27/06/2011 Stormont Today

Hello and welcome to Stormont today. Another tax deadline is looming, do

not worry it is not a personal income tax. But if you have a view

on corporation tax and whether it should be lowered, you only have

until Friday. Cannot make up your mind? Stay tuned. We will hear from

a business champion and an opposing view.

Plus, they are the good guys, aren't they? The Community

Relations Council that is, so why when they were at Stormont did it

turn out like this? Tom Elliott fights to keep order at an

Albert Einstein like to say the hardest thing in the world to

understand is income tax. At least he did not have to grapple with the

issues of corporation tax. But to give us his take, I am joined by a

Michael Ryan, vice-president of Bombardier Aerospace Belfast. Give

us your pitch, why should we lower corporation tax? It is generally

agreed within our society here that we lag behind most of the

indicators first is the UK for the wellbeing of the our community in

Northern Ireland. Those indicators are driven in many ways by the

effectiveness of our economy here and our economy depends on

businesses. If our economy depends on businesses them one of the ways

to influence that is to increase the size of the businesses in

Northern Ireland. The Assembly will be debating this tomorrow, we hear

lots of talk about job creation, it could have re -- create 4,500 jobs

a year. But we could lose money from the block grant. There has

been at an argument about how much it could cost first is the number

of jobs it could create. What we have been doing for the last 20

years has not closed the gap. If we want to do something differently,

what we have done his lookout side and looked at the data and looked

at the evidence and the reduction of corporation tax is one of the

tools that we begin will help us close the gap with the rest of the

UK. The consultation has been extended until this Friday and the

cynics would say that it is because the quality of responses is not

there, people are not interested or it is not being argued well enough.

You said yourself that tax is a difficult it issue for all of us

individually and for corporations as well. We have had a lot of

elections lately, we have had a lot of issues that have been asked of

the tax payer and all of our citizens. That is another one on

top of that. I do not think it reflects a lack of interest or

opportunity. The critics say there is not one shred of evidence that

it will create many jobs and it could benefit the rich. There is a

lot of evidence, when we have looked at data from Estonia,

Singapore, from the south of Ireland. It does not benefit the

rich. If our businesses are no different from the businesses in

the rest of the world our businesses will reinvest that in

their businesses and that will eventually bring more tax in total

as revenue for Northern Ireland from, for our society here. We will

return to the subject later. Nelson the course and is now no

stranger to interrogation. Let us hear from Martin McGuinness, who

revealed among other things that he is considering taking the Executive

on the road. First here he is answering questions on the memorial

fund. Naturally I understand that this is an issue that has been in

the media recently. A lot of people have been frustrated at the length

of time it has taken. I am very pleased to confirm that we now have

the necessary authorisations in place for the memorial budget for

2011-12. Over �3.5 million has been distributed so far. Along with a

total of �4.4 million provided in 2010-11 that has more than doubled

the total in 2008-nine. When it exerts the terms and conditions of

the letter of off-air, further funds will be released. That will

enable the fund to be distributed to individuals whose applications

have been assessed. Fancy a visit from the Executive, it seems Mr

McGuinness wants to take meetings out and about. The Executive

recognises the particular difficulties of up island life. It

hopes to develop policies and projects that will improve

conditions for islanders. They have indicated that they are broadly

content with development so far. friend the Deputy First Minister

for underlining the importance for ensuring that the island is

properly serviced by the administration and the government

departments in Northern Ireland. Will the Deputy First Minister

today ensure that when it comes to implementation that OFMDFM will

play an active role in making sure that there is delivery. We have had

a lot in terms of commitment in the action plan but we need to see

delivery on the ground which will benefit the people off the island.

I think I can say on behalf of both the First Minister and myself that

we do recognise the importance of giving as much support as we can to

the islanders. Those of us who have been to the island, and I have been

there myself, during the course of last year. We appreciate and

understand the particular exceptional difficulties which

islanders have, which people who are here on the mainland do not

have. From our perspective, recognising the challenges faced by

islanders, and they are different from here, means they do need to be

addressed in a different way. Nelson McCausland was back taking

questions with a very different brief, social development. Here he

is facing a question on reform of pensions for women. Will the

Minister confirm that he will work with DWP to ensure that changes

brought about as a result of this bill or the widen 10 shirt and a

reform that are advertised as widely as possible so that people

can prepare for the financial future. I can in -- ensure the

member of that. It is essential that we keep close contact with DWP

in London as this process moves forward and that all the

information is disseminated as widely as possible. So that people

are not caught unawares and a fully aware of any implications.

minister and the house and I am sure the wider community will be

aware of the concern that there is come particularly among the small

number of women who will be adversely affected by this. Members

are working to minimise that change. Given that it will come before the

Assembly, can the Minister outlined the period of time that the women

will get to make belated preparation for a retirement that

they did not expect to come when it now appears it is going to?

Speaker, the amount of notice that an individual woman would receive

would obviously depend on her date of birth. That could range from

four-and-a-half years to nearly seven years. Women whose state

pension age is due to increase the most have a longer period of notice

than those affected earlier forum the increase is smaller.

