16/10/2012 Stormont Today

Coming up, and unacceptable management culture stretching back

warden a decade. The Health Minister response to damning

reports into the fire service. should be looking at what

disciplinary steps might be taken to stop what sparked this reaction

from the culture secretary? I am incensed at his remark and I want

that for the record. I will be joined by the Ulster been its

The minister responsible for public safety it than puts has published

Northern Ireland Fire and rescue Service following allegations by a

whistle blows off abroad, on a prude bonuses and feel you to deal

with staff grievances. He said he believes disciplinary proceedings

should fall off. There are a have been many instances where the

management and governance of the Fire and rescue Service has been

cordoned the question. The media scout stories about whistle-blowing

and members of the public have tabled questions on a wide range of

concerns. The number of reviews and investigations have had to be

carried out into the affairs and running of the Fire and rescue

Service. We are concerned with whistle-blowing. The first report

concerns allegations of irregularities with members of the

staff. The report substantiates allegations made was that of the

initial issues. It's a big the icy wastes witnesses in the way that

whistleblowers have been treated. The report recommends the Fire and

rescue service reviews its procedures for investigations of

any kind on harassment, disciplinary or other procedures.

It is disappointing that such issues have had to come to light

through whistle-blowing rather than being picked up through proper

controls and go on its arrangements. Witnesses identified, but at the

same time I want to defend the right of staff to the whistle blows,

but to encourage it were there are genuine concerns, and people should

not feel they cannot deal with the manager in the Banque -- normal

weight. The second whistle blown report relates to allegations of

conflict of interest. These relate to the reconciliation of the

service stores and to perform a store manager and one his own

company selling professional protection equipment. The internal

audit investigation found their were witnesses in managing conflict

of interest and has made three recommendations and start again

these recommendations must be implemented. There was a review of

a firefighter recruitment exercise last year and a number of concerns

were waste, some by members of this House who noted from the report

that proper and appropriate governance should be adopted for

the trip -- recruitment campaign. I have deep concerns that this

process was introduced later and without the endorsement of the Fire

and rescue Service Board which the report acknowledged should park

been part of the governance arrangements appear outset. One of

the issues raised was that the process was biased towards

relatives of senior managers within the service. Based on the review of

the document available, no direct evidence of nepotism could be found,

but there was evidence of clear separation of personal interests

from decision making. Can I ask what changes the Department has

made to its arrangements since the issue has come to light? Does the

Minister believe that department had too much of a hands-off

approach in scrutinising the fire service? To department has been

closely Lord in supervision of the fire service for some time no at

that has led to significant changes. The separation of the role of chief

fire officer from the accounting officer, chief Executive aspect of

that goal, it's something that we would say it's temporary, but none

the less necessary, so that we can bring a new broom in to its over

lot of the issues which were called to will, within the poorer service.

He's a fundamental weaknesses in any organisation. Be the basic

management procedures that should be in a voluntary group, never mind

an ordination this size, so, has any disciplinary action been taken

against any of the senior management team for this atrocious

management they had looked over? That is recommended under the Pope

to look at discipline and I can hear what the member says, and

perhaps it does reflect on this issue that, too often, people are

moved sideways, and discipline does not take place. There is also a

recommendation that we should be looking at the human resources side

of up to see what disciplinary steps might be taken. The average

Language Act has not gone away, and Jim Allister took the opportunity

to challenge Karen McKinnon over funding for Sandy Row boxing club.

How can volunteers in Sandy Row boxing club get assistance as long

as the minister insists they will not be funded unless they re

affiliate with the group that has discriminated against them? Worst

of all, the member is wrong in what he says. Sandy Row has not been

refused any funding and secondly, for the record, I asked to meet

Sandy Row, and that was refused. I went to San be able boxing club on

the basis of receiving allegations within the department, again, it

was refused. Sandy Row boxing club refused to meet board -- sport and

I. I ask them again to meet about the alleged allegations and again

it was reduced. I then went and met and spoke with security

representatives in the area to see what they do to Dr Sandy Row boxing

club about the situation and they were told where to go. They went to

Stormont Road Boxing reception with other boxers and again that was

refused. For an event around the Olympics and Paralympics, again,

they refused, so what I would like the member to do and I am offering

a member this because he seems to be making an issue of this on

behalf or Sandy Row, why don't you will tell a meeting with myself and

my officials to work through these allegations around sectarianism,

which no one in this house will add a tolerate or support, and, if the

member is serious about getting to the bottom of this issue, he will

take that invitation series there. Can I ask the Minister to confirm

that and the like of evidence reported in Hansard that the new

Irish language strategy can be delivered literate legislation,

that the proposed Irish Language Act has now been abandoned?

