
will lose �300 million a year in treasury funding with no guarantee | :11:20. | :11:26. | |
of job creation and investment. NIPSA general secretary is one of | :11:26. | :11:31. | |
those critics. Aren't you swimming against the tide. Experts say it | :11:31. | :11:38. | |
will great 4,000 to 5,000 jobs for years to come? A lot of these | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
experts are economist who work for the banking system. They are | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
articulating the pro-business position on this, which is there | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
should be a reduction in corporation tax. More recently the | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
debate has become a bit more balanced because, up until now, it | :11:51. | :11:56. | |
has been one sided. It has been more propaganda than debate. More | :11:56. | :12:02. | |
recently, as you know, Lady Sylvia Herman came out against the | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
reduction in corporation tax. It is a strange situation where you have | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
a Lord And Lady of the realm taking a progressive position than those | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
of the SDLP or any other political parties. Stormont received an SOS | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
message today, save our seas. Around 100 school children brought | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
a giant wicker shark to the steps along with a 4,000 strong petition. | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
The protest was organised by the Northern Ireland Marine Task Force. | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
It wants new laws to protect marine life, arguing Northern Ireland is | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
lagging behind other UK regions. So is the Minister responsible, Alex | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
Attwood, will to legislate. I caught up with him and the shark | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
earlier. The boys and girls are right, we need a Marine Bill and we | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
need it now. Even yesterday afternoon I sat down with all the | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
progressive organisations in the North to scope out what a Marine | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
Bill should look out in order to ensure when I table legislation, as | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
I plan to in the near future, it covers all that we need to do in | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
order to ensure that what the boys and girls want, that our seas and | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
shores and marine and coastal land is all protected and developed | :13:13. | :13:21. | |
And many reen and coastal land, is developed and protected. This idea | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
has been floated about your department for some time and | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
nothing's been done. It may have been floating about for a while but | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
I'm going to launch it soon. Will it be as big and bold a marine bill | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
as I can make it. While I have a draft version of the Bill already, | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
yesterday I sat down with a lot of the progressive environmentalists | :13:42. | :13:48. | |
in the North to see how we can build upon the draft to make it | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
what the boys and girls want - a bill to serve their needs and | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
future generations going forward. That's measure of this Bill. If I | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
fail that measure I think people will say so. How big and bold is | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
it? What does it mean? Well, what it means will we have marine | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
conservation zones so that when we develop our shoreline and our | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
marine and seabed we are doing it in a way that is responsible, so | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
that in future generations we have and retain the asset of the | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
beautiful seas around the coastline in the north of Ireland. Are we | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
going to have mechanisms to make sure that there is all the power of | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
government to stop those abusing the power of our seas? Do we | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
develop in a way that's environmentally friendly but at the | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
same time uses our marine for all the good environmental purposes | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
going forward? Those are the standards I shall be judged by. | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
That's what the generation behind me want. They want the biggest and | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
boldest bill possibly to ensure the beautiful asset of the marine is | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
protected but utilised going forward. Does it mean cleaner | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
beachs? Cleaner beachs a strategy already in place. That's why only a | :15:06. | :15:12. | |
couple of weeks ago I was awarding a blue flag and other standards for | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
the cleanliness and fitness of our beaches around Northern Ireland. | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
That's part of the coastal strategy. The marine bill will go further | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
than that again. While they may be conduct jobs in the Civil Service, | :15:25. | :15:34. | |
there is still room for a new, upgraded post in Stormont. The DUP | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
and Sinn Fein has agreed that one of the speakers will be elevated to | :15:38. | :15:45. | |
a new Principal Speaker's job. But other parties are crying foul here | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
is a taste of rather hot and heavy debate on the issue. We are all | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
aware of the background though these motions. That an 16th May | :15:54. | :16:01. | |
2011 this Assembly passed a motion for the creation of the roll of | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
Principal Deputy Speaker and conducted the committee to start | :16:05. | :16:09. | |
the necessary order. This may sound a simple instruction, but the | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
committee felt that in order to arrive at a product that could | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
stand over consideration needed to be given to a broad series of | :16:17. | :16:22. | |
related issues. Things like what the title of Principal Deputy | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
Speaker might mean in practice and how practical issues needed to be | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
achieved. The outworkings of these considerations are the three | :16:31. | :16:36. | |
motions you see on the paper. not believe that a proposed case | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
has been made for this appointment on the grounds of need. I believe | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
we need to have it spelt out, where exactly we are falling short in the | :16:47. | :16:53. | |
last mandate, which may disappointment necessary. How did | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
this supposed shortfall show up? What was the shortcomings which | :16:57. | :17:06. | |
drove and led to this proposal? Thank you Mr Speaker and for the | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
opportunity to speak Toon issue today, although I imagine members | :17:09. | :17:15. | |
of the public following this debate may wonder why the Assembly is not | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
