:00:27. > :00:31.Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. The post Christmas credit card
:00:31. > :00:34.bills may be on the way - but up here it seems Government
:00:34. > :00:37.departments have been underspending rather than overspending. The
:00:37. > :00:47.Finance Minister was flashing the cash and he had this warning for
:00:47. > :00:49.
:00:49. > :00:57.any prophets of doom. The trade unions who seem to think that if
:00:57. > :01:06.you get any good news you have to smack it on their head immediately.
:01:06. > :01:11.And forget the argy bargy - love was in air in the Chamber. I could
:01:11. > :01:14.almost Qasim overdid who was the Minister? Find out
:01:14. > :01:18.later in the programme. And keeping me company tonight the
:01:18. > :01:21.chief executive of our Further Education Colleges, Gerry Campbell.
:01:21. > :01:25.Further Education has found itself in the spotlight recently - and is
:01:25. > :01:28.at the centre of the reshuffle going on at the executive table.
:01:28. > :01:38.Gerry Campbell, does it make a difference which department you end
:01:38. > :01:39.
:01:39. > :01:45.up in? I think it does. It is important to realise that colleges
:01:45. > :01:50.have a central role to play in the economy of Northern Ireland. The
:01:50. > :01:53.economy has been identified as the number one priority for the country.
:01:53. > :01:58.The colleges have a role in restoring it individuals and
:01:58. > :02:01.helping young people get the skills employers need and linking them
:02:02. > :02:08.that not only with schools, but also with players in industry and
:02:08. > :02:13.being at the centre of the economy. There is an argument for bringing
:02:13. > :02:17.in the Department of Education. From the college perspective what
:02:17. > :02:20.is important is what is best for the economy and what is best for
:02:20. > :02:29.Northern Ireland. I would put forward that we link in with other
:02:29. > :02:35.government department as well in terms of social inclusion, dealing
:02:35. > :02:40.with young people who have an employment and education. We need
:02:40. > :02:45.to be at the centre of what the Executive is tackling in trying to
:02:45. > :02:53.get the right level of skills and get the right levels of business
:02:53. > :02:57.and get the economy back up and running again.
:02:57. > :03:04.You mention skills. Do we have the right level of skills to move
:03:04. > :03:11.forward? We have done a lot of work in the
:03:11. > :03:18.redeveloping the curriculum. We would have links with small
:03:18. > :03:23.employers, medium employers. We would try to build up business with
:03:23. > :03:26.other countries. We lengthen and listen to what employers as saying.
:03:26. > :03:30.It is about creating new technologies and working with
:03:30. > :03:36.creative industries. We do listen to what employers are saying and
:03:36. > :03:40.try to work that back into the curriculum we have.
:03:40. > :03:43.We will come to that again that later in the programme.
:03:43. > :03:47.Question Time almost didn't get started today as the Speaker will
:03:47. > :03:50.explain - but when it did it was the Finance Minister who was first
:03:50. > :03:53.up. But as we will be hearing from him later in the programme, we'll
:03:53. > :03:55.concentrate on questions to the Health Minister instead - including
:03:55. > :04:03.questions on trade unions, breast feeding and immigration law. But
:04:03. > :04:11.first here's the Speaker. I am told that the alarm bell is
:04:11. > :04:13.I am told that the alarm bell is not working at the present time. We
:04:13. > :04:22.not working at the present time. We are trying to fix their alarm
:04:22. > :04:32.system. An attempt was made to make the chamber look respectable.
:04:32. > :04:33.
:04:33. > :04:43.topic was trade union activity financed by the health service.
:04:43. > :04:44.
:04:44. > :04:50.Resulting from the involvement of health and social care activities.
:04:50. > :04:52.Would the Minister agree that the Would the Minister agree that the
:04:53. > :04:57.trade unions are an important part in the future of the health service.
:04:57. > :05:02.I would ask him to take this opportunity to reassure a house
:05:02. > :05:09.that he is committed to the principles of social partnership
:05:09. > :05:18.and to the fact that the trade unions will be central to those
:05:18. > :05:28.reforms? I am totally committed to social partnership. That is
:05:28. > :05:33.
