Browse content similar to 17/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Stormont Today. Coming up on the programme. | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
The Education Minister comes under fire for remarks made about school | :00:30. | :00:38. | |
funding at the weekend. Is it in your power to ask the education | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
minister to come to this house and clarify what those changes are? | :00:43. | :00:52. | |
The Finance Minister puts his faith in his Executive and party | :00:53. | :00:53. | |
colleague. I will continue to support the | :00:54. | :01:02. | |
Minister of health. And I'm joined by our Political | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
Correspondent, Martina Purdy, who'll run her expert eye over today's | :01:06. | :01:06. | |
proceedings. spotlight again. John O'Dowd insists | :01:07. | :01:26. | |
he was never planning to cut any school's budget to support | :01:27. | :01:28. | |
establishments where students are less well off. So why is the DUP | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
chairman of the Education Committee not convinced? Our Political | :01:33. | :01:34. | |
Correspondent, Martina Purdy, is here with more on the story. | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
First of all, Martina, remind us of the background to this row? | :01:41. | :01:47. | |
The schools ministers, John O'Dowd, thinks that the way the schools are | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
funded is not fair. He wants to put more money into schools that are in | :01:52. | :02:03. | |
disadvantaged areas. He says he wants to make sure the money goes to | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
the most needy. It is very controversial. If you apply the | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
formula, it could lead to quite a number of schools losing funding. A | :02:13. | :02:23. | |
recent consultation found that most respondents said they were opposed | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
to this formula being applied. The minister was on the Sunday politics | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
show yesterday and he insisted that his intention is to help | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
disadvantaged schools, not to cut the budget of others. You must | :02:37. | :02:43. | |
trying to reassure people that cuts were never on his mind. | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
Obviously the chairman of the Education Committee was watching | :02:49. | :02:50. | |
because he was clearly exercised by that interview this morning. Yes, | :02:51. | :03:01. | |
Mervyn Storey was not happy with the Minister's interview. He felt the | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
Minister was being even a sieve and he was concerned that the minister | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
was yet to make up his mind about how the education money would be | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
distributed. He said he was in a position where he would confirm that | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
no school would lose any funding as a result of the changes. | :03:19. | :03:21. | |
However at the weekend, the education minister made reference to | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
the fact that he was yet to make up his mind, which was also in | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
agreement with what the education his mind, which was also in | :03:34. | :03:46. | |
house and clarify and inform members what those changes are as they have | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
not been copied to the education committee and are in contribution to | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
what he has said in this house -- and are in contravention. There is a | :03:58. | :04:12. | |
number of avenues that members can pursue ministers on if they feel | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
strongly that they have not received a satisfactory answer. | :04:17. | :04:25. | |
Is Mervyn Storey likely to get answers? | :04:26. | :04:32. | |
We will have to see what the Minister says. The fact that there | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
is uncertainty... Thank you. | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
And continuing on the education theme, the UUP brought a motion | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
promoting shared education to the floor today. However, two amendments | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
were tabled - one from the DUP calling on the Education Minister to | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
assist the OFMDFM develop shared campuses, and one from Sinn Fein to | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
reflect the work already being done in shared education. Here's the | :04:57. | :04:59. | |
motion's proposer, Danny Kinahan. We have all heard the quote, the | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. Education | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
is the key to making our society the world's success it should be. After | :05:11. | :05:18. | |
the Euro protest, the ongoing division over the house proposals, | :05:19. | :05:29. | |
-- Haase, we need to show that Northern Ireland can put in place | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
and all-encompassing education framework which will help resolve | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
our differences. In supporting the amendment, let me pay tribute to | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
those schools. We come into this house so often and talk in general | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
terms and we somehow forget that for a year after year after year, there | :05:51. | :05:58. | |
are teachers, there are schools, there are governors, there are | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
parents, there are organisations that work tirelessly to ensure that | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
their school is a school where it is inclusive, it is a shared facility. | :06:08. | :06:17. | |
We had a launch of shared campuses in January. As outlined, it is not | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
so much government that is leading the way on this but local schools, | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
community 's and teachers and families. They have invested a huge | :06:28. | :06:36. | |