discussing more important matters. On reflection of the proposals | :17:18. | :17:24. | |
today, I see no compelling identification of the problem, or | :17:24. | :17:30. | |
indeed a solution to the problem. That we were seeking to re divine | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
equality in this amendment. It has gone from being that we all come | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
here and we share the burden of port in an equal way. It's gone | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
from that to being that Sinn Fein and the DUP are more equal than | :17:43. | :17:50. | |
others. And so we have a hierarchy of equality. Therefore, a new | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
inequality in this House. I don't see how notice the interests of | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
this House or any party, particularly a party which | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
campaigned so vehemently on the basic principle of equality, to | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
introduce such a code to this House. That's the impact of these changes, | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
Mr Speaker. They were a serious impacts. They send a negative | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
signal to the outside world. There really is very little to discuss. | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
The Assembly has already decided to create the position of the | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
Principal Deputy Speaker. What we are talking about today is the | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
process and how that appointment will operate. But the role has been | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
created. That decision has been taken. I realisation that some | :18:31. | :18:38. | |
members don't like that decision, but however the democratic | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
institution that decided to take that decision. Those who respect | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
democracy will respect the will of this House. I thank the member for | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
giving way and I appreciate we've already debated this motion. But as | :18:52. | :18:58. | |
I said during the first - we've yet to be told why this change is | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
necessary. Out of respect for democracy, out of respect for this | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
House, and out of respect to this voting public, could the member | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
please take the opportunity to explain why this is necessary? | :19:10. | :19:16. | |
We've yet to hear this argument.. The will of this House has deemed | :19:16. | :19:23. | |
that it is necessary. A minority in this House don't want the position, | :19:23. | :19:29. | |
but a majority of this House do. have no need established. We have | :19:29. | :19:35. | |
no function for the post we are going to establish. We've no | :19:35. | :19:40. | |
argument made, little wonder there is such embarrassment in this House | :19:40. | :19:46. | |
today during this debate on these main benches and on these main | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
benches... THE SPEAKER: Order! the two main benches. No-one | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
occupying any of those bench has the capacity, there is nothing | :19:56. | :20:01. | |
there to give, the capacity to tell us why we need a Principal Deputy | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
Speaker. Your party, the TUV and the Ulster Unionists, joined forces | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
to oppose though motion but you are not opposed to the principle of a | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
Principal Deputy Speaker, because you wanted the parties to rotate | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
this position? No, we made it plain we were opposed to the idea of | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
having a Principal Deputy Speaker, but when you are in a situation | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
where you are trying to fight your corner, you have to produce | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
amendments. We produced a very reasoned and reasonable amendment, | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
which was let's rotate this position around the three Deputy | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
Speakers that presently exist. Yand did we do that? Because it is | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
consistent with the Good Friday Agreement, consistent with an | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
Assembly that's committed to partnership and to power sharing. | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
This was of course the creation of a hierarchy within the team of | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
Deputy Speakers. There's a hierarchy within the executive. | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
There's a first and Deputy First Minister. Why not have a speaker | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
with a Principal Deputy Speaker? There are two dominant parties here | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
and why shouldn't they share the post? You were right it was a | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
pretty shabby deal between the two parties, the DUP... I didn't say | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
that, so don't put words in my mouth. I'm sure any reasonable | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
person out there would agree it's a shabby deal. If you take the First | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
and Deputy First Minister, that's co-equal position, and Sinn Fein | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
keep arguing that it is a co-equal position. So why do they insist on | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
creating a hierarchy within the team of Deputy Speakers? It is a | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
title, so what's the big deal? Aren't you just jealous that Sinn | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
Fein are going to get it? there's a more serious point to | :21:43. | :21:48. | |
this - the side deals which the DUP and Sinn Fein are entering into Tam | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
person with the integrity of the Assembly, the integrity of the Good | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
Friday Agreement. What they are trying to do is create an exclusive | :21:58. | :22:05. | |
club within the Assembly, where the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists and | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
everybody else is excluded. So if your party was offered the post you | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
would turn it down? What we are saying is let's have a civilised | :22:13. | :22:19. | |
way of sharing power and positions within this Assembly. And by and | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
large they are shared out in a proper and equitable manner. But on | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
this occasion the DUP and Sinn Fein have decided to create a hierarchy, | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
and that's what we are against. you see this post becoming more | :22:31. | :22:36. | |
powerful in the months ahead? course, and not just the months | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
ahead. We've got three years until the changeover between the present | :22:40. | :22:47. | |
speakers, Willie Hay, and the Sinn Fein Principal Deputy Speaker. | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
During that time they'll retro fit new functions and powers on to this | :22:51. | :22:57. | |
position so as to create an even more powerful position than already | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
is envisaged. And they will do that by way of amendment of the law at | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
Westminster, because they can't do that now at the moment, because | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
