17/09/2012 Stormont Today

coming up, the slurry tank tragedy that claimed the lives of three

members of the Spencer family dominated MLAs thought up the start

of proceedings. As we visited the home, the sense of shock of the

entire community was palpable. Enterprise Minister acknowledges

the difficulties faced by those losing their jobs at F G Wilson.

And which MLA was named and shamed after not turning up on time in the

chamber? MLAs from all parties united to pay

tribute to the three members of the Spencer family from Hillsborough

who died at the weekend after being overcome by fumes in a slurry tank.

Edwin Poots knew the dead man well. I had known them for over 30 years.

They went to the same church as myself and they used to help out in

the youth club. I used to take Mr Craig to that youth club. As a

family, they have been well known throughout the Community. Graham

came home to work on their successful farm. Nevin Spence

helped out on the farm when he was not playing rugby for Ulster. He

had come to be very well known for his skill on the rugby field. But I

think whilst Ulster will replace a centre, maybe not as good as Nevin

Spence, they will never replace him in the home, or the brother of the

-- the brother or the Sun, or the husband or the father. As we

visited their home yesterday, the sense of shock in the entire

community was palpable. Can I start by also extending my sympathy and

that of Sinn Fein to the family. The tragic events of Saturday

evening have shot not just the farming community but also the

sporting community. -- have that shocked. But wider in the community,

people are just shocked. Our thoughts are with the family and

one can only imagine the impact that this tragic loss of life is

happening -- is having. Farm safety is an issue that we take very

seriously and we need to take the opportunity to raise awareness.

Earlier this year, myself and Mr Foster watched a far as safety

partnership to attempt to highlight the dangers and pick up on some of

the facts we are aware of. Farming is one of the most dangerous

occupations. Tributes to the three members of the Spencer family whose

death at the weekend struck a chord with MLAs at Stormont. Job losses

at the engineering firm up F G Wilson dominated the Enterprise

Minister's time in the chamber. Most of the 160 jobs will go in

lauren. Caterpillar have made it clear that their decision was not a

reflection on the scales, productivity or flexibility of the

workforce. I am encouraged that for the employees affected, the company

is striving to reduce some of the impact by offering an enhanced

voluntary redundancy package and will help to redeploy displaced

workers by providing training or on new skill sets of partnering with

potential employers to host job fairs. For its part, Invest

Northern Ireland has been in discussion with senior executives

to develop a joint approach to assisting the employees as far as

possible. In addition, I am able to announce a positive and welcome

development today. Members will be aware that Invest Northern Ireland

has not been in a position to invest -- fully support new

businesses due to a legal challenge launched following the original

procurement exercise. As a consequence, a further 10 per

contra -- tender competition was held and the outcome of this has

been advised today. As with all such exercises, there will follow a

ten-day period before the contract becomes operational and the

successful tenderer can begin to deliver the contract. This means

that after a period of over a year of being unable to provide a full

support service to individuals interested in starting their own

business, we will shortly be in a position to reintroduce a new

business Start programme. In recent years, we have worked closely with

caterpillar management to focus on new business opportunities. The

company will continue to manufacture high value products in

Northern Ireland that can be continued to be manufactured on a

competitive basis locally. We have been successful in attracting

various elements of the company's support functions to Northern

Ireland thanks to the skills of our workforce. As a result we have 200

people employed supporting Caterpillar's IT functions. The

company have confirmed that as a consequence of the announcement, if

they have a financial liability, they will honour it. The a

Enterprise Minister on the challenges posed by the job losses

announced by F G Wilson. Martina Purdy is with me. There has

been a development this evening. Yes. It was described as a very

bleak day by the First Minister. Really, it could turn into a brief

-- bleak months and bleak years for many families. Tonight, Sinn Fein

announced that it had met with the employment minister, a delegation

led by Jennifer McCann from Belfast, trying to find out exactly what

opportunities and support were available for workers losing their

jobs and promising more meetings. Let us talk about education. It has

been a dramatic day for Education in London that could have major

repercussions over here. That's right. Michael Gove seems to have

blind-sided the education ministers in both Wales and Northern Ireland.

