10/02/2016 BBC Newsline

That's all from the BBC News at Six - so it's goodbye from me -

Assembly members debate whether to allow abortion

where an unborn baby has a fatal abnormality.

The DUP MLA Jim Wells at the centre of another controversy.

The scramble for tickets to see Northern Ireland at the Euros goes

on, I have the latest. It's back to school for the business

professionals who want to help The magical surroundings

of the Dark Hedges. How some white lines had

to do a disappearing act. Going for Gold, the confident

Northern Ireland boxes on the road to Rio.

And there's a chill in the air, with a cold night coming up,

MLAs will shortly debate a move to allow for abortion in cases

The proposal is one of a number of amendments to the Justice Bill.

Before today's debate began, the Attorney General John Larkin

questioned whether the changes would be compatible with international

The DUP, who oppose the change, have proposed a working group

In a moment, we will hear the latest from Stormont,

but first, here is our Political Correspondent,

It remains one of the most controversial issues in Northern

Ireland, even before proceedings got under way today, a move to allow for

abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality is was questioned by the

Attorney General John Larkin. In a letter to Jim Allister, he

questioned whether the change was compatible with international human

rights law. But those in favour of human rights dismissed the concerns.

We think it is a good amendment and we cannot see a regal floor. I am

not an Attorney General. The move came after the DUP made it clear

they would oppose the change. Instead, they want a working group

to consider the issue of fatal foetal abnormality, a move that has

been welcomed by a senior doctor. The more liaison we have as

obstetricians and gynaecologists and midwives with the political parties,

the better, quite frankly. And if we can help clarify matters and bring

our point of view as those who are involved in day-to-day practice, so

be it. Like the DUP, the SDLP think the Justice Bill is the wrong place

for changes in abortion law. The SDLP is a pro-life party. These

amendments have been stuck onto a Justice Bill that never had the

intention of dealing with such an emotive and controversial issue as

abortion. Unlike the SDLP Commission fain say they support change. We

believe were mentioned have the option to decide if they choose to

go ahead with the pregnancy in relation to that. This is about

women making that decision. We also believe women should have the option

to terminate where they have been victims of sexual crime.

Whilst other parties have made a collective decision, Allstate

unionist MLAs have been allowed a free vote. That is a conscious

matter and MLAs will vote as their consciences dictate and I do not

know how that is because it is not appropriate as leader to ask in case

they felt I was influencing them. They know from my public statements

I would support a change in the law. Today's arguments were well

rehearsed and those in opposing camps have strong convictions. There

is no political consensus and this will not be the last time Stormont

considers controversial topic of abortion.

Our political editor joins us from Stormont. Any sign of the debate

getting under way? Not yet. As was made clear in the package, this is a

wider Justice Bill dealing with other issues like revenge

pornography and domestic violence. MLAs have been talking about those.

They are having a short break and we expect within the next 30 minutes to

begin the debate on the abortion amendments. Do you think the

proposal by the DUP for this working group will take the heat out of the

issue? That is the hope of Arlene Foster and Simon Hamilton and it

does by time as they have set aside six months, which takes them to the

other side of the election, to report back on that controversial

issue of fatal foetal abnormality. The proponents of these changes say

this is a stalling tactic so while the SDLP and DUP persuaded of the

benefits of this group, I do not make the opponents will be

persuaded. It is not the only debate today. The other story circulating

here is the fallout from controversial comments made in an

Assembly committee by the DUP's MLA Jim Wells. It happened last week at

a session of the Public Accounts Committee, the microphones picked up

whispered comment from Jim Wells of the DUP saying he was scared out of

his wits when a female civil servant who reminded him of Arlene Foster

entered the room. Then this comment about women. He described it as a

self-deprecating joke. The Ulster Unionist Ross Hussey agreed, saying

a mountain was made out of a mole hill. But on social media, many

criticised Jim Wells, it including a member of Sinn Fein who described

his comments as disgusting and showing contempt for women. Late

last night, the Newry MLA on the left of the picture lead the

Assembly chamber when on the opposite side, Jim Wells rose from

his seat quickly and appeared to confront her at the door before she

left. Her party colleague saw what was happening and moved to

intervene. Jim Wells said he warned her that her comments were the

family tree. Tonight, Sinn Fein have released a

statement, they say they have made a formal complaint to the Assembly

Standards Commissioner, the complaint was made by the Chief Whip

who you saw an Sinn Fein said it was made on grounds of equality, respect

and good working relationships between MLAs.

Still to come on the programme. The closure of a Green energy scheme, it

is claimed jobs and work with millions could be lost.

Don't panic - that was the message to Northern Ireland fans today,

as the scramble for tickets for the Euros continued today.

