16/01/2017 Stormont Today

called a fresh Assembly election - on the day the Secretary of State

just eight months after the last one.

It was a day of huge significance for the devolution

project - because if talks anticipated to take place

after the new 90 seat chamber is elected fail, Stormont could find

itself stored away in political mothballs for quite some time.

So, coming up tonight...MLAs find out how long they've got

to prove their worth to the electorate...

I propose that a draft order in Council be brought forward shortly

that set an election date of Thursday second March stop.

The suspended DUP MLA Jonathan Bell makes accusations about senior party

This party has suspended me for telling the truth when I gave the

First Minister, Deputy First Minister and the German body or the

information, people are sitting beside them and sitting behind them

of much more serious offences. So 300 days after we last went

to the polls, we'll get the chance Following the refusal of Sinn Fein

to nominate someone to the post of Deputy First Minister

following the resignation of Martin McGuinness seven days ago,

the Secretary of State has called I propose that a draft order in

Council be brought forward shortly to set down election date of

Thursday the 2nd of March. And to dissolve the assembly from the 26th

of January, meaning that its last sitting day would be the 25th. No

one should underestimate the challenge faced to the political

institutions here in Northern Ireland, and what is at stake. While

it is inevitable that debate during an election period will be intense,

I would strongly encourage the political parties to conduct this

election with a view to the future of Northern Ireland and

re-establishing a partnership government at the earliest

opportunity after that poll. This is essential to the operation of

devolved government, and this means that all must remain open to

dialogue. The government continues to span thermally -- I stand firmly

behind the government and its successors, and our responsibilities

to safeguard stability here in Northern Ireland. We will continue

to do all that we can to find a way forward to secure the continuation

of devolved government. James Brokenshire speaking

at Stormont Castle earlier this evening.

So how did we get to that point? Sinn Fein repeatedly said

it wouldn't nominate and today, when given the opportunity,

the party formally I am nominating Arlene Foster to be

the First Minister. It's her rightful position. That alone

because the DUP says it but because 202,000 people in the country said

it. And we as a DUP, Democratic Unionist Party, we will decide who

the leader of our party is. Not someone else sitting in this

chamber. We don't dictate to others who should be their leader, and no

one is going to dictate to us today who the leader of our party, which

transpires to be the leader of the union is here in Northern Ireland.

Mr Speaker, I very readily and with some degree of pleasure nominate

Arlene Foster to be the First Minister. Sinn Fein will only be

part of institutions which work and deliver for all in our community.