:05:33. > :05:37.demonstrated by the Department facilitating trade union members. I
:05:37. > :05:45.wish but that would be reciprocated and stop suddenly I felt that it
:05:45. > :05:50.was not when the first strike was called. We did not have clear
:05:50. > :05:53.reasons set out for that strike in the first instance. There was are
:05:53. > :05:57.low vote from the membership for that strike and that was
:05:57. > :06:03.demonstrated on the day of the strike went limited numbers of
:06:03. > :06:11.people came out. Trade unions should be seeking to negotiate.
:06:11. > :06:19.That is what we are pushing for her. I trust that the member would join
:06:19. > :06:26.me in condemning strikes switchback unnecessary. I am grateful for the
:06:26. > :06:36.reply. Does the Minister agree that 1.6 million is a significant amount
:06:36. > :06:36.
:06:36. > :06:44.of money? Is it really a court activity of the Department of
:06:44. > :06:53.Health to fund trade union activity? The year that I gave was
:06:53. > :07:00.2010, 2011. Obviously his party must have thought it was an at
:07:00. > :07:06.acceptable activity. On to health promotion but one MLA had this to
:07:06. > :07:10.say. I thank the Minister for his commitment to increasing health
:07:10. > :07:14.promotion but does he except that we are behind other regions of the
:07:14. > :07:23.UK as well as the Republic and even further behind Scandinavian
:07:23. > :07:30.countries? That would be fairly obvious otherwise we would not be
:07:30. > :07:35.spending more on public health. Thank you for the answer. I want to
:07:36. > :07:42.ask does he believe that given the health benefits not just in terms
:07:42. > :07:51.of children's immune systems but in terms of obesity, does the Minister
:07:51. > :08:00.a belief that enough is being spent on breast feeding? We have the
:08:00. > :08:03.public health agency. There are huge benefits that come about as a
:08:03. > :08:12.result of children being breast-fed. It is something we want to
:08:12. > :08:21.encourage. Even if young mothers for a short period of time do that
:08:21. > :08:24.it can have benefits. We will be doing more work on that particular
:08:24. > :08:34.era Andrew would encourage such a public health agencies to continue
:08:34. > :08:35.
:08:35. > :08:41.that work. What action has the Minister taken to encourage more
:08:41. > :08:47.doctors to come into their health service. Particularly in relation
:08:47. > :08:50.to working in the emergency departments? Emergency medicine is
:08:50. > :08:57.a speciality in which we have difficulty recruiting junior
:08:57. > :09:07.doctors. The biggest contributory factor is changes to immigration
:09:07. > :09:08.
:09:08. > :09:18.rules that were introduced in 2008. Despite a recruitment exercise to
:09:18. > :09:20.
:09:20. > :09:28.India, we find this situation. We got a response in December last
:09:28. > :09:32.year from a minister saying that the rules will not be changed. His
:09:32. > :09:35.view was that we should be no separate list for Northern Ireland.
:09:35. > :09:38.The economic news may still be pretty bleak with the high street
:09:38. > :09:41.taking repeated hits - but Stormont's finances may not be in
:09:41. > :09:44.as bad a shape as was previously thought. The Minister Sammy Wilson
:09:44. > :09:54.likes to boast about running a tight financial ship so is he
:09:54. > :09:55.
:09:55. > :10:00.starting to get results? When the 2011 budget was set there was an
:10:00. > :10:03.expectation that it would be a tight settlement with little
:10:03. > :10:13.expectation of McTigue delete reduced requirements during the
:10:13. > :10:14.
:10:14. > :10:23.course of the year. However while this may reflect a robust action
:10:23. > :10:28.taken by departments, it also raises the possibility that their
:10:28. > :10:35.original budget allocations to some departments at either reflected an
:10:35. > :10:41.orderly pessimistic if you, or her under estimated the capacity within
:10:42. > :10:46.departments to pursue and deliver savings. There is evidence that
:10:46. > :10:50.suggests efficiencies are being driven out. �10 million was
:10:50. > :10:53.allocated for the Department of regional development. This will
:10:53. > :11:02.allow further maintenance and repair of our major and minor roads
:11:02. > :11:06.as well as new buses to run on those roads. This is good news for
:11:06. > :11:14.the construction industry. This will mean that road maintenance
:11:14. > :11:20.this year will be �111 million. That is the highest ever recorded.
