Browse content similar to 22/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome. As boardroom salaries go through the roof, at | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
least we know who pays them. But who is funding our political | :00:33. | :00:39. | |
parties? Isn't it time politicians opened up their accounts? Members | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
of the public are seriously concerned about the potential | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
corrective influence of large donations. And what could we have | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
possibly done to upset the enterprise minister? I find it | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
rather strange when I watched the Stormont Live programme last night | :00:55. | :01:01. | |
that we need to see more enterprise in Northern Ireland. And to bring a | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
touch of college to Stormont, and joined by Nick Livingstone of the | :01:04. | :01:12. | |
We saw some of the picture's last night of the new artwork grazing | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
the Great Hall here at Stormont. The director of strategic | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
development at the Arts Council is here. Why has this project come | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
about? The Gizzi great opportunity for us to sell -- tell the story of | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
artists from Northern Ireland, both emerging and established, and there | :01:33. | :01:39. | |
was a lively level of interest among the MLAs. I gather they have | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
been treating each other about their personal favourites. It will | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
boost the reputations of the artists themselves, to show what we | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
are doing as a development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland, | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
and to engage with our political leaders at a critical time when we | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
have just published a programme for government and show how the Arts | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
Council is helping and can help to deliver some of the objectives and | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
commitments made within that. possible to imagine that it is very | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
difficult climate for emerging artists, because it is seen as | :02:17. | :02:23. | |
something as a luxury, spending money on art work. There has never | :02:23. | :02:29. | |
been uneasy time artists. But that doesn't daunt them in terms of the | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
challenges that they want to do in investing in their careers. We | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
believe that by buying art, not collecting for its own sake, but | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
helping the get their careers on to a firm footing, we're getting them | :02:43. | :02:49. | |
off to win a positive start. If you look back at some of the artists | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
whose work is shown in this exhibition, you will see something | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
of the great things they have achieved since. That helps us to | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
stand out as a region, as well, as an area that is rich in terms of | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
culture. What about the arts generally? How will you survive the | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
cuts that are coming down the tracks? We have been accustomed to | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
using the arts as a catalyst to try and bring about change in many | :03:16. | :03:21. | |
areas. These are highlighted within the themes for the programme for | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
government, and if you just take one of those areas, the emphasis on | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
jobs and wealth creation and investment in the economy, there | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
are lots of ways in which artists and creative people are helping to | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
build and create new connections and helping to generate wealth | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
within the creative industries themselves which are now in fact | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
one of the promising areas of growth potential. Stay with us, | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
plenty more to talk about. Should we be commemorating the | :03:49. | :03:55. | |
Titanic disaster next year? And why has Stormont today been getting the | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
enterprise minister a bit bothered? All was revealed during questions | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
this afternoon, where there was also a lot of curiosity about the | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
religious make-up of staff at St Mary's teacher-training college. | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
Minister, quite recently you provided to me a policy statement | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
as adapted them 22nd October 1998 by St Mary's University College. | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
Can you explain why, on 22nd September, 2011, some 13 years | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
later, there is only 7% Protestant workforce, and how do you plan to | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
deal with this inequality? And do you accept that equality not only | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
needs to be done, it needs to be seen to be done? I thank Lord | :04:42. | :04:49. | |
Morrow for that supplementary, and they do recognise it is an equal | :04:49. | :04:57. | |
opportunities employer, but at the same time, where only 8% of the | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
workforce are from a Protestant background. The college does have a | :05:01. | :05:08. | |
religious affirmative action plan which is reviewed regularly, and | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
the college is also promoting equal employment opportunities. I do | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
believe that St Mary's is conscious of the need to improve the | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
situation. It is certainly something I would have concern | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
about in terms of the balance of the workforce. It is important to | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
have recognised there is a halt range of historical factors that | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
have led to the situation in which we are today. But that does not | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
mean that he doesn't have to be changed, and that change needs to | :05:40. | :05:47. | |
come soon. But I do want to impress upon the house and Lord Morrow that | :05:47. | :05:56. | |
some Mary's is conscious of the issue and the need to address it,. | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
Mistake I would like to know what evidence you base the reference on, | :06:00. | :06:08. | |