Hundreds of loyal supporters missed out on tickets yesterday,

but today, the Irish Football Association insisted the fans should

Many fans were so confident of getting tickets for friends, they

had already booked flights, higher cars and hotels. Only to find that

yesterday they did not get any match tickets. Brands like Rory Mackay, a

regular at Windsor Park for more than 40 years. Disappointed, gutted,

annoyed. Four members of his family applied for tickets, and the two got

them. They are all still going to France together. I am going because

the flights have been paid for, the accommodation, the cars. The other

thing is my son put me down as a driver of one of the cars! So I have

to go! Of course, there were winners as well as losers. I spoke to one

man who was embarrassed at getting so many tickets. He only went to one

of the qualification games at Windsor Park but applied for and got

tickets for all three of the group games in France. He got two tickets

for each match. This is a copy of the e-mail he got yesterday from

Uefa. As well as two tickets for the group matches, he has been

guaranteed tickets or any match as Northern Ireland might play in the

knockout stages. But it has, at a price, more than 1500 euros upfront,

around ?1200. It appears how much money runs have spent has been

imported. Not just the number of matches they have been to recently.

The IFA said the most loyal fans should get tickets soon. In an extra

allocation made available by Uefa. We are in limbo. I would ask them to

have a small amount of patience will stop we will try and check the data

and make sure we get the right names into the system. And we will get

Uefa to contact them in the near future so they get access to the new

ticket portal. That should happen before the end of this month. As for

Republic of Ireland bans, their long awaited ticket news should happen on

Friday. -- bands. A coroner's court has been told that

an IRA informant may have tipped off police in advance of the 1974

Birmingham pub bombings. 21 people were killed when two bombs

exploded at two pubs The Coroner is deciding if inquests

should be held. The police are against resuming

the inquests, but victims relatives and one of those wrongly convicted

of the bombings want I want the truth as well. We never

get justice, but the one thing we can get is that think we deserve the

most and that is the truth. We have had 41 years of nothing but lies,

lies, lies! Gardai say they are making progress

in their investigations into the recent

suspected gang murders. They have identified some of those

who carried out Friday's murder at the boxing weigh-in,

and they believe those who murdered a taxi driver on Monday night may

have left DNA evidence in the get-away car

they failed to set on fire. Our Dublin correspondent,

Shane Harrison, now looks at some of the individuals

associated with the feud. Crumlin, in Dublin's

south inner city - and one long associated

with drugs and crime. The vast majority of people

here are honest law-biding citizens, It's perhaps an unlikely starting

point for a global drug empire worth Christy Kinahan, also

known as Dapper Don, is now based in Marbella

in Spain and is said to have And it was a shooting in Spain last

September that prompted this outbreak of gang violence

and exposed deep divisions. This man, Gary Hutch,

was a member of the Kinahan gang, but it's believed they killed him,

suspecting him to be Gary Hutch was, however,

also a nephew of this man, Known as 'the Monk',

he was a notorious criminal in the '80s and '90s who now says

he has retired from crime. The killing last Friday

at the boxing weigh-in in Dublin was believed to be a direct

retaliation for the Hutch killing. David Byrne, a close

lieutenant of Christy Kinahan, was murdered and two

others were wounded. Within four days, the cycle of

retaliation claimed another victim. And this is Eddie Hutch Sr,

another uncle of Gary. Few believe he was a gang member,

the widespread suspicion being that he was killed simply

because of his surname. This afternoon, flowers

from David Byrne's family outside the Regency Hotel

where he was murdered. A Belfast-born crime correspondent

says the amount of money one gang Heat is what a senior official told

me was the Manchester United of drug dealing. He does not refer just

Ireland, he has links with Colombian cartels. He is that big he can pick

up the phone and talk to somebody in Colombia. He hasn't a fortune with

tens, if not hundreds of millions of euros. He is massive. -- he has a

fortune. With such a financial

killing to be made, this

week's murders are With armed gardai on the street,

the suspicion there will be more fatalities in what is

increasingly becoming personal. Until the recent spate of violence,

the number of gangland killings had been

falling in recent years. It's widely believed

Christy Kinahan had ordered an end to all the feuds because it was

hampering the making So, the question now is: why

the current violence? And is a younger, more reckless,

generation taking over With two funerals still the take

place, part of this city living in fear and dreading the next week's.

Back to the classroom, helping children learn to read.

Renewables companies say millions of pounds' worth of work will be

lost and jobs are at risk if a green energy scheme is scrapped.

The Enterprise Minister, Jonathan Bell, has announced his

intention to close the renewable heat incentive scheme,

possibly next week, after a huge overspend.

Our Agriculture and Environment Correspondent,

There's a big squeeze on to get this job done in days.

If the renewable heat scheme is closed before it's finished,

it won't qualify for government subsidies and the installation

company could be left to shoulder a ?100,000 loss.