amount of work. I do not believe the UUP motion pays sufficient tribute | :06:37. | :06:50. | |
to this. For rural schools under threat of closure, shared education | :06:51. | :06:52. | |
offers are viable and practical alternative. Those of us who think | :06:53. | :07:00. | |
the best way to bring our children to gather is to educate them | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
together in the same school, in the same class, those of us who think | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
that way will take little comfort from what ever decision the house | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
comes to. If it is to be viewed as a step on the road to an integrated | :07:18. | :07:27. | |
system, that is to be welcomed. But I realise it is not going to happen. | :07:28. | :07:37. | |
We must have the confidence to embrace sharing across the divide. | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
My role is to support them in taking the steps they need. But I won't | :07:43. | :07:51. | |
shared education to be livered in such a way as to deliver social | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
inclusion and equality of opportunity. | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
Following a vote, the DUP amendment was successful and the motion was | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
then passed. That old perennial issue of welfare | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
reform came up during Question Time to the Finance Minister today. Simon | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
Hamilton was also asked about the Health Department's budget and how | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
the local construction sector is faring. | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
There is no doubt our economy is showing signs of recovery. We have | :08:17. | :08:18. | |
had some encouraging indications that we are beginning to emerge from | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
the recession. The latest construction bulletin | :08:25. | :08:26. | |
the recession. The latest demonstrated great versatility and | :08:27. | :08:41. | |
resilience. A number of larger local construction firms have indicated | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
that over 50% of their turnover comes from projects outside Northern | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
Ireland. Can he outlined what government has done to assist the | :08:53. | :08:59. | |
recovery of the construction sector? We are now spending the same level | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
as prior to the 2007 credit crunch and downturn. It was just below | :09:07. | :09:15. | |
40%, total investment is now 54% of total spend. That is testament to | :09:16. | :09:21. | |
the spend we as a government are putting in. There is still | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
significant delays and many capital projects from government hitting the | :09:27. | :09:34. | |
ground. What can be done to improve the situation? One of the biggest | :09:35. | :09:45. | |
capital projects was the road project, the A5, which fell foul of | :09:46. | :10:00. | |
the courts. I think there are lessons for all of us to learn from | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
that. One of the lessons that I hope we learn other subgroup -- that I | :10:05. | :10:16. | |
hope we learn is creating a pipeline... That there are | :10:17. | :10:25. | |
sufficient volume of projects that have advanced to a stage to be of | :10:26. | :10:33. | |
that funding. What discussions have there been regarding the pressures | :10:34. | :10:40. | |
on the health service? I have regular discussions with the health | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
Minister, with colleagues from the executive. I gave ?30 million and | :10:47. | :11:00. | |
was under. I am not satisfied that it was just 30 million. I think the | :11:01. | :11:09. | |
pressures deserved more money. But trying to balance competing | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
pressures, I do not recall the Minister for regional development | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
offering additional help. We have to balance a range of additional | :11:21. | :11:31. | |
measures. And I will continue to support the Minister for health when | :11:32. | :11:40. | |
he faces the inescapable pressures that he inherited when he became | :11:41. | :11:47. | |
health Minister. The Finance Minister, Simon | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
Hamilton. ?26 million allocated to six | :11:52. | :11:54. | |
projects aimed to help those most in need. It might sound like a perfect | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
example of good government, but today the OFMDFM committee brought a | :11:59. | :12:01. | |
motion to the Assembly calling on the six Signature Programmes to be | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
more efficiently run. In a moment, we'll hear from the chair of that | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
committee, Mike Nesbitt, but first of all, here's some of what was said | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
during the debate. In its report, the committee | :12:12. | :12:13. | |
recommends that OFMDFM should stick to ensure that effective and timely | :12:14. | :12:25. | |
consultation is taken. In shaving discussions with regard to | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
education, it was picked to me by all stakeholders that while the | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
initiative would yield positive results, it would have been possible | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
to yield even better and more lasting positive results have there | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
been a different and more engaged form of pre-consultation on behalf | :12:45. | :12:52. | |
of the devolved government. Good projects should get funding, bad | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
projects should not get funding. When projects get funded, they | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
should be funded on the basis of the very best of practice and processed. | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
The report is clear in stating that the programmes may not be the answer | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
to all the problems but a collection of cross | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