English-language ACPO has not been abandoned by myself -- Irish

Language Act. I will repeat that Bono -- or the benefit of members

with in this chamber. And look forward to the support of members

in doing so also the strategies under the programme for government

will need a legislative approach but we will not want to that

consultation finishes and that it would like to see, at this stage

that the consultations on both are still open and I eat what encourage

you remember to use their influence to encourage people to feed into

those consultations. Sami Khiyami, constituency in Olly money has one

is it will title championship in weightlifting. You recently that a

50-but the pipe age bracket category competition, whatever all

that means! But it means he was very successful. And will the

Minister insure competitors from all on Ireland engaged in

weightlifting and other sports will be financially assisted in

participation through Sports Northern Ireland in the 2014

Commonwealth Games in Glasgow? thanked the Member for his question.

I, too, do not know what that means but I know enough to know that I am

impressed and Sammy is from your ease the juicy, and from Ballymoney,

and congratulations to him because anybody competing at this level, it

is no mean feat, and I would write to -- like to congratulate David

McCallum, recent winner of the strongest man in Ulster. What is

important is that sport Northern Ireland in conjunction with the

weightlifting Association do what it were they to do to pass on

recognition and that poor people like Sammy, and others, who want to

compete Anne the 2014, and will teams, weightlifting has become

increasingly popular, and it deserves support, but the member

will it be that we have to meet the criteria as a governing body to

ensure that support for a long-term future. Education minister John

O'Dowd attended the standards of GCSEs this afternoon puts up he was

asked how he will insure students from Northern Ireland are not

disadvantaged when the exam is abolished in England. He was asked

about funding for children with special educational needs. I have

concern about the number of children who are not getting

assessed. Is he going to put extra resources to route to the library

bowled so that we allow more children to be assessed, with

special needs -- the Library Board. Instead, the member has decided to

speak about everything other than provision of education and

educational needs of young people, of the most socially deprived areas,

and got into a speech about his due of my party which has nothing to do

with it. But I can assure the Member that I will ensure that

resources are targeted at children with special needs. I have as part

of my delivery plan protected special needs from any other

savings and cuts. I will endeavour to direct more finances towards

that as well. One of the driving forces behind this idea was to

ensure that the quality of delivery of service, across the North,

rather than what we have which is a major difference between what

services are the seed, from one ball to another. -- are received. I

can assure you that standards will be maintained and learners will not

be disadvantaged with any changes. I will work with counterparts

elsewhere in the UK to ensure that $:/STARTFEED. Thank you for your

answer. Cot Minister give me his assessment of the current system in

Northern Ireland, using GCSE as opposed to the proposed

baccalaureate in mainland UK It's difficult to assess our current

GCSE's against the proposed changes because the full details have not

been published of them. I can give him an assessment. I believe our

system to be robust. I believe it to be a fair challenge of the

individual learners' abilities and their skill sets. However, the

changes that have been made in England present us with an

opportunity to review. That I have set up a review and I await the

outcome of the report coming back to me before proposing any changes,

if any, to our current examination system. I am satisfied that we have

a robust examination system in our possession. I have said publicly

before that comments elsewhere may have damaged the brand, I certainly

don't want any of our young people leaving education or going tonne to

further education believing that the examination they have is not up

to standard. Anybody who has currently or is sitting GCSE's

should be proud of their achievements. He is having a review,

but can he tell us what discussions he had with Michael Gove and

whether he learnt lessons from that? Have you not heard, Michael

Gove doesn't want to talk to me. I have learnt the lesson that,

despite repeated questions to Mr Gove for a meeting, I will always

get a refusal. However, I have agreed with a meeting to one of his

junior ministers responsible for examinations. We are waiting for a

date. I had hoped to do a joint meeting with my Welsh counter nart

regards that. That may not prove possible. We hope to do that.

However, I will continue to have correspondence with Michael Gove. I

will meet with his officials, despite the fact that I believe it

should be a face-to-face meeting with him. I think the outcome is

more important. The Education Minister, John O'Dowd.