The job is being done by a Bellaghy-based company run

by Francis Glackin, he's had to shelve 25 installations

The work was 28 could be halved. They are working away 24 hours a day

to get these installations up and going and finished for this on

Tuesday. Working 24 hours a day in now and by next Wednesday, if the

Minister has his way, they will be out of work. I have spoken to a

number of companies and the stories are the same. Millions of pounds of

orders at risk and jobs under threat. They are not happy with the

way this has been handled. People were encouraged to switch

to green energy like wood pellets. To cover expensive installation

costs, there was a generous subsidy and no cap - the more heat

you generated, the more you earned. Plans to change the payment model

last Autumn led to a huge spike in applications as firms tried to

get in on the more generous scheme. Oversubscribed, the money ran out,

leaving Stormont to find ?30m next My department faces a huge budgetary

pressure, given the decision of the Chancellor of the extract to limit

the amount of money paid to the Northern Ireland out of the UK part

But it's the speed of the closure that has left firms reeling.

You have people building houses or renovating their houses and putting

these renewable heating systems into homes who have already committed to

the bank and gone to the bank on the strength of the renewable heat

incentive and they potentially will be left high and dry and in debt.

The scheme can't close without Assembly approval.

Chain Reaction Cycles, the online retailer based

in Ballyclare, could be about to be taken over by a rival firm.

According to a trade magazine, the County Antrim firm,

which employs over 500 people, is on the verge of being acquired

by Wiggle, who are owned by a venture capital group.

A spokesman for Chain Reaction, which has a turnover in excess

of ?150 million, said the takeover is "speculation at this stage."

Twenty per cent of children are still struggling with reading

by the time they leave primary school.

But a scheme provided from an unusual source is helping

Accountants, managers and other business professionals are giving

up their time for an hour a week to go into schools to

I went to one East Belfast primary school to see how it works.

There is a lot to cover in primary school day. Sadly, thousands of

children are falling through the net with reading. Grove primary in East

Belfast is a monks schools benefiting from people like

Christine. -- amongst. President John F.

Kennedy had the good looks of a film star. She is a trainee accountant

who visits the school once a week every week to read with the

children. You see the literacy schools improving. A shy child in

week one by the end of the summer can be so chatty. It is not just

their literacy skills and proven, it is their confidence. And the results

speak for themselves. From a hard evidence point of view, we noticed

this year they have been involved in this programme for three months and

in that three months, we are noticing increases of six months and

one year and two months in reading so it is a fantastic programme for

raising achievement. A lot of emphasis is placed on reading here

and children have a wide range of tastes. But one author tops the

poll. My favourite is Roald Dahl. All his books, you get stuck into

them and you read them and they are really fun to read. RDahl come he is

really created and his pictures of Bunny. Horrible Histories. -- Roald

Dahl, he is really created and his pictures funny.

The cost is covered by the individual as this. Those who

organised this says it helps to educate the workforce of the future.

We would encourage more businesses to get involved and look at the

benefits of the programme long-term. Not just now for that people, what

is a long-term ambition, where do they see themselves and what can

business do to help? The children also get to visit the workplaces of

their volunteers. It is hoped that will widen their horizons and get

them to think the world of work sooner rather than later.

Aim road was closed after a lorry overturned this morning. There were

reports of black eyes when it happened and it led to some traffic

delays as people made their way to work and the school. -- ice.

Now, it's become one of the iconic images of Northern Ireland -

immortalised on the television series Game of Thrones -

but for the last few days, the road through the dark hedges has

The reason - bright white lines have been painted for the first time.

Some described the action by Road Service as 'sacrilege' and,

David Maxwell reports from North Antrim.

It's the sort of location you'd find in a work of fiction.

And some thought they really were dreaming when these white lines

200 metres of them under the 200 year old beech trees.

It was a mistake - but some who love this place say it

This road seems to be treated like any other road in the country and it

is not, it is underneath one of the world's top tree tunnels. The visual

impact of the place should be considered and the damage to the

trees from vehicles on the road. And footfall on the Avenue.

Well, the dark hedges are surrounded by mystery and they have become one

of the iconic images of Northern Ireland,

mysteriousness is being created by work going on to remove these

It took just a few hours to remedy with burning torches.

Not the sort you'd see in the Game of Thrones TV series,

which was filmed here, making this place famous worldwide.

It is such an attraction that they probably thought it would be safer

to have the lines but they are really not necessary. With this sort

of thing happen in the US? You guys are good at tourism? It would be

more restricted. They would probably have gates and everybody would have

to be guided through it. A bit more restricted, probably.

The dark hedges have had it rough recently -

some of the trees were blown over in a storm and now uproar

Trees like this are so iconic and part of our heritage and we need to

look at ways to preserve and conserve them for future

generations. We need to look at whether we manage traffic in a

different way. Might it be we need to close the road completely,

letting the local farmers have access?