:11:20. > :11:26.It does illustrate the executives commitment to dealing with some of
:11:26. > :11:32.the issues which the construction industry have brought to us in
:11:33. > :11:36.terms of jobs. I was and this morning to the trade unions who
:11:36. > :11:40.seem to think that if you get any good news on Northern Ireland you
:11:40. > :11:46.have got to smack it on the head immediately to make sure it does
:11:46. > :11:50.not gather any kind of momentum and introduce more gloom and doom and
:11:50. > :11:56.despair with Matt predictions, and the our predictions, about the
:11:56. > :12:01.losses of jobs in the public sector. The best thing that those people
:12:01. > :12:07.who are involved in all areas of the economy in Northern Ireland can
:12:07. > :12:12.do, and also in the media, is to maybe try and encourage some
:12:12. > :12:17.confidence in the economy rather than always knocking everything
:12:17. > :12:25.that happens and indeed trying to compete with each other as to who
:12:25. > :12:31.can make the future looked blackest. Those kinds of things would help
:12:31. > :12:34.the pursuit of creating jobs and encouraging firms to invest.
:12:34. > :12:37.Education was also a big winner. Sammy Wilson confirmed an extra
:12:37. > :12:41.�120 million over the next three years - although only next year's
:12:41. > :12:50.�30million is guaranteed. Despite the good news, David McNarry
:12:50. > :12:59.couldn't resist having a go at his old sparring partner. The zest for
:12:59. > :13:03.consuming money never ceases to amaze me. On their education
:13:03. > :13:08.package let us be fair. This is good news. Very good news. It
:13:08. > :13:12.should be welcomed by take all. Would the Minister tell us what was
:13:12. > :13:18.the nature of the compelling arguments which convinced him to
:13:18. > :13:26.release this money? I am glad to see that the member has moved away
:13:26. > :13:31.from me being the creative of black holes. He asks what compelling
:13:31. > :13:39.arguments are being made in relation to schools? First of all
:13:39. > :13:42.all members in this Assembly when they were faced with the five %
:13:42. > :13:51.reduction followed by one % reduction and the dire consequences
:13:51. > :13:56.that was going to have, many of them were saying we will not have
:13:56. > :14:06.the teaching complement required, that was one of the things. There
:14:06. > :14:17.
:14:17. > :14:23.was the pressure through public representatives. What about the
:14:23. > :14:31.pressure on further education colleges? Ho will they be able to
:14:31. > :14:36.cope with unexpected increase in demands. There will be an increase
:14:36. > :14:40.in demand wanting to potentially study. You might also find that
:14:41. > :14:50.there is not enough supply to meet the demand and there is more
:14:51. > :14:51.
:14:51. > :14:55.interest in it their courses ended the F T sector. Many people have
:14:55. > :15:04.come through the colleges and got good qualifications and went on
:15:04. > :15:07.into employment. I would stress the banter between skills
:15:07. > :15:10.There are going to be wide-ranging changes to the rules on pre-school
:15:10. > :15:13.education. The education minister John O'Dowd wants to broaden the
:15:13. > :15:16.numbers who get priority - and end preference to children born earlier
:15:16. > :15:26.in the school year, as he explained to our education correspondent
:15:26. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:36.It has been recommended in the past that this is removed. There are
:15:36. > :15:44.Baunton thing is that we provide pre-school education. -- the
:15:45. > :15:49.important thing is. Every child whose parents want it will receive
:15:49. > :15:53.pre-school education in the year before they attend primary school.
:15:53. > :16:03.Does that mean that those with July and August birthdays will not get a
:16:03. > :16:06.