It's been the subject of much debate and today the Finance

Minister, Sammy Wilson, introduced a fast-track motion calling for the

elimination of Air Passenger Duty on direct long-haul flights

departing from airports in Northern Ireland. Having an effective date

of 1st January 2013 is our aim. This is clearly challenging, but I

believe it's possible. Having the proinvestigation vision effective

from January 2013 can no longer be achieved by normal passage of the

Bill. To my mind, it would be wholly unacceptable if the key

measures in the Bill were not operational until a much later date

which would be the case if we pursued the normal Bill process in

the Assembly. I'm conscious that accelerated passage should not be

used lightly or unnecessarily. This is not an attempt to try to shield

the Bill from the proper scrutiny it should be undertaken. As Members

will be recall, at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, we were

faced with significant concerns on the viability of the direct link

between Belfast International and inch ewark. This was a direct

result of the rate of air passenger duty here and in the Republic of

Ireland. It was very clear that without urgent action this route

would have been lost to Northern Ireland. It was a the Chancellor

himself who eventually took the decision to firstly reduce our

long-haul APD to the short haul rate and to begin the process of

devoluming the necessary powers to us. I would like to again put on

record my thanks to him for that -- dedevolume vinge. This left a rate

of duty that was significantly higher than the rate in the

Republic of Ireland. A commitment was given in the programme for

government that the Executive would act quickly to reduce the duty on

these flights to zero. Some in this House, Mr Deputy Speaker, would

like to devolve all fiscal powers to Northern Ireland. Or? The SDLP's

case set up another quaun go to consider the issue, this is not the

view of my party. They must consider any proposal of changes to

fiscal atomy on a case by case basis and any support offered by

the Ulster unionist party is qualified and not to be taken as an

opening of the floodgates for the devolution the fiscal powers.

devolution of ref new-raising power to a region inevitably brings with

it a cost, in this case, as mentioned earlier on, the cost is

estimated to be around �5 million. That's against an estimated benefit

to the region of �100 million in the space of seven years. With

further potential from other routes in the future. What monitoring will

there be to make sure that it is indeed the consumer, not the

airline companies which derive all the benefit from this?

The TUV MLA, Jim Allister. This afternoon, Members debated a

DUP motion on the fate of the so- called Disappeared.

The motion highlighted the plight of the seven families whose

relatives' remains still have not been located and called on anyone

with information to co-operate fully with the authorities. We hear

much talk of moving on, but how account families of the disappeared

move on? If we to move forward in Northern Ireland, it's crucial that

everyone, I mean everyone, is honest and open about the past. Mr

Speaker, I don't believe we need a truth commission. I believe we

simply need people to tell the truth. Sadly, it seems to me, that

the Members opposite are only interested in hiding the per --

highlighted the perceived crimes of our national government. They are

not keen to have the spotlight shown on their past or that of

their friends. It is time for open, honest and forthright confessions

from some key people. Justice demands it, common decency demands

it, grieving families demand it and the blood of the 19 murdered people

known as the Disappeared demands it. My party has made concrete and

specific proposals in terms 7 of an international and independent truth

recovery commission. I think that other parties should think that

they have better ideas should at least attempt to bring them forward

for consideration. For it is part the IRA apologised for the grief it

caused. It acknowledged its intention in working closely with

the special forensic investigating team has been to rectify this

injustice. It has accepted full responsibility for it is actions. I

know that that will not cut much ice on the benches opposite, but I

lsz know that despite the fact it will not be any great consolation

to the families of those involved, but it does address their very,

very sincere desire to arrange a Christian burial for their love

ones. I say this was sanctions by the IRA Armyy council there is no

way that the IRA would have acted without the authority of their army

council. The fact it went on for so long is also an indication it had

the approval of the army council. The fact that the IRA had human

remains from families over the period indicates this was part of

the policy of the IRA. Why was tht policy of the IRA? What was to be

gained with the retention of human remains? Clearly, for families

there was always the hope that their loved one would come home,

many mothers and fathers went to their graves waiting for their son

to return home and I'm sure the families held a hope in hair their

hearts that their mother would come home, even though they knew that

Daewoo never come. When I think of the 16 Disappeared and the denial

of their families' right to a Christian burial, I always think of

a quote, "The foolings, the fools, whilst Ireland holds these graves"

this is one of the fathers of the Irish - of Irish repub Blanc

cannism significantifying the importance of the place of rest

within Irish culture and within Irish republicanism. It's a

demonstration of how much comtempt the Provisional IRA demonstrated

towards the Irish people that they strayed from the basic dignity of a

grave. It's very difficult to comprehend the scale of the

heartbreak and the trauma that the families of the "disappeared "have

been forced to endure, over for what has been a lifetime. I can pay

tribute, as the motion does, to the couragious perseverence of the

victims' families to locating the remains of their loved ones. We

fully support their campaign. This is a very, very personal issue for

the families of the "disappeared" it is part of a wider issue of how

we deal with the legacy of our past in Northern Ireland. The approach

to date has been regrettably and painfully piecemeal. The Alliance

Party has consistently held that the legacy of our recent past is

too important and affects too many people to be dealt with in this way.

Does Northern Ireland need an Armed Forces Advocate. The Ulster

unionist party thinks so. Mike Nesbitt is with me now. Thank you

for joining us. What would an Armed Forces Advocate do, precisely?

would advocate on behalf of serving and former members of the military.

