Browse content similar to 21/05/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Stormont today. Coming up in the next 30 minutes: | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
You can go your own way was the message from Michael Gove on | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
A-levels today. That wasn't the only education story making headlines. | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
The member has said that the department failed to listen to | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
schools. Well, that's partially true. It's partially true across a | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
number of delivery agencies within this and as minister for, in charge | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
of the department I have to take a certain amount of responsibility for | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
that. As the Shared Future document is debated Peter Robinson comes | :00:54. | :01:01. | |
under fire. It is unfortunate, Mr Speaker, that the hiss tarks of the | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
First Minister last week did sour the tone of a potentially | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
constructive engagement around a Shared Future document. I'm joined | :01:09. | :01:16. | |
by the former school principal Michelle Marken. | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
The cost of training teachers is almost 40% higher here than it is in | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
England. That's according to the Minister for Employment and | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
Learning, Stephen Farry. Today he delivered a statement to the | :01:27. | :01:34. | |
Assembly that raised questions about the future of St Mary's and | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
Stranmillis teacher training colleges. I outlined my concerns | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
that the system for training teachers in Northern Ireland was not | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
sustainable. To best achieve longer term improvements, it is important | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
that Northern Ireland has a system of teacher education that is both | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
financially stable and is sufficiently flexible to address the | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
needs of an increasingly shared society. Therefore I announce aid | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
two-stage study of the teacher education infrastructure in Northern | :01:59. | :02:05. | |
Ireland. The research completed in stage One Show that's Stranmillis | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
and St Mary's are the only establishments in the UK which | :02:11. | :02:20. | |
receive additional funding. The cost of this in 2011/12 was 2. 16 | :02:20. | :02:26. | |
million. In the 2011/12 year the cost of training a teacher in the | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
colleges in Northern Ireland was almost 40% higher than in the | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
comparative English institutions cited in the reports. We are | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
spending more to train the teacher for what can be best described as an | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
uncertain employment market than to train an engineer. Under the current | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
system the cost 23,500 to train a teacher arguably we are training too | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
many and 21,000 to train an engineer and arguably we are training too | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
few. The second stage of the study of the teacher education | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
infrastructure in Northern Ireland will set out options for a more | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
shared and integrated system for the delivery and funding of teacher | :03:03. | :03:10. | |
education. Everything should be on the table. Matters for greater | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
collaboration to be considered could include services, facilities and in | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
particular, joint teaching. Institutionally alternative to the | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
current arrangements may include models such as some or all | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
institutions coming together through some type of confed rated | :03:25. | :03:35. | |
arrangement, through to a fully train training system with one or | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
more campuses. The colleges viable as long as student numbers are | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
maintained? Like other institutions, they require supportive government | :03:45. | :03:53. | |
policy for them to develop so St Mary's and Stranmillis become not | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
viable if the minister makes them unviable. Do you propose to take | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
such action in the face of opposition to it? I thank the member | :04:00. | :04:06. | |
for his questions. I'm not proposing to do anything at this stage. We are | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
undertaking the second stage of this review with the objective of placing | :04:12. | :04:20. | |
the system on a sustainable basis. Minister, the Dell committee visited | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
St Mary's college and were impressed with the vibrancy, commitment and | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
the college was very much at the heart of the community in. Terms of | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
the talk in the Assembly about diversity and ethos and how does the | :04:32. | :04:40. | |
minister square that with, in terms of sustainability and quality? What | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
about diversity? The other thing that came out of the discussion is | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
that people were telling us that they are definitely not going away. | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
I would pose the question back. We don't have to respect and | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
acknowledge diversity through the fragmentation of our teacher | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
education system. We want to promote sharing in both respects, but | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
sharing isn't about some hop odge nighed society where we treat | :05:08. | :05:15. | |
everyone the same. Under that umbrella we have to respect sharing | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
and with respect training that we embrace that range of diversity. | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
That can't be -- can be done in a range of formats. Tong that is the | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
former school principal, Michelle Marken. Thank you for joining us on | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
the programme. What's your reaction first of all to those figures quoted | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
bit minister about the cost of training teachers here? I'd like to | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