The main topic of debate in the chamber was the Budget, yet again.

It was passed on a cross-community voting and the Minister dismissed

his critics as whingers. One of those who voted against it was a

single Green MLA, Stephen Agnew. The speakers as you are a whinger.

That seems to be his attitude. He thinks that everybody else is being

unrealistic. It is clear that the Budget could be allocated in

different ways. It failed on the green new deal, which I think as

well as being a good forward step, I think it would be a fairly major

economic driver and has support from the business community,

environmental groups and trade unions. I think that is something

that this Budget it has failed to protect public services through

Gram Mensing cuts through revenue- raising measures. And it has failed

to provide the necessary funding so we can keep the cap on fees. Those

are three fundamental issues on which this Budget fails. In terms

of the green you deal, that is about making homes more efficient.

But the money is not there to fund it. That was it when that has been

made in previous debates. It is where you put your priorities, to

me that should be one of the key priorities. It is not for this

Executive and it is not within the budget. I know we're going to come

on to it later but the cost of corporation tax if we go down that

route would be similar to what the cost of the green new deal would be.

So why are we in leaning towards that rather than the green New

Deal? Do you think that talk by parties has been cheap? I think

that yes. They are saying we are doing the green new deal but

clearly it is not sufficient and there is not a genuine commitment

to it. What we have got is a pilot scheme but we have had pilot

schemes in the PUP Republic of up Ireland that have produced an

immense of this. We can look at other countries examples, it does

reduce jobs, it does reduce heating bills and it does reduce energy use.

You're objecting to corporation tax as well? I will be supporting the

motion that the Assembly should have the power. I think we should

decide hearing Northern Ireland Water our corporation tax rule is.

But I will be warning against of this had rushed into reducing and

because it will result in cuts to public services and potential job

losses with no guaranteed return. Michael Ryan, you heard it there,

it will be cuts to public services with no guaranteed return. I do not

believe it has to be cuts to public services. We have had to improve

our competitiveness by 15% over the past five years. There is room

within public services are to improve competitiveness without

losing jobs. I think the green New Deal is a good thing in principle.

The corporation tax, the data is there, the evidence is there, and

looking forward to a future for Northern Ireland which is better

than what we have now means that we have to do this.

You would think that having the Community Relations Council to hand

might lead to some good vibes among members. But the OFMDFM committee

had to be suspended after tensions run high last week. It all started

politely enough for with discussion of recent events in Belfast.

Looking at the new stories of this week we start the week with a Rory

McIlroy story of about Northern Ireland within the international

global context. By the end of the week the story leading on the BBC

News is riots in Belfast. I do not want to put that us either or us. I

want to say that those her choices. I do think that tackling the issues

that remain is an economic investment worth making with long-

term consequences. Particularly for people in the most at vulnerable

and weakest areas. There is an assertion that community relations

can be a class obsession. There is no doubt that the people who pay

for it are the people at the front end of some of the most week and

vulnerable communities. It is useful to note that the correlation

between poverty and conflict is very high. All the studies that

have been done shows that there is a significant correlation in terms

of the areas that suffer most in terms of conflict are also the

areas with the highest levels of deprivation. Therefore, bringing

together reconciliation on the one hand and of regeneration on the

If anybody examined the conflict over the last 40 years, you can see

clearly that poverty and conflict are not linked. That is my problem

with the CRC all along. If you look back on their funding, it would be

very hard to point to some progress where people have been changed from

what they are doing to a different way of looking at things.

correlation is that the areas that have suffered the most in the

conflict are also areas of intense poverty. That is beyond doubt. I am

not saying that poverty caused it? Look at the people involved in the

conflict. Did they all come from poverty? Most of them did not.

question in terms of which areas suffered the most tended to be

areas of the most intense poverty, on both sides. What the G A A is

trying to do what the Irish Football Association, anybody who

was at Windsor Park in the night to remember in 1996 who goes there now,

it would make a difference. I was sitting in a restaurant last year...

Sorry, I will suspend the meeting. One minute later, the Sassoon

reconvened with one notable absence. Did Tom Elliott press the ejector

button? I am not going to storm a way the

way -- storm away the way that Francie Molloy has done but I agree

with some of the sentiments. poet Francie Molloy's allegation to

David Jeffrey but he refused to comment.

Twitter can get politicians into trouble. Ian McCrea has upset Sinn

Fein after he tweeted that it was great to see Tyrone beat in the

Ulster semi-final and that he hoped Donegal would be to Londonderry to

keep the celebrations out of Mid- Ulster.

If you put things out on Twitter, they are out in the public domain.

Journalists see these things and, if you look at what Peter Robinson

said last week about reaching out to other communities, what he saw

as the Catholic or the nationalist community, that is the theory, but

Ian puts it into practice on the ground with silly comments like

this. It sends a very negative message about what some regard as

the real face of the UUP. Does he need to apologise? He needs to

apologise and withdraw his comments. The G A A does our lot to bring

people in off the streets. He should withdraw the Commons and

recognise it for what it is. Have you been speaking to people in D G