It goes back, Mark, to the armed forces covenant which came out of

Westminster. This is, basically, an acknowledgment that, as a nation,

we have a moral obligation to our armed forces, nothing to the do

with the Troubles, not Northern Ireland-specific. Not about the

conflict here. A recognition that our young people serve in Iraq,

Afghanistan, and they put themselves in harms way. Some get

injured. I wouldn't be the only MLA who has helped them. I have gone to

people who have lost their limbs putting themselves in harm's way.

It's a question of making sure there is somebody who has an eye on

their needs. Scotland has an Armed Forces Advocate. It's actually the

Chief Executive of the NHS in Scotland. Wales has an Armed Forces

Advocate. That is the Chief Executive of their Community and

Local Government Organisations. We don't have one here. That is an

equality issue. Are you suggesting that an individual be appointed to

hold this post or that somebody with an existing post take on this

additional responsibility? That can be argued either way. There are two

people currently have posts in Scotland and Wales who have picked

up this responsibility. You could have a commissioner. Northern

Ireland we have a commissioner for victims and survivors. A

commissioner for older people, younger people. We have a

commissioner for equality and for human rights. A council for ethnic

minorities. This is a glaring miss that we are not looking after our

armed forces and veterans. You can understand, given what you have

said, people in Northern Ireland saying enough commissioner, we

don't need another commissioner and all the cost that is would bring

with it? You could do it by saying to somebody with the necessary

skills, expertise and experience, would you take that under your

wing? It's a question of looking at how policy on education, on housing

on health affects people. I mean, as far as I understand it, if you

come back, having served in the armed forces in England, you have

been living on an army base, you don't have a home much you go to

the housing executive. You get no more points you would do if you

were coming out of jail. That is not right. You know that this would

be controversial given the political landscape in Northern

Ireland. You are trying to bring this in by the back door. You are

looking for legislation in Westminster rather than here in

Stormont? I'm trying to make it happen. I'm recognising the

political realities. There is an opportunity - The political reality

being it wouldn't happen if it was down to the Assembly? I don't think

you would get cross community support for this within the

Assembly. I think that's wrong. Contingency's a shame. It's not

about the Troubles. It's about people who serve in our armed

forces. In the way that people serve in the armed forces in the

Republic of Ireland, in the United States of America. Any country in

the world. Making sure they are not disadvantaged. Now, there is a

possibility, to get this through Westminster I have been in touch

with the Secretary of State's for Northern Ireland, Scotland and

Wales and also with the shadow secretaries I met them at the

Labour Party Conference. Some of these people were expressing

surprise we don't have an Armed Forces Advocate here. And surprised

it's deemed to be controversial. Mrs Villiers going to try to get

through Westminster? She hasn't declared her hand. I have declared

my hand. I think this is the way to do. It I don't think there would be

anybody voting on this Bill who exercises their vote who would not

support the idea of the advocate. Where would the money come from to

pay for it? It wouldn't be free, there would be cost implications?

It wouldn't necessarily have to be expensive. It's a person to keep an

eye on policy and to advise people like the 108MLAs of the

implications. Section 75, which gives rights, in terms of

protecting minorities and their equality issues, actually mitigates

against members of the armed forces and veterans. What about the local

parties here? I don't know if you have spoken to them in great detail.

I imagine the DUP would think it's a good idea, I would imagine Sinn

Fein would think it's a bad bad idea. What about the other parties?

The DUP I would hope would support it. The Alliance I would hope they

would support it. Have you discussed it with any of them?

haven't. We had a meeting with 18- 20 groups who have something to do

with armed forces, Combat Stress and the Royal British Legion. There

are so many organisations all doing great work in their own right, but

not necessarily well co-ordinated. That is a role the Commissioner

could take on. I can't let you escape without asking you if things

have settled in the Ulster unionist party after the high drama of two

years ago when you sacked your deputy? Took a lot of criticism for

it, it has to be said? Some people gave me criticism. A lot of people

came in in support. I have stood down the position. It doesn't

actually have any great value. stood down the position but sacked

the individual? You can't leave the person in post if the post doesn't

exist. Yeah. I have been in post for six months. The media say I

face crisis after crisis much I don't feel I have faced a crisis.

We are in transition. We are doing it well before we go into an

election. I think it's the right thing to do. There is pain involved

in this. We are getting to where we want to be. Have you kissed and

made up? John and I had a great meeting this morning on another

issue. It's all behind snu As far as I'm concerned. John has given

every indication we are moving forward postively. Thank you very

much. That's it from Stormont Today for