There can be no return to the staters go. If something is broken,

you stop and you fix it. That is the Sinn Fein approach. Today, Sinn Fein

will not renominate for the position of Deputy First Minister. Sinn Fein

has honoured all agreements, we have striven to make these institutions

work. Martin McGuinness has acted at all times with integrity, with

dignity, and with respect to stop he has taken personal and political

risks to build a process of reconciliation. If we are to return

to this chamber, then there must be real, meaningful change. There must

be respect and equality for all sections of society. These

institutions must operate to the highest standards, with no place for

arrogance or malpractice. It is now over to the people to have their

say. Michelle O'Neill confirming that

Sinn Fein would not nominate anyone to the position of

Deputy First Minister. And let's hear from

the commentator, Alex Kane. We now have a date for

an election - March 2nd... Yesterday, and I think it is strange

because all the way through I didn't think it would come to this. No

Grimmy you didn't you were wrong! You don't have deep rub it in. I

think we would be ruthlessly good at keeping our problem is tight and

internal, solving the problem of Northern Ireland. But she didn't,

she wrapped it up all the way through. I'd thought Sinn Fein

wouldn't call her bluff but they did and we are now in an election we

don't need. Monday and Tuesday -

and RHI is likely to be It hasn't gone away, and it was 40

days a old. DUP broke that story, a very senior DUP story told me that

it wasn't going to be interesting. 40 days later it is still debated,

and in the next few days more worryingly it will be there all the

way to the election for the DUP. You didn't think it

would come to this. You weren't alone in that. They

assumed that at the end of the Labour parties would come together

and hammer out a deal and get over the obstacle and move onto the next

issue. Arlene Foster's already

said it's going to be A lots of people frankly agree with

her. I think the interesting thing about this election campaign, we

didn't see it coming, but it came from eight background where Sinn

Fein were saying they were getting on very well, David Gordon being

appointed, various articles saying they had been doing well, Sinn Fein

providing government and suddenly they go from campaigning from RHI,

no personal issue, no equality, Unionists just don't want to open

any doors for republicans, they don't want to respect us... Again

that came from nowhere, and that very moment it became clear that all

the stuff we had heard about how good this relationship was was at

best a lie, and once you get to do that storage, you are in a terrible

mess. It is an interesting situation, and you have been here

for much of the day and have been talking to various people in both

parties. Talking to people thrive at Lee within the DUP and Sinn Fein I

think what is striking is that they don't seem to be hearing what the

other side is saying, they don't seem to be taking on board at all

any of the concerns of any of the other parties, is that what you are

getting as well? That is what I'm getting, and there are now two

battles being fought. I think it is before the election mode was

started, put up barriers, and Sinn Fein decided there was no gesture of

goodwill. Barriers began to go up quietly, and now it has got to the

stage where they aren't listening to each other, not listening to anyone

else not the public, and they have stopped listening. We'll have to

listen to the voters on March two. Alex, thank you, and we'll hear

more from you later. It was supposed to be the chance

for the Economy Minister to show how he would stop the huge financial

losses of the Renewable Instead, as news of the Secretary

of State's decision to call an election broke,

the debate changed rapidly. And that led to more

extraordinary allegations from the suspended DUP MLA,

Jonathan Bell, who continued his Simon Hamilton outlined his plans

to the Assembly, but before they could be voted on,

the Ulster Unionist leader, Mike Nesbitt, called for the debate

to be suspended for a week... The proposal today are the first

steps towards reducing the burden on the Northern Ireland budget of an

estimated ?490 million. I'm determined to take steps which will

effectively reduce the overspend in future years to zero. This is not

the occasion or the place to rehearse or gone to a conclusion on

the wise or wherefores of what went wrong. That, Mr Deputy Speaker, will

be the work of the PAC and an independent enquiry. My priority

immediately is to bear down on the costs of the scheme for the 2017,

2018 financial year. Costs for that year are projected to be around ?50

million. Mr Speaker, while the original policy intentions of the

scheme may have been laudable, it has been blighted by significant

failings in its design, oversight and control. There have been many

allegations of potential abuse which cast a shadow over legitimate uses

of renewable heat installations, and I do recognise that some legitimate

users will see a substantial reduction in their payments but that

reflects the fact that the scheme was much more generous than was

originally intended for stop earlier today we saw the DUP sadly trying to

defend the indefensible, they went low. As the woman said when they go

low, we go high. I want to go high today by referring to the disrespect

which was shown to the public, the lack of respect to the public purse,

the dereliction of duty, and the shameful way in which this entire

debacle has been handled. The part here who designed this disastrous

scheme are we are led to believe helped design a good litigation but

it looks bad for everybody else and leaves us with a choice between the

?85,000 per day lead indefinitely, if this case falls and we don't have

another opportunity to fix it, versus the potential cost of legal

challenges as well as all the cost of the very belated investigations,

and this scenario, I think you will understand, people are a bit

reluctant to just this view of those who designed the flawed scheme,

designing the fix. Why delay? Very simple. It it as no cost to the

public purse will stop the 85,000 a day that we are burning off because

of the overspend continues even if these regulations are agreed today

or next week, until at least the 1st of April. That's over ?6 billion.