George O'Dowd said he was not consulted on the fact that Michael

Gove was replacing the GCSE year 12 exam with an English Baccalaureate

certificate. He says that this is effectively devaluing the GCSE here.

He said he had some decisions to make. I think we will be looking at

radical changes in education as a consequence. And is there any

suggestion as to whether or not there is an inevitability about us

having to follow the lead given by Michael Gove today? We do not have

to. We are a devolved administration but when the

Education Minister says that the GCSE exam has been devalued, it is

clear were here is setting and it is heading towards a new exam. --

it is clear where he is heading. There is a divide between England,

Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland does not have a GCSE.

Wales and Northern Ireland were affected. John O'Dowd said he was

not consulted. It was Michael Gove's right to pursue whatever

direction he wants to. It is no secret that the Education Secretary

does not think highly of GCSEs. He thinks they have been going

downhill. The announcement today that the new certificate was coming

in did surprise John O'Dowd. He said he is going to have to look at

it. Finally, one week on from the announcement on the Maze

Development Corporation, the Bristol controversy. Effectively,

it should have been a straightforward announcement. --

there is still controversy. If we were given scant information about

to the 10 members were going to be. All we got was a cursory

declaration of interest. We were not given biographies. I was try to

figure out if there were women on the board. The only clue I had was

that there was an unusual spelling of the word's Terry. -- the name

Terry Scott. I was initially told it could not be given information

because of data protection. By Friday night, after some research,

the full disclosure came. Five pages of information from the

office of the First and Deputy First Minister. The commissioner

was critical of the way that the situation was handled, and we were

told this was down to administrative error. I can tell

you that Jim Allister has tabled a number of questions and he is

asking how this process was undertaken and how these people

came to be appointed. I think the controversy might run and run.

questions to the officer of the Deputy Minister -- First and Deputy

First Minister were to be answered by Peter Robinson but it fell to

the Junior Minister to answer questions about the legal

definition of marriage. There are no plans to change the definition

of marriage in Northern Ireland. To do so would require the agreement

of the Executive. Parties on the Executive are hopelessly divided in

terms of a position in relation to that. The DUP is her be clear that

the see gay marriage as an oxymoron and they see marriage between a man

and the women. -- the do you see is very clear. The Alliance Party is

united in their position of support for gay marriage and if you want to

hear both sides of the argument, you can ask Mike Nesbitt, because

depending on which of the MLAs used the two, one will agree with you

and another will not. -- which of the MLAs you speak to. Can I ask

him about his own business? Can I ask him whether he believes that

the delay in the production of a sexual orientation strategy is

successful, and if he can give a commitment to the House that it

will definitively be published by the end of this year? I had been

clear from the first time I spoke on the topic from this dispatch box

that we will seek to have the draft orientation strategy, based on the

original Timeline. We hope to have that out by the end of this year.

One of the commitments in our programme for government is to

press for the devolution of corporation tax, setting powers,

and to reduce its level. Cost is an important issue and this needs to

be affordable if it is to work. -- tax setting powers. The working

group will meet again in London on 18th October with a view to

resolving the outstanding issues. The United Kingdom government will

then decide whether the Executive should be offered the opportunity

to take responsibility for corporation tax setting. Over the

summer had the privilege to visit the commission four times and

clearly the commission's determinations demonstrated that

they are discredited, out of touch and part of the problem, not the

solution. Does the First Minister agree that the real anger in the

Unionist community is as to how the loyal orders are treated and how

those in the Republican community are treated? I think it is worth

saying -- it is worth saying that I've heard complaints about the

parades commission from all sections of our community and

clearly people have been unhappy with decisions that have been taken.

At the same time, I think we recognise that there is a need for

us to have a mechanism to deal with parades, particularly where there

is dispute. We are committed that we are going to lift this issue off

the shelf and see if we can get Community agreement. It is

essential that we get a way forward that has support across the

Community. The shelf of Shelvey strategies must be pretty heavy

these days. -- shelved strategies. Regardless of one's personal view,

can he make it clear that it is incumbent for every member of a

democratic society to respect the rule of law? I think it is a bit

rich coming from someone who walked away from taking decisions on

matters to be lecturing anybody about decisions that are on a shelf.