to all the problems but a collection are indicative of this approach. The | :13:16. | :13:23. | |
to all the problems but a collection society problems. We welcome the | :13:24. | :13:26. | |
committee's engagement with the key stakeholders and have read with | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
interest the report itself and the recommendations coming from the | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
event which was held last November. The executive is fully committed to | :13:34. | :13:41. | |
delivering social change framework which represents a new level of | :13:42. | :13:44. | |
joined up working right across government to achieve real and | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
long-lasting social benefits for those in our society who need it | :13:51. | :13:53. | |
most. The Junior Minister, Jonathan Bell, | :13:54. | :13:56. | |
and that motion was passed. Joining me now is the chairman of the OFMDFM | :13:57. | :14:04. | |
Committee, Mike Nesbitt. Your report is pretty damning. It talks about a | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
lack of consultation, a lack of long-term working, a need for joined | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
up planning. How far short of the bar does it fall? It depends what | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
measure you are looking at but in terms of consultation, what was | :14:20. | :14:22. | |
clear to me in the stakeholder event that we ran, I was chairing the | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
meeting and making the point that while this will work, it is not | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
going to be a waste of money, there will be positive outcomes, but they | :14:35. | :14:37. | |
could have been much more positive outcomes if OFMDFM had consulted in | :14:38. | :14:44. | |
advance. But that is not to say that the principle is not right. Any | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
government in the world tends to operate vertically. You say | :14:51. | :14:53. | |
education is a matter for the education department but we know it | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
is not. For a child to do well, it is not just need a good school, they | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
need a good house, good transport. It is about turning from the | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
vertical into horizontal cross cutting exercise. The signature | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
projects are all led by OFMDFM but they involve no fewer than five | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
other government departments who lead on these specific programmes | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
and the challenges, how do you scrutinise that? Is part of the | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
problem that nobody takes overall responsibility? | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
problem that nobody takes overall where it is incumbent is on the | :15:30. | :15:43. | |
committee, that is what frustrates me in the chamber, you will ask a | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
question of a minister who will say, that is not enter me. I don't think | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
that is good enough. If we are genuinely committed to this | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
horizontal crosscutting work, ministers are going to have to take | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
on responsibility. I am not saying we take on the minutiae of | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
everything that is going on in every department, but just saying it is | :16:04. | :16:06. | |
nothing to do with me is not good enough. We need to look at things in | :16:07. | :16:13. | |
a more holistic way. We need to agree the programme for government | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
before we divide in the ministries. Then you have a clear commitment | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
before you say, I am only concerned about the Minister for regional | :16:22. | :16:23. | |
development or roads or health already dictation. How do you fix | :16:24. | :16:31. | |
it? We have got this system, this artificial forced coalition, and | :16:32. | :16:34. | |
ministers can always point to someone else. Never mind what we | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
might do in future, what do we do now? I think we continue to support | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
initiatives like delivering social change. Scrutinise, which is not to | :16:44. | :16:52. | |
say we are going to criticise, you can scrutinise and praise, | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
scrutinise and recommend improvements, and scrutinise and say | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
this is just wrong. We will see whether anyone takes that on board. | :17:01. | :17:07. | |
Thank you very much. Has the Agriculture Minister failed | :17:08. | :17:10. | |
the farming community? That was the question posed by one DUP MLA during | :17:11. | :17:13. | |
a debate criticising the department for failing to effectively notify | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
more than a thousand farmers that their single farm payments could be | :17:17. | :17:18. | |
delayed. It should quicken up the process for | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
inspections, it should mean that more farm businesses will be paid | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
their single farm payment is quicker so, in a general sense, remote | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
sensing is a good thing. The issue here is that it seems to be that the | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
Department of agriculture and rural development was not fit for purpose | :17:40. | :17:47. | |
in order to advance remote inspection, remote sensing | :17:48. | :17:48. | |
inspections, to the level of inspection, remote sensing | :17:49. | :18:03. | |
farm payment is, some ranging in the thousands, the tens of thousands. It | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
makes no sense to focus on speedy payment if it is to be followed by | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
penalties from Europe. Farmers have at their game in how claims are | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
submitted through to when they are paid out and we have seen steady | :18:20. | :18:22. | |