unpick those figures a little more. You do know that in the last number | :05:42. | :05:49. | |
of years there's been a liberal arts degree put into both Stranmillis and | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
St Mary's. Students can graduate and then go on and do a teacher | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
qualification. I understand that is where the extra funding comes in to | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
support that liberal arts degree. In the examination that the minister | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
has decided he's going to conduct, the second level examination, I hope | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
they will look at where that comes into the equation about cost. I | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
would argue there's value for money here. Probably very good value for | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
money in the quality of young teachers who come out of the | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
establishments. The problem that he was highlighting is that we're | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
training too many teachers and it costs more to train them than we're | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
training engineers and we need more engineers. This is true. I think | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
it's right that there should be an examination of costs. It should be a | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
five-institution examination not just focussed on two university | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
colleges. I think we have to argue for well educated young people | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
coming out, but also to keep the costs down. There are more ways than | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
one to do that. I would argue that the minister is doing it the right | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
way. He's looking for the best advice and guidance on it. Were you | :06:52. | :06:59. | |
surprised to hear that it costs �23 this afternoon,000 to -- �23,500 to | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
train a teacher? No, if you consider the number of contact hours, for | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
example, that a young person has when in university versus contact | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
hours when in teacher training, it's vastly increased. You may send your | :07:15. | :07:22. | |
young son to university and he may have ten, 12 contact hours a week. | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
But they will have more hands-on experience. What about the | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
unsustainable costs of running the two colleges side by side, do you | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
accept there's a point there? do. That has to be honestly | :07:32. | :07:40. | |
examined. I know that St Mary's University values highly what it | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
delivers to young people and to students. I think maybe that can be | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
replicated, perhaps there is a way forward where there is shared | :07:46. | :07:53. | |
education on one side, where there's a guaranteed, you know, support of | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
teaching, training teachers for Catholic schools. Final thought on | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
this apparent parting of the ways with England on A-levels. Should we | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
be concerned about that? I think we have to keep a cool head. I think | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
the minister actually is keeping a cool head. Parity is what we always | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
aimed for. When we put in GCSEs and A-levels in the 1980s, we worked | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
closely with the universities. We worked closely with our colleagues | :08:17. | :08:23. | |
in England to do that. We made sure that we moderated across the system. | :08:23. | :08:28. | |
If we lose that status, I'm not sure how we will ensure standards are | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
there. We'll have to do. It south of Ireland does it. Scotland does it. | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
We can do it too. I don't think we should panic on it. Thank you. | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
From university level to primary schools and John O'Dowd was next in | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
the spotlight, following technical details encountered by schools last | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
Autumn, the Education Minister commissioned a review of | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
computer-base add associatements. Today he brought that review to the | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
Assembly -- computer-based assessments. It presented | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
significant challenges. These challenges were faced by schools and | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
significant number of them reported difficulties in the operations of | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
the new assessment. If the department makes it a legal | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
requirement for schools to use the assessment this places a requirement | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
on my department to ensure it works. Clearly, this was not always the | :09:16. | :09:21. | |
case last year. A policy that was intended to help and support | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
teachers had, in many cases, the opposite effect. Of most concern | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
were the experiences relayed to me directly by teachers about the | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
pressures they felt in administering the assessments and in some cases | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
the distress felt by pupils when they faced technical difficulties. | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
This is clearly not good enough. That is why I have instigated | :09:44. | :09:54. | |
reviews of the implementations of the nukeracy -- implementations of | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
the numeracy and literacy assessment. User experience was | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
often reported as poor and there were real issues for teachers in | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
terms of the ease of set up and compatibility with hardware. In | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
recognition of the concerns expressed by schools, I have decided | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
the department will not specify the literacy and numeracy assessment for | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
monitoring use in the forth coming term. There will be no legislative | :10:18. | :10:24. | |
requirement on schools to assess pupils for diagnostic purposes using | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
CBA or other assessments. I think the most striking aspect of this | :10:28. | :10:34. | |
debacle isn't just the technical failures or the �900,000 spent in | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
