17/04/2014 BBC Newsline

in Ukraine. That is all from the BBC News at six. It is goodbye from me

Good evening. The headlines on BBC Newsline: A woman appears in court

in Belfast charged with murdering her baby son. Sinn Fein apologises

to the Catholic Bishop of Dromore, Dr John McAreavey, after they admit

misrepresenting his position on abortion. What's the long-term

future of NHS care homes? We'll hear live from the Health Minister, Edwin

Poots. Tonight, higher arrived between a council and a leading

horse charity has left that charity ?70,000 out of pocket. Job creation

is one sign of economic recovery, so is house-building. Join me in

Lisburn to find out if construction has turned a corner. Some of

Europe's top car drivers are here for the Circuit of Ireland Rally.

I'm live at Belfast City Hall. And a cold night coming up with some frost

but it's looking pretty decent for Good Friday. First tonight, a

30-year-old woman has appeared in court in Belfast accused of

murdering her baby son. The charges are linked to an incident in the

city last month. Louise Cullen reports. The woman appeared in court

today charged with murder. She'd been arrested by detectives and

detained under the Mental Health Act following the incident in Belfast

last month in which the child was critically injured. He later died.

At short notice today, the woman was brought before Belfast Magistrates'

Court. Reporting restrictions have been imposed to protect the

defendant's identity. An order banning the press from identifying

her was granted during the short hearing today under the terms of the

Human Rights Act. The case was adjourned until next month and the

woman was remanded back into medical care. Sinn Fein has apologised

unreservedly to the Catholic Bishop of Dromore over a letter issued by

the party in West Belfast which they admit misrepresented his position on

abortion. The apology has been accepted by Bishop John McAreavey,

who says he was appalled at the claims. Joining me now is our

political correspondent, Gareth Gordon. What was a letter? This was

issued by the Sinn Fein MLA Sue Ramsey and Councillor Matt Garrett

and Bishop John McAreavey says it claimed he shared their position on

the termination of on-board human life. This, he said, was untrue and

damaging and he was appalled, adding that he could not emphasise enough

the seriousness of this action which has misused my good name and

impugned the teaching reputation of my ministry as a bishop. Strong

words. What has been the response? Sinn Fein apologised with a

statement issued in the name of West Belfast MP Paul Massey. The bishop

has thanked him and the Deputy First Minister for intervening in this

highly unusual affair. Paul Massey said that the letter seriously

misquoted and misrepresented the position of the Bishop on abortion

and he accepted the references were inaccurate and the letters should

not have gone out. Adding that he apologised unreservedly to the

Bishop for any hurt and distress caused. He assured the Bishop Budd

all references to him on the issue have been removed from all print and

electronic media. Is this damaging for Sinn Fein? The party is taking

this very seriously, what McGuinness has become involved. Damaging

maybe, highly embarrassing certainly. Thank you very much. The

Health Minister has been urged to clarify the admissions policy on NHS

care homes will be changed. It follows the announcement of a

reprieve for 18 care homes earmarked for closure. Marie Louise Connolly

reports. What a difference one year makes. Today, Jean in joint the

celebrations to me she had played a significant part in ensuring that

older people could continue living where they choose to call home. That

is the future insured for us here. And the staff. 12 months ago, the

home was catapulted into the spotlight when the Health Minister

chose it as a location to announce that older people should not be

forced to move. While Mr Putin said there had been a change in policy,

according to Jean, she has noticed. I did not realise at the time that I

was lost but as time went on, the body else came. Around 280 older

people currently living care homes across Northern Ireland. While their

future is clear, the same cannot be said for the actual building or,

indeed, our care home policy. It all appears to be in limbo. And that is

partly because none are taking the admissions. Those at the centre of

the care home campaign that earlier in Belfast. They said the Minister

needs to spell out why homes are not taking on new residents. I asked

Edwin Poots yesterday while it was not happening and he said there was

work left to do in line with that and he had given it back to the

board and the outcome would be around June. In my opinion, there is

no field of work to be done, it has left the policy. What are the

ministers intentions? In a letter to the Health Committee, Edwin Poots

says... While it seems the Minister's

preferred option is to have more care in the unity, the lack of

funding currently available might mean he will not be able to achieve

that. The Health Minister, Edwin Poots, joins me now. The homes are

staying open and yet the trusts still have a ban on new admissions.