improvements over these past two years. We have heard the number. One | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
thousand one hundred and thirty nine. Stakeholders will trot that | :18:28. | :18:36. | |
statistic out. Those are one thousand one hundred and thirty nine | :18:37. | :18:42. | |
farmers. I have heard it referred to tonight as one thousand one hundred | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
and thirty nine businesses. It is not. It is families who are sitting | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
at this moment in time with major cash flow problems. In twenty | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
twelve, my department used remote-sensing technology for the | :18:59. | :19:05. | |
first time. In twenty thirteen, as we recognise the benefits of this | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
approach, we significantly increase the number of benefits managed in | :19:09. | :19:17. | |
this way. This meant that we ended up checks using control with | :19:18. | :19:25. | |
remote-sensing techniques. Remote-sensing is a tried and tested | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
methodology in the member states and I think members have picked up on | :19:31. | :19:40. | |
that. It involves careful examination of a satellite image or | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
photography. Members can't have it both ways. On one hand you are | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
asking for things to be speeded up and get payments out and on the | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
other house you are quick to come to the chamber and criticise. I | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
absolutely accept and I have always said is that if you are in that | :19:59. | :20:01. | |
small percentage of people waiting to have that claim, I understand the | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
stress that has. I am doing everything I can and I have a proven | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
track record that we have improved things year-on-year and will | :20:11. | :20:12. | |
continue to do things in the future. Michelle O'Neill, and that | :20:13. | :20:24. | |
continue to do things in the future. of other options, but some MLAs | :20:25. | :20:26. | |
seemed keen to stick with more traditional fossil fuels. First, | :20:27. | :20:29. | |
though, the Minister faced a question concerning her own | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
constituency. In terms of rebalancing the economy, | :20:34. | :20:36. | |
will be Minister accept that this term, and she explained how she's | :20:37. | :20:47. | |
going to rectify that situation? Obviously, we are dealing with that | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
issue. In particular the way the band had to do with area of islands | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
in the past and the fact that a lot of our infrastructure was damaged in | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
that particular way. I am delighted that the licence competition for gas | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
to the West has been announced. We look forward to natural gas being | :21:09. | :21:17. | |
available to the citizens and the businesses in the west of the | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
problems for the very first time. Does the Minister agree that in | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
order to bring down prices we need to increase our investment in wind | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
and reduce our overall reliance on expensive fossil fuel such as gas? I | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
have always said to the member it is not just about wind energy, it is | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
about renewable energy from all different types of technologies and | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
at present, we are probably overreliant on wind in terms of our | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
renewable energy source. I do hope that other sources of renewable | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
energy will come forward in the future, whether that is tidal, or | :21:55. | :22:01. | |
indeed Marine. Would the Minister agree with me that if we follow the | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
policy of the Green Party, we would be back to the dark ages, | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
blackouts, no competitive agency and increased fuel poverty and really we | :22:10. | :22:13. | |
should be going for greater adversity from fossil fuels which | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
must let -- much less expensive? I do agree with the member that we | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
need to be very much aware of our security of supply issue and as | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
members of this house will know, in twenty sixteen, there will only be, | :22:28. | :22:33. | |
I think it is two hundred megawatts above the balance and therefore we | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
should be concerned about that. We will be taking action in relation to | :22:38. | :22:39. | |
that issue over the coming will be taking action in relation to | :22:40. | :22:54. | |
but particularly for industry. How could we possibly say to people that | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
they should come and invest in Northern Ireland if we did not have | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
a secure energy platform? Does the Minister still believe that the | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
forty % target for renewable energy is still realistic and achievable? I | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
think the biggest challenge for us in terms of renewable energy is in | :23:15. | :23:18. | |
terms of the grid and we have had a stronger uptake in terms of small | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
renewable projects and that has therefore put a strain on the grid. | :23:25. | :23:31. | |
More so than the larger energy renewable projects. We do have a | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
challenge in terms of our grid, we are looking at that proactively at | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
present, the regulator has allowed invest in the grid but we are also | :23:42. | :23:49. | |