because there is no evidence to suggest that they have even | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
commenced... I would remind you that we are on the report now. | :06:14. | :06:20. | |
relation to the report, will that report also include an explanation | :06:21. | :06:29. | |
as to why St Mary's won't allow students to do the Catholic | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
certificate? It forces our students to go and have it paid for in | :06:35. | :06:45. | |
:06:45. | :06:45. | ||
Glasgow. Surely that is not the indication of the University? | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
thank Mr story for his supplementary question. All I can | :06:49. | :06:58. | |
say is that I have had a number of dealings with St Mary's. A range of | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
issues both have a financial nature and also relating to equality of | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
opportunity were raised by myself and by my officials. I have to say | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
that I did find that St Mary's were engaging in a constructive and | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
creative way, and were very alert to a number of the issues and | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
concerns that have been raised by an number of members, and indeed in | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
the wider community. Certainly the issue of the Catholic certificates, | :07:27. | :07:36. | |
the differential access that exists between the students in terms is | :07:36. | :07:43. | |
one that I am minded about, and it is certainly an issue of which St | :07:43. | :07:51. | |
Mary's a engaged with me at the moment. Question number four. | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
will be a momentous year for Northern Ireland were Burke series | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
of significant dates, commemorations and anniversaries. | :07:57. | :08:05. | |
The key anniversary will be the anniversary of the maiden voyage of | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
the Titanic. The Titanic the bitter experience is a significant mark of | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
the centenary. This would be an opportunity to clearly identified | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
Belfast and Northern Ireland as the home of Titanic. A recently | :08:18. | :08:24. | |
launched NI 2012, and exciting year-long programme of national | :08:24. | :08:33. | |
events, includes Synek to prevent - - significant commemoration of the | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
Titanic. The programme will provide a real platform to change | :08:36. | :08:46. | |
:08:46. | :08:49. | ||
perceptions of Northern Ireland on Given that 2012 will mark the loss | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
of life associated with the sinking of the Titanic, I asked the | :08:53. | :08:59. | |
minister why the major celebration was not the launch of the ship, | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
which took place last year? This is about celebrating what was going on | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
in Belfast in 2012 but commemorating the lives that were | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
lost on the Titanic as well. I am sorry he has not seen the plans. If | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
he had been at the all-party working group on tourism on Monday | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
morning he would have seen plans for not only celebrating, but | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
commemorating. It is about that balance. We want to celebrate what | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
happened in the past and we want to look to the future for Northern | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
Ireland and recognise the great work that happened at that time. Do | :09:32. | :09:39. | |
not forget, she was all right when she left Belfast! Many people will | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
be amazed that the Minister doesn't know how many of the jobs which | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
Invest NI said they promoted over the last five years, they in fact | :09:50. | :09:55. | |
saw created, and how many still exist? Surely that knowledge is | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
essential to measure promise of future job creation to see how the | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
people who are making no promises actually performed in the past. As | :10:04. | :10:11. | |
it may be welcome that they are now beginning to put in motion of | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
things to answer those questions, how have we live through a system | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
where we do not know how many jobs were created? We know how many jobs | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
were lost. Is it not time the minister knew how many were | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
created? He just cannot acknowledge the we are dealing with this issue. | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
Instead, he reverts back to what I read of his Radio Ulster piece of | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
work, where he said that we were only interested in foreign direct | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
investment. We are not. I have already detailed the number of jobs | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
coming from our own companies, coming from business starts, from | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
at their jobs band, but yet again a member cannot acknowledge that is | :10:50. | :10:56. | |
the case and seeks to mislead this Assembly in relation to the 25,000 | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
jobs. This is being dealt with and it would be nice if the member | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
could acknowledge that. One reference to BBC Radio Ulster | :11:03. | :11:09. | |
we were not forgotten 80! I know speaking to small businesses | :11:09. | :11:14. | |
across Northern Ireland, they are having severe access issues for | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
funding. That is why I find it strange when watching Stormont Live | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
last night when I heard it represented of a bank saying we | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
needed more enterprise. That is absolutely right, we do need to see | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
more, but wouldn't it be lovely if the Bank stepped up to the mark and | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
held those small and medium-sized businesses to actually invest in | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
their companies and grow? Flat to see the minister was tuning | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
in. A government-appointed watchdog has called for more transparency | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
over donations to Northern Ireland's political parties and a | :11:47. | :11:52. | |
cap on donations. The identity of donors remained secret while | :11:52. | :12:02. | |
:12:02. | :12:04. | ||
parties in Britain must report donations of more than 7,500. | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
The evidence is that members of the public are concerned about the | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