Can't you override that? We have asked that the social care board

carried out work. They have carried out the work that has got us to this

conclusion and I think we should show them due courtesy and allow

them to continue. The families have had this hanging over them for 12

months. Surely you know whether or not you can afford to keep those

arms open? What is very important tonight and it is very clear to the

public is that those people in those residential care homes will be

there, that is their home whilst they wanted to be so and as long as

they live. That is the key thing. That has been something that has

been delivered. What about the longer term policy? We hear about

the older generation and the massive explosion in older people. What is a

long-term planning? Long-term, we must provide more support in

people's own homes and where people are no longer able to stay there, we

want to have as much shattered accommodation as possible and there

are programmes of building. That has not happened as quickly as possible

and that is one reason why we were able to take this decision. What can

friends have in the future? -- confidence. There is new building

work going on and accommodation will be provided and I would urge people

to look at those services in places like in Carrickfergus and in

Downpatrick, fantastic facilities where everybody is happy. We want to

ensure as we move forward that the older population has a series of

choices. It is not one size fits all and we want to ensure that in terms

of the homes, so we can make best use of taxpayers money. Some of that

will support us in dividing support for people as day centres and where

people can get work from his youth therapists and podiatrists and all

sorts of things to assist them. -- physiotherapists. Is this bad

planning? I was disappointed at the initial proposals to close all of

the homes and we have dealt with that and we are moving forward with

the utilisation of homes. Thank you for joining us. An arson attack on

the Dunanny Centre in Rathcoole in the early hours of this morning has

threatened to close the complex for weeks. Andy West reports. CCTV

footage shows three grainy figures setting alight the boiler room. The

fire was caught before it spread. The police are investigating. A

leading animal charity says it will have to close if a council doesn't

pay it tens of thousands of pounds it says it is owed. Crosskennan Lane

Animal Sanctuary near Antrim rescued a group of horses from a country

park run by Belfast City Council last year. But the council is now

disputing a ?70,000 bill. Conor Macauley reports. They're in good

shape now, but a year ago it was a different story. These 18 horses

were recovered from the Belfast Council-run Cavehill Country Park,

where they'd been turned out by an unidentified owner. They had become

neglected and were causing a nuisance. This horse charity agreed

to take them. They had no written contract. Rather, what they thought

was a gentleman's agreement with a council official who had asked them

to intervene. In the year since, Crosskennan ran up a ?70,000 bill

caring for the horses. The council paid around ?6000. Now the charity

has been told it's only getting a fraction of the rest. Last Friday,

the charity got a letter from the city council. It said it had begun

an internal investigation into how the horses had ended up in their

care. They said it would not bear any liability for the costs the

charity had racked up in looking after these animals. If we don't get

the money, we will have to close our doors because we cannot continue to

function. We cannot continue to work with this. The letter from the Parks

Department referred to the ?600 a week bill for housing and feeding

the horses after their removal from the park and said that early

investigations indicated the council had no contractual liability to pay

for this. It said it was willing to pay some costs that directly relate

to removing the horses from the hill and offered just over ?2,700. As a

gesture of goodwill it said it would pay reasonable costs for the

day-to-day care of the animals for a further two weeks, adding the

council shall have no liability for these horses at all after that date.

The charity says it owes the ?70,000 for vet bills, transport, food and

housing and says the debts could force it to close. We took this on

in good faith and we had a lot of other work we could have been doing.

And we have worked at this and we are still working. The horses are

still with us and we are handling and working with them but we are not

getting far as far as the financial end of it is concerned and this has

cost us considerable grief. We're not asking for anything we have not

spent on these horses and I do not know what we will do. The council

says it can't comment due to the investigation and criticised the

charity for disclosing the letter it had sent. It has now written to

Crosskennan offering a meeting to try and sort the issue out. Two

former directors of Anglo-Irish Bank have been found guilty of illegally

supporting the bank's share price months before its collapse. Pat

Whelan, the bank's former Head of Lending, and its ex-Finance Director

William McAteer had denied providing unlawful financial assistance to a

select group of clients to buy Anglo shares. But the pair were found

guilty by unanimous decision on ten counts of providing loans of 450

million euro. Yesterday, former Chairman Sean Fitzpatrick was

cleared of all charges. More than 300 jobs are being created in

Londonderry with a new call centre operated by the American company

Convergys. As Keiron Tourish reports, they've teamed up with the

digital communications company EE to open a customer service centre. All

smiles at the news of a major job used for the north-west. The

American corporation Convergys is creating 333 jobs in the next 12

months. It is in a new customer service centre. It currently

operates 150 call centres across the world. In North America, Europe and

Asia. We take us calls for clients and they can range from billing

calls for companies like EE or calls from retail companies asking about

stores to cable companies and satellite companies. Convergys will

operate the call centre for the digital communications company EE.