the first year of public money. It wasn't just the time and energy | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
schools have wasted in trying to make these tests work. It isn't even | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
the stress and anxiety these tests have caused many of our primary | :10:45. | :10:52. | |
schools. I suggest that the key to the mystery is that the department | :10:52. | :10:59. | |
and the minister's abject failure in listening to schools and we could | :10:59. | :11:06. | |
say- so what? However we are in a very serious situation. Will the | :11:06. | :11:12. | |
minister, today, give this house an explanation as to why it took him so | :11:12. | :11:19. | |
long to press the delete button on computer-based assessment? | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
member has said the department failed to listen to schools. That's | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
partially true. But it's partially true across a number of delivery | :11:27. | :11:32. | |
agencies within this and as minister in charge of the department I have | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
to take a certain amount of responsibility for that. But I can | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
assure you now that no-one was in -- within my department, no-one in the | :11:41. | :11:47. | |
delivery agencies involved in this are under illusions about who they | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
should be listening to. They should listen to the schools and learn from | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
the experiences. The next programme of work rolled out in regards to | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
this will be based on the experiences of schools in the first | :11:57. | :12:05. | |
place. I welcome the U-turn on mandatory computer assessments. | :12:05. | :12:14. | |
Account minister tell us how much this debacle has cost and will cost? | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
The system set up including procurement and all the issues, to | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
set it up was around �900,000. Next year the costs are somewhere in the | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
region of �300,000 to run the system. I would have preferred to | :12:28. | :12:34. | |
see the system running properly all, all schools using it etc. However we | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
are involved in contractual obligations with the providers. If | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
we moved away from those obligation as head of the end of the contract, | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
I am advised there may be significant further cost. | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
Education was very much a theme at Stormont today. The leader of the | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
Ulster Unionist Party, Mike Nesbitt, joined in. During a debate on a | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
shared future he read extracts on a teaching aid used to teach students | :13:01. | :13:07. | |
during the hunger strikes in 1981. Discuss how the pupils would have | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
felt in their shoes. Discuss whether they would have made the same | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
decisions as the hunger strikers. Teachers could explore texts about | :13:17. | :13:24. | |
Northern Ireland or about other situations, for example, Nazi | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
Germany, South Africa, during apartheid, a clear link between | :13:28. | :13:34. | |
Northern Ireland and Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid. | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
Explore other sources, cow read of the factual writings from the time | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
of the hunger strikes. Now I thought maybe at this point they would | :13:42. | :13:50. | |
suggest a journalist of some repute, or perhaps an historian of the | :13:50. | :14:00. | |
:14:00. | :14:01. | ||
stature of Paul Lord Bute. The first individual they recommend? For | :14:01. | :14:08. | |
factual descriptions, Danny Morrison, the chief prop beganedist | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
of the -- propegand ist of the Republican movement. Mike Nesbitt | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
during the debate on the Shared Future document. Following that | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
debate a DUP supported amendment to the Alliance Motion was passed. It | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
backed the station by the first and deputy first ministers on building a | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
united community in Northern Ireland. Here's a sample of the | :14:29. | :14:34. | |
debate. Despite reports of progress and some level of agreement from the | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
office of First Minister and deputy First Minister, a failure to find | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
compromise on contested issues at a political level has left many | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
disillusioned and disengaged. We have to set out a vision and a plan | :14:47. | :14:54. | |
to tackle all unsettled issues that remain. Patterns of segregation, | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
intimidation and fear that all continue to have a serious impact on | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
our economy and the quality of life of people across Northern Ireland. | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
Perhaps I could begin by explaining why we're unable to support the | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
motion, as brought forward by the members of the Alliance Party. It's | :15:09. | :15:15. | |
very simple. There is no mention in the motion of the lack of prior | :15:15. | :15:21. | |
consultation between FM and DFM and their executive colleagues, which, I | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
find, almost inexplicable given a few short days ago their party | :15:26. | :15:34. | |
leader was jumping on my colleague Danny Kennedy's band wagon on BBC | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
television to make much of the fact there had been no consultation with | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
executive colleagues. Yet a few days later, they seemed to have moved | :15:42. | :15:52. | |
from the tribe of -- tribe to the so whatters. We will never shirk our | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
responsibilities in terms of scrutinising projects like this and | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
asking what sometimes might be viewed as tough questions. But | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
they're asked to try and ensure that we get the best possible Government | :16:02. | :16:08. | |
and the best possible chance to build a Shared Future for all our | :16:08. | :16:17. | |
people because God knows we need it. It is unfortunate, Mr Speaker, that | :16:17. | :16:27. | |
:16:27. | :16:29. | ||
the hi -- hysterics soured the tone over the Shared Future document. It | :16:29. | :16:35. | |
did confirm one thing: Peter Robinson seems to be stuck in an old | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
testament world when people out there are desperately crying out for | :16:39. | :16:45. | |
something new. I hear the party basically saying- we weren't | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