looking at some European funding which would need to be match fund by | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
the industry yet to see if that is available to us as well, | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
particularly in the west of the province. Was the Minister surprised | :23:58. | :24:04. | |
when the former Minister for the environment and the former finance | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
minister called the seemed impossible and economic the | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
destructive? I was not surprised that all! | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
Short and to the point. The response from the Enterprise Minister, Arlene | :24:19. | :24:21. | |
Foster, to that question from Robin Swann. Now, it feels like it's all | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
we've been talking about for weeks - the situation in our Accident and | :24:27. | :24:28. | |
Emergency departments. Last week, the Health Committee heard from the | :24:29. | :24:31. | |
Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency about how those | :24:32. | :24:34. | |
departments are staffed and just how much of the workload falls to junior | :24:35. | :24:40. | |
doctors. I put the consultant in that amber | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
colour so they are mainly around during the day. And then you get | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
senior and junior trainees in the blue and green. A game, because of | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
the dependence of the health service on junior doctors and trainees to | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
provide out of hours cover, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, | :24:59. | :25:05. | |
the trainees disproportionately do more work out of | :25:06. | :25:19. | |
the trainees disproportionately do undergone, they have and -- -- | :25:20. | :25:21. | |
attractive to recruit so it would be an advantage to an anaesthetist to | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
have them coming or general care or general medicine or general | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
practice. Even though they have gone through and emergency medicine | :25:30. | :25:32. | |
training Corps programme, they will go off in another of directions, | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
they will not stay in emergency medicine, and it is their choice to | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
do so. Some will go overseas. We lose quite a few every year to go to | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
Australia. That can be very attractive for the Australian | :25:47. | :25:48. | |
government to have them come and work in Australia. If you look at | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
emergency medicine staffing in Northern Ireland, I would put the | :25:54. | :25:55. | |
staffing of all the training grades on this and you see that the | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
greatest number of trainees actually working in emergency medicine come | :26:00. | :26:07. | |
from the most junior group, the F2 groups. They are only going to be a | :26:08. | :26:10. | |
full two months in emergency medicine. They are coming in raw out | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
of foundation year one, they don't have any experience, they need to be | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
very heavily supervised. They are not the type of people you want | :26:20. | :26:21. | |
looking after you during the middle of the night as a sole | :26:22. | :26:25. | |
practitioner. They are junior, they need to be supervised. You also have | :26:26. | :26:31. | |
GB trainees will be working there. They need this experience to help | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
them become general practitioners but again, whenever they are | :26:37. | :26:39. | |
starting, they have never done emergency medicine before and they | :26:40. | :26:43. | |
need to be supervised. The crisis in emergency medicine staffing is a | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
problem across the UK, it is not unique to Northern Ireland. As a | :26:50. | :26:52. | |
result, there has been an emergency medicine task force set up | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
nationally within England, led by health education England, working | :26:59. | :27:01. | |
with the College of emergency medicine and the Department of | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
Health in England. They have looked at this to see how they can improve | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
the recruitment and retention within emergency medicine, so that is | :27:10. | :27:12. | |
partly about promoting emergency medicine as a career, trying to make | :27:13. | :27:19. | |
it more attractive and trying to reduce any barriers or blockages | :27:20. | :27:21. | |
that would prevent people from either entering or from staying in | :27:22. | :27:25. | |
this specialty. Dr Keith Gardiner appearing before | :27:26. | :27:28. | |
the Health Committee last week. And Martina Purdy is with me again. | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
Health matters there Martina, and for | :27:32. | :27:44. | |
Health matters there Martina, and week. Is he lying low? I think now | :27:45. | :27:47. | |
he is enjoying the calm after the storm. His party seems to be fairly | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
relaxed about his performance. He was giving interviews last Thursday | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
and basically, the party is saying he has taken difficult decisions, | :27:58. | :28:00. | |
some of these things are beyond his control, and when they hear the | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Unionist leader call for his resignation, they are accusing them | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
of taking cheap political shots. The Health Minister will be appearing in | :28:11. | :28:13. | |
the chamber tomorrow. The assembly is debating the final changes of the | :28:14. | :28:19. | |
tobacco retailers built. That legislation is aimed at cracking | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
down on retailers who still sell cigarettes to children under the age | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
of eighteen and this continues to be a problem. More than two thousand | :28:28. | :28:31. |