As far as respect for the rule of law, that is something that all of

us in this House should be upholding, and encourage everyone

else to do so. It came to an update on the historical abuse inquiry,

and it was a junior minister, Jonathan Bell, who brought MLAs up

to date. He said over the summer there has been significant progress

This will allow those who suffered in institutions as children to

register to have their experiences hurt by the acknowledgement forum.

It will also be as significant moment for victims and survivors.

Can I ask the Minister if he can confirm that there is no intention

to consider or treat those victims of abuse which occurred outside the

terms of the inquiry has in any way second class. There is absolutely

no intention, nor would I allow that to happen. For 21 years of my

life, every working day I worked with the victims of child sexual

abuse in social services. Sadly, of the hundreds of those children that

I Delworth, and adults, there is a protocol, criminal investigation

and criminal compensation continues. The reason the inquiry was

established was specifically because there were many people who

could not go home to a mum or dad or step mum or whoever they carer

was, when abuse occurred, they could not go back x side of the

environment where the abuse occurred. For people in residential

and state care, they had nobody to go to and that is the specific

reason why the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry is

dealing directly with those people. Meantime, a new railway halt at

Ballykelly and the work on the line between Coleraine and Londonderry

topped the agenda for questions to the Regional Development Minister,

Danny Kennedy. My Department has not received any approaches for a

new rail link to the headquarters at Ballykelly. If such an option is

to be considered, a business case would be required to test the

commercial viability and funding would need to be found. There is no

funding in my department in the current budget for a station at the

Ballykelly side. I believe the minister is aware in my interests

in the upgrade of the Coleraine to Londonderry line as a whole. It was

welcome news for the relocation of the headquarters to Ballykelly. It

would benefit the workforce and the wider local economy give some

funding could be found. grateful for his interest in this

particular issue. I have clearly outlined that both myself and my

department were and sited in terms of the announcement made by the

minister, announcing the relocation of the Department of Agriculture

and Rural Development. We have not had any conversations or

correspondence on the issue. If such a request is made, we will

seek to co-operate. The next question is number two, and the

number is not in her place. If they're not here in the chamber,

they will be named in the chamber. Let us move on. Question number

three, please. Can I say in respect of questioned two, I had lots of

questions ready! It was really good! The Regional Development

Minister, Danny Kennedy, in jocular form after that rap on the knuckles

for the missing MLA, Dolores Kelly. Later this afternoon MLAs debated a

motion tabled by the DUP's Gregory Campbell, seeking an apology from

the Irish government for its alleged role in the Troubles.

we are doing is saying to Mr Kenney, to the Irish Republic's government,

you acted as a midwife at the birth of the monster that we had to deal

with for 30 years. It took 30 years to defeat and his song that monster,

but eventually that was accomplished. What we want now is

to try and bring closure to people who suffered for those 30 years,

what we want is for you to acknowledge and it said that there

was a part that was played by the government in that emerging force,

and to apologise for it. We were then closed the book and move on.

did not know of any Republican who would not say that there was not

fault on all sides. There were many protagonists and there were those

who created the conditions of conflict that eventually erupted. I

lay there to add 50 years of misrule and denial of democratic

rights by the old Stormont government, in which the Unionists

had one-party rule for far too long. I make a plea to Unionists, letters

get real, and at the start to engage on the truth, the whole of

the truth. The role of the old Stormont government cannot be left

out of it. The role of the British government. There are many

elections than they were involved in for which there is complete

denial. Joining me to discuss that motion is Gregory Campbell of the

DUP. The argument is that it is partial and partisan. What does

seeking to do is to open up the concept of dealing with the past.

What we have had is a series of inquiries, inquests, there have

been numerous opportunities for various Provisional IRA

spokespersons to end up to one they did. Each and everyone has declined.