That ?6 million. There will be no cost to the public present wait for

a week. Doing nothing is not an option. To delay for one week is a

reasonable request and I do believe will give us time for some of that

extra scrutiny that the previous speaker has mentioned. I would like

it in the record that I spoke for the first time in the fashion that I

did because journalists were able to conclusively prove to me that they

had contacted the press offices of the delicate Unionist party a day

after day after day and were being fed back misinformation that

Jonathan Bell was unavailable. Mr Speaker, I also want a very major

concern bed into the record of this house that instruction went out from

DUP special advisers John Robinson, currently special adviser to the

economy minister, and Andrew Crawford, the current special

adviser to Michelle Michael Butler Michelle McLean. ... Under no

adviser to Michelle Michael Butler circumstances allow Jonathan Bell to

be called. This is a quote. These matter need to be deeply

investigated. Can I just asked Mr Bell... We are moving outside of the

scope of the RHI. When we're talking about an adjournment for a week,

these matters can be investigated in this week alongside the very first

piece of information given to me in a ministerial office. By the DUP

party officer appointed special adviser to the terms that you will

not be allowed to reduce the tariff is the bag on the scheme because

Timothy Johnston, special adviser to the then First Minister, and John

Robinson, the current at that time director of communications to the

DUP, and now the special adviser to the economy minister, had such

extensive interest in the poultry industry, Minister, this is not

being allowed on the agenda. I have the information to murder Mr

Speaker, I have kept the records in many, many formats will stop this

party has suspended me for telling the truth while I gave the First

Minister and the deputy leader and the chairman of the partly all the

information. People that are sitting behind and beside them of much more

serious offences. In response, the DUP dismissed

Mr Bell's allegations The party said Timothy Johnston has

no interests whatsoever in the poultry industry and does not

benefit or have any family members who applied to,

or benefit from, RHI. It also said John Robinson has

no personal interest His family home farm has chicken

houses which are not Andrew Crawford told the BBC last

month that his brother is the director of a company

which successfully applied to the RHI scheme, but he said

he 'never sought to keep the RHI scheme open at the original

higher tariff against The ability of the Executive

to mitigate against the Bedroom Tax before any dissolution was batted

back and forth between the Finance and Communities Ministers

over the last week. Mairtin O'Muilleior argued that no

fresh legislation was needed. Paul Givan disagreed,

and earlier today brought his Members are able to see from the

draft set of regulations that the general provisions in the budget act

would not give my department the powers necessary to make decisions

in the different scenarios set out in the regulations. So, Mr Speaker,

that nails everything that the finance minister has been doing what

he is engaged in a Twitter battle the public can see who the twit is

as he has went along, making it up, on social media in respect to how

this is being issued. In two and a half years, Sinn Fein cost the

public purse ?174 million in penalties from the Treasury. Money

that was lost in public services into a half years, and what do we do

whenever these issues were raised? We worked through them, despite the

reckless activities Sinn Fein, that cost ?171 million.

I am clearly stating we support the regulation be for us. No one needs

to explain to me the impact this will have. I have liaisons dealt

with many constituents who have highlighted their concerns and fears

so whilst the rest of us have no fear of going through the

electorate, the DUP in Sinn Fein will continue to politic with some

of the most vulnerable in society. Had Sinn Fein not stood firm to

ensure the most vulnerable were protected and to ensure they were

protected properly, irrespective of legislation from Westminster, then

we collectively we been in a much different position. We stood by our

convictions and to the best of our ability we got a deal to protect

those most vulnerable. In relation to fines, the people and claimants

we all talk about, not 1p came out of their pockets. Yes it came out of

the block grant but why? Because people were waxing lyrical about the

need to ensure our blog rant was protected and they failed to look

over and other shoulder. -- block grant. The ministers stated that

there was very little to nothing he could do to bring forward the

mitigation meant -- measures to protect the most vulnerable. He

stated categorically that was the truth. Why do I believe he did it?

Because he wanted to put pressure on his partners in government and

prevent them calling an election. The deadline was the 20th of

February and we knew this needed done since we were elected last May

so there was every opportunity for due process and scrutiny to take

place but it seems that everything MS please has to be subject to a

last-minute rush, back of the envelope calculations and perhaps we

would not be sitting you today is that culture were to end.

Another contentious issue on the order paper

today was the position of Robin Newton as Speaker.

He was the subject of a lot of criticism before Christmas

when he called on Arlene Foster to make a statement

as First Minster, when the Deputy First Minister had

The motion was brought by Sinn Fein, but for the second time today things

So we come to date to debate confidence in the speaker, which is

a normal motion given the circumstances we found ourselves

then before Christmas and the behaviour that led to the first

Minister making a statement when she had not the authority to do so. We

find ourselves hamstrung by a petition of concern. The DUP have

deployed petitions of concern over 80 times in this Assembly. ET to

pose as a party on their own. The irony is petitions were built into

the Good Friday Agreement to protect the rights of minorities and protect

citizens from being trampled by larger parties. The DUP as the

largest party had used it 82 times without support from other MLAs. On

a number of occasions they have used it to protect their own members from

censure with them this Assembly. They do so again on this occasion.

He may find this amusing but they do it again. The DUP have yet to learn

that that is public outcry not just regarding the scheme, the speaker's

handling of some of these issues but the DUP refusal to recognise the

damage they are doing to public confidence in these institutions

which they continued to do when they deploy that petition of concern. The

use of petitions to protect their own members is a corruption of what

petition of concerns were intended to do. I will finish what I am

saying. It is a corruption of these institutions and something that the

DUP would do well to look to. We are now to have a debate in this

institution and relation to confidence in the speaker with the

outcome already decided. The outcome has been frustrated regardless of

every other MLA, expressing their lack of confidence, that outcome

will be overturned by the use of a petition of concern, used in a

corrupt fashion to protect their own by the DUP. On those grounds, I will

not agree with this motion. I do not believe there is any purpose in

keeping people year for debate in which the outcome is predetermined.