It was the first company to bring 4Gs to the UK in 2012. We are

originated from Orange and T-Mobile I'll and we became known as EE. And

we sell services, mobile and broadband services as well. Working

with partners, we identified that there are highly skilled people in

the north-west. It seemed a natural fit to set up your. The new

Convergys call centre will be located on the site of the former

customer service centre in the springtime industrial estate.

Convergys currently operates two other call centres in Belfast and

after the acquisition of global services. 50% of the jobs are taken

up by people coming off the unemployment register and that is a

key objective for the government to provide those opportunities. In

terms of this project, this will be a salary range between 14 and

?15,000 right up to ?30,000. Convergys says recruit and is now

underway. It is expected to be open in June. -- recruitment. So good

news on jobs in Derry and we heard yesterday that the economy as a

whole is gradually growing with some slightly better employment figures.

Over the last few weeks we've been asking if that's making any

difference to your life. We've been to Cookstown and Newry and tonight

Donna is in Lisburn. Good eating. -- good evening. Lisburn saw one of the

biggest population increases of any part of Northern Ireland during the

boom years. And, of course, that big rise in population meant a big rise

in house-building. That came to an abrupt end when the market crashed.

Consider this: In 2007, work started on more than 1300 new homes in

Lisburn. By 2012 that had plunged to less than 500. But are the building

sites now starting to pick up again and what does that tell us about the

economy as a whole. John Campbell reports. Almost one in three

construction jobs was lost during the recession. The firm building

here in Lisburn is one of the survivors. It bought this site well

before things went completely crazy. But trying to sell houses over the

last six or seven years has been tough. But now it seems to be

getting a little easier. Selling some incident Ashford was selling

homes in a declining market is difficult and we had insisted to

schemes and we assisted with people getting mortgages, which was

difficult back in 2008. But fundamentally, house prices have

been halved. And from 2011, I would say, we have seen stability and a

little bit of growth. This Lisburn builders' merchant also saw the full

force of the downturn. Their response was to adapt, refocus and

find new markets - a process which is continuing in an intensely

competitive sector. What we try to do was reassess what markets we were

targeting, we had to target new customers, we have brought in new

products and we have tried to replace some of the house building

which rails with infrastructure and commercial projects and civil

projects. That sort of thing. This is a continuous balancing act. The

construction sector will probably never again play such a big role in

our economy as it did in 2007. Its position then was linked to an

unsustainable bubble. The challenge is to turn a fragile recovery into

sustainable growth. John Campbell is with me. Along with Belinda O'Neill,

president of the Chamber of Commerce. Like many places I have

seen, there are vacant premises here. What signs of recovery have

you seen? Good evening. Frankly, we have seen great recovery in both the

commercial and residential sectors here in Lisburn. We have vacant

properties but we have good news that four different businesses have

chosen to set up in the city centre, fantastic news for the economic

growth. In the residential sector, house sales remain buoyant, mainly

due to the location of this burden and the transport links we have to

Belfast. -- the transport links. Frankly, it does remain positive in

the residential side. We are optimistic about the future with

lots of inward investment and good news stories. The Chamber of

Commerce is delighted to be part of that transformation of the city

centre and we look forward to the future here in Lisburn. Obviously a

very positive note and we have heard that from a lot of people as we have

gone around different times like Cookstown and new request might on

this road show, what is the general vibe? There is more confidence and

has been for years and there is definitely a recovery, we can see

that from people we have been talking to. That recovery is uneven,

in Cookstown, the manufacturing company there was flying but in

terms of property and retail, those are still fragile and there is more

confidence but whether or not they are earning more profit has to be

discussed. Some of the really big structural problems in the Northern

Ireland economy, particularly in the labour market, have rarely been

tackled so although the economy is recovering, those issues are still

there and secondly, there are still years of public-sector austerity

left to come. If you rely on the public sector for your salary, the

next two years will be pretty tight. Thank you both. As a recovery

develops, however slowly, Newsline will keep an eye on it. Thank you.