included in the discussions. I heard them saying this announcement was | :16:50. | :16:52. | |
made without consultation with themselves or consultation with | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
anybody else. Well, that party has had a week to be able to say | :16:57. | :17:02. | |
actually, we don't like the Shared Future details because it doesn't go | :17:02. | :17:07. | |
far enough or whatever the criticism might be. Maybe some of the | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
criticism is justified. They need to put options on the table. It's not | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
enough, I want to make it clear from our party's point of view, it is | :17:14. | :17:22. | |
simply not good enough for the SDLp to come here and say they're here to | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
ask tough questions. We're all here to ask tough questions. What a | :17:26. | :17:33. | |
remarkable impact a pending visit of President Obama can have that | :17:33. | :17:39. | |
suddenly, whatever it takes to please in terms of social | :17:40. | :17:46. | |
engineering is possible. Be it housing, be it education, be | :17:46. | :17:53. | |
whatever is on the shopping list and the instruction list of the visiting | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
president. Can I begin by welcoming the statement last week and it's not | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
surprising that all of the naysayers have had their go around so just to | :18:03. | :18:09. | |
put Mr Swan's mind at rest from the very start, we will not be with | :18:09. | :18:15. | |
drawing our amendment and we will be putting it to the vote. Just let | :18:15. | :18:21. | |
me... Just let me be clear about that so that you know right from the | :18:21. | :18:28. | |
very start, and I see the chair of the OFM doing his usual act, one or | :18:28. | :18:34. | |
two headline grabbing things, producing some document today, but | :18:34. | :18:39. | |
that's typical of the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. So nobody | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
will be surprised about that. Spratt. The Justice Minister has | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
told the Assembly he expects work on the long awaited police and fire | :18:48. | :18:55. | |
college near cooks down to start in October. -- Cookstown. He revealed | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
details for the G8 summit and the future for the historical inquiries | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
team. Comments were provided back to the | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
programme team for its consideration. If these points are | :19:08. | :19:14. | |
adequately addressed and both departments are satisfied that the | :19:14. | :19:20. | |
college represents value for money it will be submitted for approval. | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
The reality is we are looking at a relatively short slippage in the | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
time to complete the work. The delay is currently being looked at in a | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
period of something like four months with an expectation that | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
construction can begin by the month of October. So given the very | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
significant cost change, I believe that's hay fairly reasonable | :19:38. | :19:45. | |
position to be in and I'm optimistic that can be adhered to. PSNI and | :19:45. | :19:53. | |
plans for security for the G8 are at an advanced state. It has been | :19:53. | :20:01. | |
decided that some 4700 PSNI officer and 3600 officers under mutual aid | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
arrangements will be deployed. All the officers will be under the | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
direction and operational command of the Chief Constable throughout in. | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
Addition, 600 private security personnel will be contracted to work | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
on security-related duties during the summit. I'm confident there will | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
be sufficient human resources in place to ensure a successful summit | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
and any protests would be well policed. Other areas within my | :20:24. | :20:32. | |
department are developing plans to deal with any arrests. In the -- I'm | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
confident there will be sufficient human resources in place to deal | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
with any evengeuality. Can I ask the minister what assurances can he give | :20:43. | :20:51. | |
to former members of the royal Royal Ulster Constabulary who hold a | :20:51. | :21:01. | |
:21:01. | :21:10. | ||
except -- sceptical view over all of this happening. If former members of | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
the RUC or PSNI hold that view of the HET I'm not sure that anything I | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
say will counteract that feeling that they have. Certainly what I | :21:19. | :21:22. | |
have seen of the HET in particular in terms of looking through the | :21:22. | :21:26. | |
business case for the extension of its work has shown that it is | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
robustly carrying out its duties. Wonder if the minister would take | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
the opportunity to assure the House that the HET has the necessary | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
funding to be able to complete its programmed work and that its | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
operational independence will not be jeopardised in any way by means of | :21:45. | :21:52. | |
the way it is funded? I thank him for that point. The business case | :21:52. | :21:57. | |
for the extension of HET funding was approved by my department last | :21:57. | :22:04. | |
month, subject to further conditions being met. That will then result in | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
a potential extension of �13 million to its existing budget aloe | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
indication. The secondary -- allegation. The secondary intention | :22:13. | :22:21. | |
is that the case load will be completed bit end of March 2015 on a | :22:21. | :22:26. | |
completion rate of 30 cases per month. David Ford. It's been some | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
time coming but the Marine Bill passed through its final stage at | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
the Assembly today. The bill is designed to coordinate the | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
protection of Northern Ireland's coastline and the wildlife that | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
lives there. Is that enough? I'm joined by Marguerite Tarzia from the | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
Marine Task Force. Good evening. First of all, remind us what the | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
Marine Task Force is. It's a coalition of ten environmental | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
organisations and we've been campaigning on marine issues for | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
