17/01/2012 Stormont Today

Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. The post Christmas credit card

bills may be on the way - but up here it seems Government

departments have been underspending rather than overspending. The

Finance Minister was flashing the cash and he had this warning for

any prophets of doom. The trade unions who seem to think that if

you get any good news you have to smack it on their head immediately.

And forget the argy bargy - love was in air in the Chamber. I could

almost Qasim overdid who was the Minister? Find out

later in the programme. And keeping me company tonight the

chief executive of our Further Education Colleges, Gerry Campbell.

Further Education has found itself in the spotlight recently - and is

at the centre of the reshuffle going on at the executive table.

Gerry Campbell, does it make a difference which department you end

up in? I think it does. It is important to realise that colleges

have a central role to play in the economy of Northern Ireland. The

economy has been identified as the number one priority for the country.

The colleges have a role in restoring it individuals and

helping young people get the skills employers need and linking them

that not only with schools, but also with players in industry and

being at the centre of the economy. There is an argument for bringing

in the Department of Education. From the college perspective what

is important is what is best for the economy and what is best for

Northern Ireland. I would put forward that we link in with other

government department as well in terms of social inclusion, dealing

with young people who have an employment and education. We need

to be at the centre of what the Executive is tackling in trying to

get the right level of skills and get the right levels of business

and get the economy back up and running again.

You mention skills. Do we have the right level of skills to move

forward? We have done a lot of work in the

redeveloping the curriculum. We would have links with small

employers, medium employers. We would try to build up business with

other countries. We lengthen and listen to what employers as saying.

It is about creating new technologies and working with

creative industries. We do listen to what employers are saying and

try to work that back into the curriculum we have.

We will come to that again that later in the programme.

Question Time almost didn't get started today as the Speaker will

explain - but when it did it was the Finance Minister who was first

up. But as we will be hearing from him later in the programme, we'll

concentrate on questions to the Health Minister instead - including

questions on trade unions, breast feeding and immigration law. But

first here's the Speaker. I am told that the alarm bell is

I am told that the alarm bell is not working at the present time. We

not working at the present time. We are trying to fix their alarm

system. An attempt was made to make the chamber look respectable.

topic was trade union activity financed by the health service.

Resulting from the involvement of health and social care activities.

Would the Minister agree that the Would the Minister agree that the

trade unions are an important part in the future of the health service.

I would ask him to take this opportunity to reassure a house

that he is committed to the principles of social partnership

and to the fact that the trade unions will be central to those

reforms? I am totally committed to social partnership. That is

demonstrated by the Department facilitating trade union members. I

wish but that would be reciprocated and stop suddenly I felt that it

was not when the first strike was called. We did not have clear

reasons set out for that strike in the first instance. There was are

low vote from the membership for that strike and that was

demonstrated on the day of the strike went limited numbers of

people came out. Trade unions should be seeking to negotiate.

That is what we are pushing for her. I trust that the member would join

me in condemning strikes switchback unnecessary. I am grateful for the

reply. Does the Minister agree that 1.6 million is a significant amount

of money? Is it really a court activity of the Department of

Health to fund trade union activity? The year that I gave was

2010, 2011. Obviously his party must have thought it was an at

acceptable activity. On to health promotion but one MLA had this to

say. I thank the Minister for his commitment to increasing health

promotion but does he except that we are behind other regions of the

UK as well as the Republic and even further behind Scandinavian

countries? That would be fairly obvious otherwise we would not be

spending more on public health. Thank you for the answer. I want to

ask does he believe that given the health benefits not just in terms

of children's immune systems but in terms of obesity, does the Minister

a belief that enough is being spent on breast feeding? We have the

public health agency. There are huge benefits that come about as a

result of children being breast-fed. It is something we want to

encourage. Even if young mothers for a short period of time do that

it can have benefits. We will be doing more work on that particular

era Andrew would encourage such a public health agencies to continue

that work. What action has the Minister taken to encourage more

doctors to come into their health service. Particularly in relation

to working in the emergency departments? Emergency medicine is

a speciality in which we have difficulty recruiting junior

doctors. The biggest contributory factor is changes to immigration

rules that were introduced in 2008. Despite a recruitment exercise to

India, we find this situation. We got a response in December last

year from a minister saying that the rules will not be changed. His

view was that we should be no separate list for Northern Ireland.