potential corrupting influence of large donations on political | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
decisions. The political parties recognise that and all three of the | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
main ones in Westminster have committed themselves in their | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
manifestos to read politics of big money. Our proposals are addressed | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
to that issue, how to take big money out of politics. You have | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
called for greater transparency, but what of the argument that for | :12:34. | :12:40. | |
security reasons, Northern Ireland is not ready for that? I recognise | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
the issue over security. We have not called for immediate greater to | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
transparency, not least because recently there was a consultation | :12:50. | :13:00. | |
of combat. -- a consultation on that. The government should now set | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
a timetable for it moving back to normality. Do you think Northern | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
Ireland should be exempt? I think there are many people in Northern | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
Ireland who would like to think that normality had returned. | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
have also highlighted the issue of Irish citizens giving donations to | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
parties in Northern Ireland and in Britain. Why have you highlighted | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
that issue? There are two things in in Northern Ireland which are | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
different from the arrangements in the rest of the UK. One thing is | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
the absence of transparency and the other is the fact that in the rest | :13:32. | :13:41. | |
of the UK, the only people who can't do are those on the UK | :13:41. | :13:51. | |
:13:51. | :13:55. | ||
electoral register -- register. -- can donate. It is a special | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
condition that we drew attention to for Northern Ireland. We suggest | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
the Electoral Commission should now publish summary details of how much | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
money actually flows from Irish citizens she Northern Irish | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
political parties. If you changes go ahead will the electorate in | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
Northern Ireland notice the difference? That is a good question. | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
That depends upon the use of the money that would be provided. I | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
hope they will notice a difference not just from that but also from | :14:27. | :14:34. | |
the removal of the hint and suspicion that big money is | :14:34. | :14:40. | |
influencing decisions in an improper way. Are you convinced | :14:40. | :14:46. | |
your timescale will be met? We are not suggesting the big changes, the | :14:46. | :14:55. | |
Caporn it donations and reductions in spending, should come into being | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
until 2015. The Green Party is the only one here to publish its | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
donations. Stephen Agnew joins us. You could say it might be easier | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
for you because you are a smaller party? That is true. Equally, we | :15:09. | :15:14. | |
made this decision. Green is clean. We want the voters to know who is | :15:14. | :15:19. | |
funding our party so if there are perceived interests they can | :15:19. | :15:25. | |
investigate them and check it out. We publish them on mind so people | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
know her fans as and show that we are acting in their interests. -- | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
online. We also do not take corporate creations. If businesses | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
donate to a political party they expect something at the other end | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
and we do not believe that is in the best interests of democracy. | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
Can you imagine big changes once they new rules come in? Our people | :15:47. | :15:55. | |
were not entitled to privacy about political allegiances? The argument | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
always used his about security. We have taken down watchtowers and | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
taken shoulders -- soldiers off the street and we have said that peace | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
is here. The one things that remains unchanged is that political | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
donations are hidden. It means every decision is in question. Are | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
they are acting in the best interests of the people of Northern | :16:15. | :16:22. | |
Ireland, or of the people who fund the political parties? In my | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
constituency, and a political party takes a side, people ask if they | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
are funded by the developers? We do not know and I cannot answer them. | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
This speculation will continue until we have full transparency. | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
What about the idea of political parties getting public funding. I | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
cannot imagine there would be public support for it? It is a case | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
of what price do we want to put on democracy. The trade-off is, if we | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
stop large corporate donations that the public purse makes up the money. | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
To ensure the democratic process is operating in the interests of the | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
people at rather than vested interests, I think a small subsidy | :17:03. | :17:08. | |
might be worthwhile. Let's look at that. First, we need transparency | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
in Northern Ireland to seek party - - money going into political | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
parties. Political parties can run cheaper election campaigns. We do | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
it on a limited budget. Other parties do not have to spend the | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
money that they do on massive billboard campaigns and whatever | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
else it to promote their party. It should be one person, one vote, not | :17:30. | :17:36. | |
�1, one vote. Money could be seen to court in -- to be corrupting the | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
political process. Last month they Health Minister | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
announced plans to make it harder for women to opt for a Caesarean | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