quite a while. It's a ten-year campaign, specifically related to | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
mat reen bill. We are very -- the Marine Bill. We are very pleased to | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
see it here again. The legislation go far enough? There are some | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
disappointments with it. Before we go through the disappointing sides I | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
think the Marine Task Force is thrilled that we have this | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
legislation in place because it is a new legal framework for managing our | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
seas, for conservation and marine planning. In terms of the things | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
that we would like to have seen in it, there are some things that we | :23:27. | :23:36. | |
think are missing, moat -- most note yaebl a marine organisation, and we | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
campaigned that it would help the governance for marine matters in | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
Northern Ireland. The matters are distributed across five departments | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
in Northern Ireland. That's a lot of departments to make coordinated | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
decisions on marine issues. So we think that a marine management | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
organisation would really help. campaigned strongly for the agency, | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
it's not there. You say you're disappointed. Is that going to make | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
a huge difference? You've said that's the downside, there are plus | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
points as well. Are the plus points outweighed bit negative dimension of | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
net getting the management agency? think that's going to be an issue | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
which will be ongoing. Obviously with the Marine Bill, now it's | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
becoming an act, there are going to be important decisions to be made in | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
terms of the marine kon conservation zones and mat reen planning, which | :24:24. | :24:31. | |
is cross sectors. Will need a lot of buy-in from people. I think issues | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
will arise throughout the implementation of this bill that | :24:34. | :24:41. | |
will make it evident that marine governance needs to be resolved. | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
an example of what will be better with the new legislation. It gives | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
us the opportunity to designation marine kon conservation zones. Up | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
till now we only have European marine sites and areas of special | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
scientific interest. Also sites designated for wetlands. We haven't | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
got that many protected areas, even though the European sites are | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
important. The conservation zones will let us designate sites for | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
protection for a range of different species that are representative of | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
the UK marine area. That's good for the species that live in our coastal | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
waters? Yes, very good for the species. We can cover more species, | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
more habitats and protect more. Marguerite Tarzia, thanks very much | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
indeed for joining us. Now, into the West was very much the | :25:32. | :25:35. | |
theme for questions to the Regional Development Minister this afternoon | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
with the A 5 and roads even a possible railway line in Fermanagh | :25:40. | :25:45. | |
on the agenda. First up was the troubled bridge at Narrow Water. | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
There's been no delay in the part of my department. Every effort has been | :25:50. | :25:57. | |
made to progress these necessary orders. Understand of -- information | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
was only finalised on April 10, 2013. I should say that in Northern | :26:02. | :26:12. | |
:26:12. | :26:12. | ||
Ireland the construction of a bridge over waters quite rightly requires | :26:12. | :26:18. | |
legislation. Loudge County Council only requires consent of the | :26:18. | :26:28. | |
:26:28. | :26:32. | ||
minister. We met the QPA yesterday in relation to the delay in the A5 | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
and they're concerned about the delay. They're concerned about the | :26:35. | :26:41. | |
moratorium on the roads, which is 11 days, I think it's ten or 11 days | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
prior to the G8. A decision that the previous Minister of Justice told us | :26:48. | :26:55. | |
half an hour ago that you took. the issue that he raises on G8 | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
moratorium, he will know, as a constituency representative for the | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
area of countery Fermanagh and indeed as a member of this House and | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
deputy chair of the regional development committee, that G8 is a | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
very significant and important event for all of Northern Ireland and I'm | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
very pleased to offer my department's support to the PSNI in | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
managing arrangements for the summit. So at the request of the | :27:26. | :27:35. | |
PSNI, DRD has agreed to reprogramme planned works on key routes during | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
the G8. The department has brought forward a considerable amount of | :27:39. | :27:45. | |
resurfacing work to improve the road network in the run up to the G8. My | :27:45. | :27:49. | |
colleague Mr Elliott was telling me some of the locals in Fermanagh | :27:49. | :27:57. | |
instead of calling it the A 4 road now call it the G8 road. Is there | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
any further evaluation or assessment into developing a rail network into | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
the west of Northern Ireland? grateful to the member for his | :28:07. | :28:13. | |
question and indeed, he will know that we have recently been holding a | :28:13. | :28:16. | |
consultation exercise on the future of railways all over Northern | :28:16. | :28:23. | |
Ireland. We've had very interesting feed back. Even in my own area, | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
significant feed back on the possibility of a reopening the old | :28:28. | :28:38. | |
:28:38. | :28:38. | ||
lines. Indeed, the line that he mentions mentioned, there are issues | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
of infrastructure and cost. We would have to look carefully before we | :28:43. | :28:49. | |
would embark on even a serious study. The Regional Development | :28:50. | :28:53. |