The economic news may still be pretty bleak with the high street

taking repeated hits - but Stormont's finances may not be in

as bad a shape as was previously thought. The Minister Sammy Wilson

likes to boast about running a tight financial ship so is he

starting to get results? When the 2011 budget was set there was an

expectation that it would be a tight settlement with little

expectation of McTigue delete reduced requirements during the

course of the year. However while this may reflect a robust action

taken by departments, it also raises the possibility that their

original budget allocations to some departments at either reflected an

orderly pessimistic if you, or her under estimated the capacity within

departments to pursue and deliver savings. There is evidence that

suggests efficiencies are being driven out. �10 million was

allocated for the Department of regional development. This will

allow further maintenance and repair of our major and minor roads

as well as new buses to run on those roads. This is good news for

the construction industry. This will mean that road maintenance

this year will be �111 million. That is the highest ever recorded.

It does illustrate the executives commitment to dealing with some of

the issues which the construction industry have brought to us in

terms of jobs. I was and this morning to the trade unions who

seem to think that if you get any good news on Northern Ireland you

have got to smack it on the head immediately to make sure it does

not gather any kind of momentum and introduce more gloom and doom and

despair with Matt predictions, and the our predictions, about the

losses of jobs in the public sector. The best thing that those people

who are involved in all areas of the economy in Northern Ireland can

do, and also in the media, is to maybe try and encourage some

confidence in the economy rather than always knocking everything

that happens and indeed trying to compete with each other as to who

can make the future looked blackest. Those kinds of things would help

the pursuit of creating jobs and encouraging firms to invest.

Education was also a big winner. Sammy Wilson confirmed an extra

�120 million over the next three years - although only next year's

�30million is guaranteed. Despite the good news, David McNarry

couldn't resist having a go at his old sparring partner. The zest for

consuming money never ceases to amaze me. On their education

package let us be fair. This is good news. Very good news. It

should be welcomed by take all. Would the Minister tell us what was

the nature of the compelling arguments which convinced him to

release this money? I am glad to see that the member has moved away

from me being the creative of black holes. He asks what compelling

arguments are being made in relation to schools? First of all

all members in this Assembly when they were faced with the five %

reduction followed by one % reduction and the dire consequences

that was going to have, many of them were saying we will not have

the teaching complement required, that was one of the things. There

was the pressure through public representatives. What about the

pressure on further education colleges? Ho will they be able to

cope with unexpected increase in demands. There will be an increase

in demand wanting to potentially study. You might also find that

there is not enough supply to meet the demand and there is more

interest in it their courses ended the F T sector. Many people have

come through the colleges and got good qualifications and went on

into employment. I would stress the banter between skills

There are going to be wide-ranging changes to the rules on pre-school

education. The education minister John O'Dowd wants to broaden the

numbers who get priority - and end preference to children born earlier

in the school year, as he explained to our education correspondent

It has been recommended in the past that this is removed. There are

Baunton thing is that we provide pre-school education. -- the

important thing is. Every child whose parents want it will receive

pre-school education in the year before they attend primary school.

Does that mean that those with July and August birthdays will not get a

place? It will not. This is to benefit those who fall outside of

those states. You are going to look again at social deprivation.

Parents working and earning a low wage are concerned about this.