delivery. We have the highest rate in the UK. Guidelines for England | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
have been relaxed. Man in charge of the organisation which regulates | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
medicine is at Stormont tonight and he explained why. | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
We are saying there might be occasional circumstances when women | :18:00. | :18:08. | |
who are frightened to deliver vaginally, even after they have had | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
psychological help, those so -- sort of circumstances, it is not | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
unreasonable to deny a Caesarean section. We do not expect this to | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
be in any way a common occurrence. It is not the Caesarean section on | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
demand. They have Minister appears to be taking a firmer approach in | :18:28. | :18:38. | |
:18:38. | :18:42. | ||
I think we have to remember do but Caesarean section is now very safe, | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
and a lot safer than some of the medical intervention, for Sirte | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
type deliveries. I wouldn't criticise, and they think these | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
things are very difficult. You have to have arrangements to suit your | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
circumstances. There is not a hard and fast rule. One of the other | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
pressing issues is the price of drugs. Is there of thing your | :19:06. | :19:12. | |
organisation can do to reduce the price? Why we can't, no. The | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
companies set the price they want to set, that is the current | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
arrangement. The coalition government want to create a new way | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
of looking at drug pricing and trying to match it better to the | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
value that the drug brings, and they are wanting to, in a sense, | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
work out the way in which the value of the drug is established and the | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
price is adjusted accordingly. They have provided no details about how | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
this is going to work, but of course the problem is that drug | :19:48. | :19:56. | |
pricing is a reserve matter, it is a UK wider matter. So I think we | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
are a long way off finding a solution to this. There has been | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
this new scheme to help people try to buy art more affordable, paid | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
off over a certain length of time. Is there any controversy and the | :20:11. | :20:14. | |
fact that and there is a small number of galleries involved? Well | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
the other galleries not feel their noses put out of joint? | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
invitation is there to all galleries, both within the private | :20:22. | :20:28. | |
sector and public, to be part of the scheme. But as a private scheme | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
at this stage, and we are hoping to be able to stimulate the market a | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
little bit, because one of the common complaint that we here is | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
that things have been sluggish for the very reasons you outlined, and | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
if we are going to make art affordable has put it in the reach | :20:42. | :20:47. | |
of ordinary people, this is a way of doing it. This is a way to | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
provide that level of intervention and support. How difficult is it | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
for artists to survive in this climate? It is difficult, there is | :20:54. | :21:02. | |
no question about it. This highlights that artists have had to | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
become quite clever and developing the many strands to their career. | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
They are often trying to pin down more than one job. But they have | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
shown that they are very resourceful and capable, and the | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
work they are doing is paying dividends in terms of opening | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
opportunities for be but the participate in the art and get | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
involved, and that is having benefits in education, in schools | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
and in many other areas. process of bringing about major | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
changes our welfare system to go step forward today as a motion | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
which will change what is currently known as incapacity benefit passed | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
through the house. The changes are being imposed by Westminster as | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
part of the Welfare Reform Bill, while MLAs can voice concern about | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
the impact of the new rules, there is where little Stormont can do to | :21:48. | :21:53. | |
influence the legislation. Out of engagement with the labour | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
market represents the best opportunity for the future. For | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
those claimants have some capacity to work, taking practical steps it | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
in the shape of care for -- carefully considered work-related | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
activity, is the best route towards that goal. Allowing flexibility for | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
advisers in supporting claims, was to the same time establishing a | :22:15. | :22:20. | |
fair but effective framework around responsibility and sanctions, will | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
be the first stepping transforming implement and service allowance | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
into a forward looking active benefit, balancing support, | :22:28. | :22:38. | |
obligation, flexibility and conditionality. Sinn Fein's Nicky | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
Braidley joins us. There isn't much that any of the MLAs can do, is | :22:42. | :22:49. | |
they? The legislation goes through at Westminster and then transfers | :22:49. | :22:55. | |
to the assembly. In terms of the legislation, the party is a bigger | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
issue. It is maybe something it needs to be addressed in the wider | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
sense. In terms of what we can do, the administration of welfare | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
reform is something we can do something about, because if you | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
consider that the legislation itself is the biggest change since | :23:10. | :23:16. | |