their powers are restricted. We'll have to see who is right on this, | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
thank you. Martin McGuinness likes to say we | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
have to most successful peace process in the world, and with | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
Peter Robinson he Lancashired an on-line directory to allow people | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
involved in peace building their tell their stories. I spoke to | :23:25. | :23:31. | |
Frances Morton about the initiative. It is an exciting and ambitious | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
project. The first strand is to collect 100 heritage interviews. We | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
plan to build an archive of those, with key people involved in peace | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
and reconciliation. We are going back as far as living memory will | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
allow. That's people who experienced the peace process and | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
contributed to it, as far back as the '60s to the present day. | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
Secondly, a community aspect will involve engagement with local | :23:56. | :24:01. | |
communities to develop their oral history skills. We are planning to | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
undertake an oral history training programme. That will equip people | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
in the local communities to go out and collect other people's stories | :24:08. | :24:13. | |
who experienced the peace process and lived through it. Who are you | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
looking for then? We are looking for people all over Northern | :24:16. | :24:20. | |
Ireland, the border area, the Republic of Ireland, and Britain as | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
well, just to come forward and tell us their storys and experiences. | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
it their experiences of the Troubles or their experiences of | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
trying to build peace? It's the experience of trying to build peace | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
and how the process has filtered down at a local level to them. They | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
might have different stories, different encounters. Really just | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
what they feel is important. Everyone's story is important in | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
addition to those of the politicians and those working at a | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
higher level. So you want to go back, say, so the peace people, to | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
the civil rights activists? Yes, we want to encourage people from a | :25:00. | :25:06. | |
whole range of backgrounds, different sectors, community and | :25:06. | :25:09. | |
voluntary groups, education - anyone who really feels they have a | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
story to tell and share with us. We want to do that initially through | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
the website that we'll be launching today. We will have information on | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
their and addresses for people to get in touch with us. It might be | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
people from the further education sector or higher education. What | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
will happen top this archive? Is it going to go global or is it for | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
local academics? The archive of the heritage interviews will be | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
accessible of a period of time for the public to use generally. We | :25:39. | :25:43. | |
envisage that it will be a valuable resource for future citizens to | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
look back and remember, especially people who perhaps didn't live | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
through the conflict, who've never, who've only experienced peace now. | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
They can learn what it was like before. We have an on-line | :25:57. | :26:03. | |
directory of interviews. It is an extensive repository of social | :26:03. | :26:11. | |
worker views that have taken place -- reproz triof interviews that | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
have taken place. They will be available for people to access on- | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
line. How should people get in touch with you? They can log on to | :26:20. | :26:30. | |
:26:30. | :26:38. | ||
our website: We want to hear from anyone who has | :26:38. | :26:44. | |
information they think is suitable for us to look at. | :26:44. | :26:50. | |
It wasn't a day for the indoors, so instead of a chat this cafe recess | :26:50. | :26:55. | |
Mark Devenport and I headed for the tr as. Our political editor has | :26:55. | :27:02. | |
been meeting the Col om ban ambassador. I didn't get Ferrero | :27:02. | :27:09. | |
Rocher but I did meet the ambassador. Colombia has had major | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
problems with guerrilla groups. A while ago they had a peace process | :27:13. | :27:19. | |
with the FARC group, but that fell apart. They are working possibly to | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
reinvigorate that. That's one of the things the Colombian ambassador | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
told me he was here to find out about. It is true that the | :27:27. | :27:29. | |
Colombian case is quite different from the situation that you have | :27:29. | :27:34. | |
livered in this country, but there are some very good lessons and some | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
experiences that can be applied to my country, hopefully in the future | :27:38. | :27:44. | |
we'll be as successful as you have been in dealing with a peace | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
process. At Stormont you met all the parties, including Irish | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
republicans. On the news here most people when you say Colombia they | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
might think of the three Irish republicans accused of trying to | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
help FARC guerrillas. It's a turn around if you are now looking for | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
lessons on peace from those politicians here? That's right. The | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
idea to export from Northern Ireland to Colombia good ideas | :28:09. | :28:15. | |
on,000 build and keep a peace process going on, and not to have | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
the sad and negative stories of the past. It seems you are going to be | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
very gck the Colombian embassy in London from now on. What about Jim | :28:24. | :28:29. | |
Allister. He's having trouble getting answers to his questions. | :28:29. | :28:35. | |
He was complaining earlier about the delay as he saw it in getting | :28:35. | :28:42. | |
written answers. He got one today which he didn't like. He was asking | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
about the legal advice sought by First Minister Peter Robinson in | :28:46. | :28:55. | |
connection with the Spotlight programme, and the affair of his | :28:55. | :29:00. | |
wife Iris and the businessman. The explanation as I understand it is | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
that advice which was given by a barrister was commissioned by the | :29:04. | :29:07. | |
Finance Minister, so he will probably have to rephrase his | :29:07. | :29:11. | |
question, which was about how much the advice cost and whether it will | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
ever be published. That's all from Stormont for now. Thanks to Brian | :29:15. | :29:20. | |
camp field for joining us. We're back on Monday here on BBC Two at | :29:20. | :29:26. |