It's one of the oldest car races in the world and it's about to get

underway at Belfast City Hall. Stephen is there. For motor sports

fans, it means the Circuit of Ireland and the cars have been lined

up at City Hall. There is a carnival atmosphere and it starts tonight in

Belfast. Tomorrow, Newtownards and Downpatrick and then Lisburn,

Ambridge and back to the Titanic Quarter. This was first run in 1931.

But this year it is also one round of European Rally Championship

Ashgrove European Rally Championship -- European Rally Championship. 14

nations are represented. Over 120 cars will be taking part. To see

what's it's like to be a co-driver, Nial Foster took to the road.

Finishing at Belfast's Titanic Quarter, the Circuit of Ireland gets

into gear on Friday. The event will cover over 230 competitive

kilometres across County Antrim and County Down and organisers have let

me sample it on the track. We are ready to go. Get it started. Go easy

on the! And we are away! Put the foot down!

Go on! I did not give you any notes, but it is good to keep your head and

as long as you can read the notes, that is a big plus. If someone is

into adrenaline, this is the thing for them. Really good fun. And in

the car, there is a definite skill. It was very enjoyable. I'm still

standing and of the Circuit of Ireland is anything like that, it

will be some show. -- FB. -- if the. The need for speed of a different

kind earned Northern Ireland its first-ever Olympic gold medal 50

years ago. Robin Dixon, now Lord Glentoran from Country Antrim,

hurtled down an Austrian mountainside and into the record

books at the Winter Games. Half a century on, he and his partner in

the winning bobsleigh team returned to Innsbruck for the first time as a

pair since. Mark Sidebottom went with them. That looks like a good

start! February 1964, the ninth Winter Olympics, two friends in a

fibreglass shell at speeds approaching 85 macro per hour. Team

GB or on their final run and the Brickman is Robin Dixon -- Robin

Dixon. He will hurtle into history. Back then it took four days, by land

and sea and across the old mountains. This time to just four

hours by air. And a funky fiat. This is the new run. Just a few more

steps. And they were back. Back, frozen in time. I was a donkey, I

suppose! There you are! The Guardsmen! I always say oh was the

good-looking athlete on the back and he was a funny little fellow at the

front. They could not see him! You were lucky to have me! I was indeed!

Just as these mountains frame and shape the backdrop to the city of

Innsbruck which is 15 minutes' time out Valley, stepping onto that

winning podium, half a century ago, lifting that gold medal, that has

framed and shaped the life of Robin Dixon. Whenever you come to this

track you cannot help but think back to that magical day when they won

that gold medal and we have been following in their footsteps ever

since. I persuaded them to come back, I rang them up and said I

wanted you to come here. And have a little ride. And so it came to

pass, the photocall almost became one last trip down the mountain and

memory lane. But 80 rolls and 80 mph, they do not mix! But their

legend will rule on forever. -- run on. And the Circuit of Ireland is

underway! Thank you. Angie has the weather forecast.

Things are improving and is -- and it is looking promising for the

eastern weekend but it was quite disappointing today, we had a week

weather front bringing cloud and rain southwards but we now have

those writers guys moving in from the North for many it will be

brighter to end the day and evening sunshine but certainly not warm

because we still have that north-west lead breeze blowing. That

will ease during the night and we hold onto those clear spells so it

will be cold tonight, quite widely with temperatures dipping to

freezing. Quite a bit of grass frost by tomorrow morning and we could get

some are frost in rules spots. It is a cold start to Good Friday but it

will end up splendid, lots of dry weather and sunshine, sunny skies

from the word go so that will shift the frost and any fog patches

quickly. The County Down coast might be prone to an onshore breeze

tomorrow so that will make things feel fresher one part of the East

coast at inland and towards the north and west it will feel much

more pleasant. 13, 14 and even 15 degrees and with much lighter wind,

feeling pleasant and even quite warm. Tomorrow even then, it is fine

once again with sunshine and we lose that northerly breeze but it will

still be cold again. Away from the north-west, where there might be

some cloud and temperatures getting down to three degrees, low enough

for some packets of ground frost. Into Saturday, it is cold, we do it

all over again with plenty of sunshine and highs of 15 degrees.

For Sunday, eastern Sunday rings wet and windy conditions into England

and Wales, it might bring some cloud on Monday but Sunday is looking

fine. Our late summery is at 10:25pm. You can also keep in

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