1940, certainly since the inception of the welfare state, and obviously | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
it is going to impact on our society. It will mean huge changes. | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
Many people are very worried about what is going to meet for their | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
future, but at the same time there are many people who feel that the | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
system does need to be looked at again, and this is a good thing. | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
don't think anybody has any argument with the fact that his is | :23:36. | :23:43. | |
better for people to seek work and then to be on benefits. And | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
certainly that aspiration is there. The difficulty, of course, it is if | :23:48. | :23:54. | |
we have at the moment something like 61,000 people unemployed, to | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
introduce this kind of draconian legislation a one of the worst | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
recessions we have experienced in many generations is going to create | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
the huge difficulties, and people are right to be concerned, because | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
it is going to mean huge difference is right across the board for | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
younger people, for children, for all the people as well. We need to | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
look at the administration of that reform and see what we can do to | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
alleviate the impact it has on the people who live here in the north. | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
Is there some sort of argument to have training schemes for people to | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
try to increase even temporary training placements so that people | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
are going off benefits and on to something? The difficulty is that | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
as the moment, there are 76,000 people being moved from Inga Bath | :24:43. | :24:48. | |
Dudi jobseeker's. The difficulty with doing that is it will take -- | :24:48. | :24:55. | |
from incapacity to jobseeker's. The difficulty with that is it will | :24:55. | :25:02. | |
take several years to do. The difficulty is those people who are | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
coming off incapacity, many have mental health problems or | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
particular types of conditions such as autism, Parkinson's, where we | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
have argued very strongly that staff were going to make these | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
assessments need to be particularly well trained, because if you had | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
someone for instance with bipolar, they may present a one-day is being | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
find, at the next day they may not be. Those things have to be taken | :25:29. | :25:36. | |
into account. We can certainly do something about that. We will have | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
to leave it there, but we will come back to this topic over the next | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
weeks and months. In just over a week, unions are good to go on | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
strike of a pensions. Workers Fraser hiking contributions from | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
next year. But exactly who should pay has been the subject of debate | :25:52. | :25:59. | |
between the SLP and Sinn Fein. I think the local people -- | :25:59. | :26:03. | |
politicians are gearing up in terms of their differing responses to the | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
one-day strike which is due next week on Wednesday. The Stormont | :26:07. | :26:14. | |
executive said it is having to pass on the cost, and has been given no | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
choice but the Treasury. But the Environment Minister said he | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
thought they should be some wriggle room, because he felt that there | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
was a local government element of the pension scheme, which covers | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
about 44,000 workers, and this didn't have to be covered by this. | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
He said other ministers have and taking his arguments on board | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
previously, but he is writing to them again in the hope that they | :26:35. | :26:37. | |
would change their mind this Thursday when there is another | :26:37. | :26:44. | |
executive meeting. I think there is good argument, and their good | :26:44. | :26:50. | |
government prevails. Whatever was decided in September, now is an | :26:50. | :26:57. | |
opportunity, a week from the pension strike, to do things | :26:57. | :27:03. | |
differently, do things better, and protect 44,000 people who are in a | :27:03. | :27:09. | |
pension scheme, many of whom are low-paid, part-time or women. This | :27:09. | :27:19. | |
:27:19. | :27:19. | ||
is a chance to get things right. And reaction from to Sinn Fein MLAs. | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
Yes, an article earlier said that Alex at which a publisher's | :27:25. | :27:34. | |
proposal and be more specific about it. Any teachers who earn less than | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
�32,000 a year, it is suggested, should be exempt from this public | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
sector pension hike. But this proposal is effectively that other | :27:42. | :27:51. | |
teachers would pay for that. It has been suggested that better-paid | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
teachers could help out their less well-paid colleagues. | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
potentially it could be very divisive? It is possible that | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
teachers might not be impressed with that. It may well be seen as a | :28:04. | :28:14. | |
divide-and-rule tactic. Sinn Fein, and also the SDLP, are very keen to | :28:14. | :28:20. | |
be on the side of the strikers. But when it comes to health, the DUP a | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
much more keen to come out and so that the strike action should not | :28:23. | :28:31. | |
be taken. Nick, a final thought from you. What is the Arts | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
Council's top priority in the coming months? There are many | :28:35. | :28:38. | |
challenges, but thinking in terms of what is happening now, this is a | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
defining year in terms of trying to put Northern Ireland on the map. A | :28:43. | :28:46. | |
high priority has to be in terms of developing what we can do for the | :28:46. | :28:50. | |
creative economy, and also to help put Northern Ireland in this | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
critical year in terms of promoting it as a destination for visitors. | :28:54. | :28:58. | |
Thank you very much for joining us. That is it from Stormont for now. I | :28:58. | :29:02. |