By afternoon, the bright white lines had gone from the dark hedges.

They were instead once again only highlighted by the mid-winter sun.

From a road in North Antrim to the road to Rio now.

It's a big year for some of our athletes, as all roads lead

Boxing is Ireland's most successful Olympic sport,

and for the last ten days, the Irish team has been holding

Three fighters from Northern Ireland, two from Belfast,

and one from Ballymena have already qualified for the Games this summer,

and hopes are high that more will follow.

These are the three local boxes who will go for Gold in Rio. Paddy

Barnes and Michael Conlan won Bronze at the last games in London and

Steven Donnelly cannot wait to make his Olympic debut. It was a tough

journey to qualify. I was away every couple of weeks, different

countries. America, Argentina, Italy, polling. To win five out of

six is a great changement and to qualify for the Olympics, after

thinking I had no chance, the way it worked out is fantastic. And to say

this Belfast pair are confident of delivering knockout performances is

an understatement. We trained hard and we believe nobody can beat us

but I was sold. Because of that. We are thinking about a conversation

between both of us, the best of us. I know we will both role -- get Gold

medals, the work we have put in, there is no reason we will not do

it. We are aiming to pick up the trophy and be the first Irish ever,

it is between me and him. Among the rest of the team analysing, training

and working hard, two more fighters who will try and qualify in Turkey

in April. We have the best in Europe and it is the top two who finish for

the spot for real. I believe in my own litany and I believe if I

perform on the day, I cannot we stopped -- ability. I believe this

is my year to go to Rio. I will get another shot to qualify so hopefully

I will do it. The dream is still very much alive? It is still on. And

the coaches believe in need more than I do will stop it is brilliant,

it is driving me on. So by the time of the summer, Northern Ireland

could have an Olympic famous fighting five.

We hope for a lot of medals at the Olympic Games.

In Colleges Athletics, James Edgar is officially the top

school-boy cross country runner in Ulster.

The student, from Friends School in Lisburn, was one of the pre-race

favourites in a strong field at Mallusk this afternoon.

Edgar, the current Irish Schools and 3,000-metre champion,

took the tape just ahead of Bangor Grammar's Craig McMeechan.

Under the shadow of the Belfast shipyard, the sport of hurling came

to Belfast's Titanic Quarter this afternoon, where

Antrim's Liam Watson and Lee Chin, of Wexford, helped launch

Have you ever played it here before? No, I have never played hurling here

before, this is a first. What is it like to be part of it. Always nice

to be a part. And the Titanic was built here. It is good to be here. A

man from Wexford, have used at here before in the shadow of this

history? I have not and it is great. The history of the Titanic. It is a

pleasure to be here. Finally, Jordanstown needs local

rivals Saint Mary is 14-6, a good start for the tournament hosts.

Thank you, time for the weather and Game of Thrones looking nice today.

-- the Dark Hedges. It felt chilly in the shade and

showers in places. Mainly across parts of the North and West. Towards

the South East, not many of those. Across the South East, a lot of

lovely sunshine and Fairweather Cloud. And further down into the

valleys, a host of snowdrops, enjoying the wintry sunshine at

lower levels. Showers today have since faded away, leaving a dry

evening with clear spells and falling temperatures. Through the

night, we hold onto those clear spells, especially inland and

towards the East. Temperatures close to freezing and a bit of frost and

mist and fog. We also have the problem of increasing cloud towards

the North and West which could threaten showers which could turn

wintry on the hills. And when they fall on the ground, we could get icy

patches. Mainly dry, that is the theme for tomorrow. Still some

bright spells although more cloud around than today and we have a

chilly start and we could be scraping the windscreen in the

morning. And with fog, slow to clear, visibility issues. There will

be a fair amount of cloud into the afternoon at at times, with wintry

showers towards the North and West. Many places try and hopefully bright

intervals. Quite chilly at five, 6 degrees. We do it again tomorrow

night. It is going to be cold, temperatures dropping. Widespread

frost, mist and fog patches and icy patches where you have showers. In

the Friday, after a cold start, a chilly but mainly dry day. The

breeze is picking up so it feels colder, ahead of a weather front for

the weekend. I do not know how far North it is, maybe rain on Saturday.

Plenty of ice bars so a bitter wind through the weekend.

Apologies for the beginning of the weather, that little glitch!

A reminder of the main news. Assembly members to debate this

evening weather to allow abortion were an unborn baby has a fatal

abnormality. The proposal is a number of amendments to the Justice

Bill. The Attorney General John Larkin questioned weather such a

change would be compatible with international human rights law. And

the DUP who oppose it have proposed a working group to examine the

a working group to examine the issue.

Our late summary is at half past ten.

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