:16:06. > :16:11.place? It will not. This is to benefit those who fall outside of
:16:11. > :16:21.those states. You are going to look again at social deprivation.
:16:21. > :16:22.
:16:22. > :16:29.Parents working and earning a low wage are concerned about this.
:16:29. > :16:39.Because of the criteria that has been set previously, low income
:16:39. > :16:41.
:16:41. > :16:49.parents for our -- fall outside the category of. Were hoping to change
:16:49. > :16:55.this. We want to bring low income parents into the system. Could you
:16:55. > :17:05.also be giving other advantages to other children, such as travelling
:17:05. > :17:12.
:17:13. > :17:22.children? In this current criteria, my focus is on a family's on lower
:17:23. > :17:25.
:17:25. > :17:30.-- is on families who are on low incomess. Back to the chamber,
:17:30. > :17:37.where things got romantic. I could kiss him, but I don't think that
:17:37. > :17:43.would be appropriate. I hope we can work together to ensure there are
:17:43. > :17:49.places immediately available. back to the future of the
:17:49. > :17:59.employment and learning department. Joining the is Basel. The party
:17:59. > :18:10.
:18:10. > :18:15.leaders had further talks today. -- We have been talking about how the
:18:15. > :18:20.car up is going to happen. How do you feel about it because it means
:18:20. > :18:25.a loss of part of your job? Everyone that is involved in any
:18:25. > :18:31.committee, you get quite attached to it and certainly everyone in my
:18:31. > :18:35.committee was committed to the work that we do. There is a sense of
:18:35. > :18:45.sadness that the work you have started, you might not be able to
:18:45. > :18:55.carry forward. Having said that, there is some benefits - but
:18:55. > :19:01.
:19:01. > :19:05.It is obviously tied in to what is happening with the Department of
:19:05. > :19:09.Justice, but would it have been better to wait to reduce the number
:19:09. > :19:14.of departments ought up once or rather than doing it in this
:19:14. > :19:18.fashion? If it is right to do it for one, it is right to do it for
:19:18. > :19:28.money. Part of the problem we have instalment is we take for ever to
:19:28. > :19:32.
:19:32. > :19:37.make a decision and then implement it quickly, usually wrongly. I do
:19:37. > :19:43.sense that there will be an acceleration of the realignment of
:19:43. > :19:47.all the other departments. It could happen in a year. Is there some
:19:47. > :19:51.merit in changing the committee structure for the new departments
:19:51. > :19:55.because the role of the committee is to be a watchdog and to
:19:55. > :19:59.scrutinise and now if the department is bigger, is there some
:19:59. > :20:05.merit in increasing the size of the committee, or having some extra
:20:05. > :20:15.level of scrutiny? You could conceivably have to committees
:20:15. > :20:20.
:20:20. > :20:30.looking at one Ministry. The committee's -- the committees do
:20:30. > :20:32.
:20:32. > :20:38.not need to be aligned the individual departments. I do think
:20:38. > :20:44.there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of changes have to be
:20:44. > :20:50.implemented. Gerry Campbell, it is difficult in terms of youth
:20:50. > :20:53.unemployment. How do you argue for the resources to upscale as any
:20:53. > :20:59.young people as possible to make their chances better of getting a
:20:59. > :21:05.job? I heard an alarming statistic today. Youth unemployment has
:21:05. > :21:08.doubled in the past few years and one in five young people in
:21:08. > :21:16.Northern Ireland are unemployed. It is frightening. The younger they
:21:16. > :21:22.are unemployed, it is harder to get them into work. -- the longer. It
:21:22. > :21:30.is also costing more in benefits and people are not contributing in
:21:30. > :21:33.an employment situation. Government needs to look at things from a
:21:33. > :21:40.strategic perspective. All departments need to work together
:21:40. > :21:43.to eliminate this. We will leave it there for now. Yesterday saw the
:21:43. > :21:49.first sitting of the four Assembly since the Christmas holidays, but
:21:49. > :21:59.to be fair to MLAs, committees were meeting last week and the week
:21:59. > :22:00.