The corruption of this institution in the eyes of the public has to

stop. We should get a different the DUP return tear on the other side

the election. Conor Murphy. We did have some regular

business today and amongst it was Question Time for the Finance

Minister. It's likely to be the last time

for quite some time that Mairtin O Muilleoir faces

the Assembly, and it was no surprise that the ongoing problems

at Stormont dominated exchanges. The minister is good at running

around and telling other ministers what they should be doing but I

would put it to you, your number one duty is to produce a budget. We are

facing a situation where there will be no budget. This will have a

profound impact for example on the Department of Health. I am asking

you what other contingencies in place to prevent a detrimental

impact on public services? It is a great pity that my colleagues and

the other side of the chamber did not consider this before Christmas

when they became subsumed in covering up RHI and refuse to allow

the public the investigation they were entitled to. It is a pity the

DUP did not consider the institutions given their attacks on

the Irish language and Irish identity. It is a great pity that

before Christmas when I met the DUP ministers and discuss their budget,

what happened? It was not my party who had a former minister on his

knees in a TV studio praying to tell the truth. It was the DUP who became

consumed with RHI and discussions since then have not resigned. So the

blame for where we are this day and the fact that credibility is drained

from these institutions does not lie with any other party in this

Assembly but my colleagues opposite. Could the minister give an

assessment on what he thinks the economic impact will be to Northern

Ireland on the antics and catastrophic mess the DUP, Sinn Fein

government have done -- provided during this last mandate? There must

be an election coming and I hope and trust that all those who have spoken

today do very well in that election. When we go to the doors, the people

will ask one pertinent question, they will seed did you stand for

equality? Did you stand against the disrespect shown to our ethnic

minorities and the LG BT community and to the disrespect shown to the

Irish language community? Did you stand up for tolerance, and mutual

respect? When that question is asked, I am convinced that we will

be able to answer positively to the public and the public will respond

So, three hours before the election was officially called it seemed

there was talk of little else in the chamber -

and Emma Little Pengelly continued on the attack

as the Health Minister, Michelle O'Neill, rose

What representations did you make to the Deputy first Minister bed rather

than resign when he did, he should wait and a lower budget to be put

down an order for your department and all the people who need to use

health services get their help and support they need when they needed

it? Mark McGuinness said the right thing, he was no longer prepared to

lead his party and a government who are not interested in equality and

mutual respect. Our position is clear. I want to be at my desk to

drive forward health care but I will not be in a government where the DUP

are not interested in equality. We cannot be in government but the

party only clear that certain people in certain sections of society, not

good enough. Supplementary. I think sadly we have heard and Minister for

health reading of a Sinn Fein election cue card rather than caring

about the many thousands of people who will be impacted by the lack of

budget. The health department will be starting this financial year

without a budget and planning and that will impact on those most in

need. The responsibility lies with you is Minister of this department,

you cannot duck those responsibilities to ensure there was

a budget in place. What contingencies have you put in place

to insure public services in health are not impacted detrimentally?

There is a crisis of confidence in these institutions. People do not

trust the DUP so I absolutely think Mark McGuinness took the right

decision and it is now up to the public to have their estate. --

Mairtin O Muilleoir McGuinness. Our track record speaks for itself. In

terms of putting equality at the core of our department. We would

only be in this Executive and returned to these institutions if

there is equality embedded in the call of these institutions.

Michelle O'Neill - and Alex Kane is here for a final word.

As far as Sinn Fein's motion of no confidence in the Speaker,

Robin Newton, is concerned - you couldn't have made it up.

You couldn't have made it up. I think even they realise that and

decided there is no point going through with this. It could not

succeed? It could not and it was an abuse of the house. You cannot have

a serious debate about complaints against the speaker because we have

protected them. It took away the nonsense that the speaker was

neutral. It was the DUP concern. Sinn Fein said we're not going to

indulge out in this. A couple of days of debate in the chamber ahead

of us. But we know now if we come back after the 2nd of March that.

But we know now if we come back after the 2nd of March that.

There will be wholesale change in terms of the make-up

of the chamber no matter what happens - and already we know

that Cat Seeley and Catriona Ruane won't be coming back.

It is interesting in the case of Cat Seeley because she is one of the

younger ones and she is only in there. If then some sort of message.

She has a full-time teaching job. She has chosen that auction. She has

given up the political career so she will not come back and abandon a

teaching career. It is sad to say ago, she was one of the better

younger ones. In terms of the five into six, better off. You can maybe

bank 40 or 50 as certainties. It will be very chaotic but it will be

fascinating to nerds like us. You cannot be sure very much. It will be

great for those of us who like to put bet on. We look forward to it.

Thank you very much as ever. The Assembly is sitting tomorrow

and we'll have a Stormont Today So for now, from everyone

in the team - good night! The View holds politicians to

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