Because of the criteria that has been set previously, low income

parents for our -- fall outside the category of. Were hoping to change

this. We want to bring low income parents into the system. Could you

also be giving other advantages to other children, such as travelling

children? In this current criteria, my focus is on a family's on lower

-- is on families who are on low incomess. Back to the chamber,

where things got romantic. I could kiss him, but I don't think that

would be appropriate. I hope we can work together to ensure there are

places immediately available. back to the future of the

employment and learning department. Joining the is Basel. The party

leaders had further talks today. -- We have been talking about how the

car up is going to happen. How do you feel about it because it means

a loss of part of your job? Everyone that is involved in any

committee, you get quite attached to it and certainly everyone in my

committee was committed to the work that we do. There is a sense of

sadness that the work you have started, you might not be able to

carry forward. Having said that, there is some benefits - but

It is obviously tied in to what is happening with the Department of

Justice, but would it have been better to wait to reduce the number

of departments ought up once or rather than doing it in this

fashion? If it is right to do it for one, it is right to do it for

money. Part of the problem we have instalment is we take for ever to

make a decision and then implement it quickly, usually wrongly. I do

sense that there will be an acceleration of the realignment of

all the other departments. It could happen in a year. Is there some

merit in changing the committee structure for the new departments

because the role of the committee is to be a watchdog and to

scrutinise and now if the department is bigger, is there some

merit in increasing the size of the committee, or having some extra

level of scrutiny? You could conceivably have to committees

looking at one Ministry. The committee's -- the committees do

not need to be aligned the individual departments. I do think

there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of changes have to be

implemented. Gerry Campbell, it is difficult in terms of youth

unemployment. How do you argue for the resources to upscale as any

young people as possible to make their chances better of getting a

job? I heard an alarming statistic today. Youth unemployment has

doubled in the past few years and one in five young people in

Northern Ireland are unemployed. It is frightening. The younger they

are unemployed, it is harder to get them into work. -- the longer. It

is also costing more in benefits and people are not contributing in

an employment situation. Government needs to look at things from a

strategic perspective. All departments need to work together

to eliminate this. We will leave it there for now. Yesterday saw the

first sitting of the four Assembly since the Christmas holidays, but

to be fair to MLAs, committees were meeting last week and the week

before. We stuck out were weekly round-up -- we start our weekly

round-up of committee business. Maya understanding in terms of the

current situation is that there is support among staff for a merger.

Are you disputing that the formal response of union members was

against the merger? Are you disputing that? Those were the

recommendations. I use it just didn't they have retracted or

changed those? They may be. If you want to invite the unions along.

I am inviting you to justify what you said to the House.

information I heard was that there was sufficient support. We are not

talking about that. We are talking about you unequivocally telling the

House... I stand by what I said. must be your understanding that

these documents were withdrawn. at all. These documents are in a

position of a merger. You come to the House and say that the

documents show that the merger is favoured. You misled the House.

That is a strong statement that you are making. That is what you did.

The term misleading in terms of protocol is on parliamentary. --

unparliamentary. The committee buy- up serve on helps to contribute to

the local economy. If online gambling is a growing threat to

your Business in any case, and it is apparat the best of the UK where

there are loan restrictions, is it not likely to continue to be a

problem? The effect of the matter is we are still an industry in

Northern Ireland and we are suffering like everybody else. We

need help and one of the simple things would be a Sunday opening.

People are betting on Sundays illegally. They would not have gone

online at the been able to offer the service. -- had we've been able

It was not all doom on gloom -- and gloom. Department hand back every

quarter the money they do not spend. We are coming towards the end of

the financial year and there was more money to hand out. The

Department of Culture had asked for �2 million. They were hoping to get

that from the sale of the public office building, but the sale fell

through and it is back on the market. They needed �2 million to

plug their accounts. There was more talk on the shake-up of the

ministerial department. Yes. It was proposed that the Justice

Department stayed. But because they have to ministers, it was thought

that the Department for Employment and learning should merge. The

party leaders met today to discuss the papers, but it was a waste of

time. Andy prominent victims campaigner was here. What was that

about? He was here because it is alleged that victims of Unionist

crimes are being ignored. He has spoken to Sinn Fein and his meeting

Peter Robinson tomorrow. He said he was glad that the First Minister

wanted to meet him, but he was not impressed by some of the other

politicians. Gerry Campbell, in terms of staff across your further

education colleges, are based got enough to teach the new courses

needed? Yes. Our lecturers can spend quality time in industry and

business to make sure their skills and knowledge are at the cutting

edge. So you are confident that we will have exactly the right sort of

people for the right sort of jobs in the future? Yes. Everybody needs

to work together to deal with these issues, whether it be proved