:22:00. > :22:09.before. We stuck out were weekly round-up -- we start our weekly
:22:09. > :22:16.round-up of committee business. Maya understanding in terms of the
:22:16. > :22:24.current situation is that there is support among staff for a merger.
:22:24. > :22:32.Are you disputing that the formal response of union members was
:22:32. > :22:36.against the merger? Are you disputing that? Those were the
:22:36. > :22:42.recommendations. I use it just didn't they have retracted or
:22:42. > :22:47.changed those? They may be. If you want to invite the unions along.
:22:47. > :22:57.I am inviting you to justify what you said to the House.
:22:57. > :23:05.information I heard was that there was sufficient support. We are not
:23:05. > :23:15.talking about that. We are talking about you unequivocally telling the
:23:15. > :23:17.
:23:17. > :23:27.House... I stand by what I said. must be your understanding that
:23:27. > :23:33.these documents were withdrawn. at all. These documents are in a
:23:33. > :23:40.position of a merger. You come to the House and say that the
:23:40. > :23:48.documents show that the merger is favoured. You misled the House.
:23:48. > :23:58.That is a strong statement that you are making. That is what you did.
:23:58. > :24:09.
:24:09. > :24:19.The term misleading in terms of protocol is on parliamentary. --
:24:19. > :24:33.
:24:33. > :24:37.unparliamentary. The committee buy- up serve on helps to contribute to
:24:37. > :24:45.the local economy. If online gambling is a growing threat to
:24:45. > :24:50.your Business in any case, and it is apparat the best of the UK where
:24:50. > :24:55.there are loan restrictions, is it not likely to continue to be a
:24:55. > :24:58.problem? The effect of the matter is we are still an industry in
:24:58. > :25:08.Northern Ireland and we are suffering like everybody else. We
:25:08. > :25:10.
:25:10. > :25:16.need help and one of the simple things would be a Sunday opening.
:25:16. > :25:26.People are betting on Sundays illegally. They would not have gone
:25:26. > :25:36.online at the been able to offer the service. -- had we've been able
:25:36. > :25:51.
:25:51. > :25:56.It was not all doom on gloom -- and gloom. Department hand back every
:25:56. > :26:06.quarter the money they do not spend. We are coming towards the end of
:26:06. > :26:07.
:26:07. > :26:10.the financial year and there was more money to hand out. The
:26:10. > :26:17.Department of Culture had asked for �2 million. They were hoping to get
:26:17. > :26:21.that from the sale of the public office building, but the sale fell
:26:21. > :26:28.through and it is back on the market. They needed �2 million to
:26:28. > :26:38.plug their accounts. There was more talk on the shake-up of the
:26:38. > :26:48.ministerial department. Yes. It was proposed that the Justice
:26:48. > :26:49.
:26:49. > :26:57.Department stayed. But because they have to ministers, it was thought
:26:57. > :27:02.that the Department for Employment and learning should merge. The
:27:02. > :27:12.party leaders met today to discuss the papers, but it was a waste of
:27:12. > :27:13.
:27:13. > :27:23.time. Andy prominent victims campaigner was here. What was that
:27:23. > :27:28.
:27:28. > :27:38.about? He was here because it is alleged that victims of Unionist
:27:38. > :27:38.
:27:38. > :27:43.crimes are being ignored. He has spoken to Sinn Fein and his meeting
:27:43. > :27:47.Peter Robinson tomorrow. He said he was glad that the First Minister
:27:47. > :27:57.wanted to meet him, but he was not impressed by some of the other
:27:57. > :28:00.politicians. Gerry Campbell, in terms of staff across your further
:28:00. > :28:09.education colleges, are based got enough to teach the new courses
:28:09. > :28:12.needed? Yes. Our lecturers can spend quality time in industry and
:28:12. > :28:17.business to make sure their skills and knowledge are at the cutting
:28:17. > :28:22.edge. So you are confident that we will have exactly the right sort of
:28:22. > :28:27.people for the right sort of jobs in the future? Yes. Everybody needs
:28:27. > :28:33.to work together to deal with these issues, whether it be proved