The Deputy First Minister, on the Bloody Sunday inquiry, pleaded the

Fifth Amendment. We want to move it on to the government of the Irish

Republic, he were at the birth of the Provisionals, and so, when

you're a dollars the part that you played and the subsequent movement

across the border of IRA activists? How can Enda Kenny apologise for

something that his government played no part in? His predecessor

government was the one that set aside �100,000, half of which was

used to put your arms for the fledgling IRA. If you can get the

British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologising for the famine, of all

things, why are unearthed cannot Enda Kenny say this is a much more

relevant and recent phenomenon, and I would like to acknowledge the

part that we played. Does it not play into the hands of the IRA and

the republican family in suggesting that it had the backing an active

involvement of a sovereign government? No, I think what it

does do is bring us back to the real politics of 1969, which was

that the small number of ministers in the Cabinet at the time colluded

to finance the Provisional IRA. as individuals, not as

representatives of the government. There is conflicting evidence about

that. But I think Enda Kenny could make a clean breast of it, by

saying, what ever happened, however it happened, our government should

not have done the things that they did. And there are things that they

did not do that they should have done. It will be a clean breast, we

have to acknowledge it, apologise, and move beyond. Does it not

overlooked the fact that on the streets of Northern Ireland -- on

the streets of the Republic of Ireland, gardai were being killed

by members of the IRA? Yes, we have to admit our mistakes as well.

now, why all of a sudden the one this apology? We have been working

on this for the last few years. We have had repeated attempts at

inquiries and inquests and wishing to get nowhere in other than

pursuing the police and the army, so let us see what the governor

that helped to form the IRA have to say about their role?

"Serious weaknesses" in management of Northern Ireland Housing

Executive contracts - that's what an Audit Office report revealed

earlier this month. Well last week it was the turn of the Housing

Executive management to appear before the Public Accounts

Committee to defend the organisation. The company's Chief

Executive described examples in the 100 page report as "embarrassing",

as we'll hear now in our weekly look at committee business.

There were the paper structures and other issues. A lot of issues were

not being done correctly. The Office of governance and, has made

the point that these contracts were wrong, they were not fit for

purpose. They were coming from the early phase. They were not the

tight, clear contracts so you need to implement. A key element Anki

focus was to ensure that we got a change in contracts -- key element.

That has taken longer than we would have liked. But I'm glad to say

that from August of this year, a new, much tighter contracts are in

place. This report depicts what can only be described as a complete

breakdown in control other top of the organisation. Indeed, there are

serious questions over a number of points. The nature and quality of

information going to the board. The handling of internal audit and

inspection report. Over 280 identified breaches of standing

orders. And a significant issues not being brought to attention of

the Board of presented in a way there was not appropriate. So, and

my question to you, to the panel, where does the buck stop on this?

We accept there have been mistakes made. We are not here to make

excuses about that. I am here to account for the actions of the

organisation but my focus is principally about taking this

forward, addressing the shortcomings, and making this right.

Higher offer a number of observations about clearing of

internal audit report. It is regrettable, I am bears to be here

before this committee, and there are examples in report were order

reports were not dealt with in a timely way. Since becoming chief

Executive I have made it clear to my colleagues that it is exempt

will to challenge an order report, it is not acceptable to use it as a

means for not progressing report. You have to judge us by our actions.

We do have a programme of work in hand but we're not naive about that.

We have realised that solving this problem is not just about

initiatives. It is about being vigilant moving forward and there

except that the Housing Executive has perhaps not put the effort into

making sure that it has remained vigilant. How many disciplinary

procedures have there been and how many are on going? In the context

of, for example, up Red Sky case- study, we had 29 people who have

been interviewed and assess through the disciplinary process. Eight

people have received formal disciplinary penalties. How serious

were they? The most serious is a file written warning, which means

that if it happens again there would be automatic dismissal.

McPeake, Chief Executive of the Housing Executive, ending our look

at committee business. Now, a final word from Martina, who's still with

me. This evening's debate about the Irish government role in the

Troubles. Sorry, it seemed, is the hardest word. There was a very

emotional debate, a very lively debate, and a tone of debate there

you have not seen in the Assembly for some time. They tend to try to

keep its very measured. So these frictions and tensions over the

past 10 to be kept to a minimum. It was interesting to see some of the

language being used, quite emotive language. And for DUP will be

pleased because it got the motion through. The motion did pass, as