Browse content similar to 04/01/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight's top stories: The renewable heating scandal burns on - | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
the DUP plans emergency legislation to stop a half-billion-pound | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
as Sinn Fein continues to call for her to stand aside. | :00:19. | :00:33. | |
Do I really think that I am going to step aside at the behest of Sinn | :00:34. | :00:41. | |
Fein? No, I am not. I am here because the electorate put me into | :00:42. | :00:42. | |
this position. Also tonight: Under pressure - | :00:43. | :00:44. | |
a plea for people to stay away It's not a happy new year | :00:45. | :00:51. | |
at the petrol pumps as prices look Injury problems for Ulster rugby | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
as star player Ruan Pienaar is set to miss ths months crucial Pro12 | :00:56. | :01:03. | |
and European games. Prepare yourself for a chilly night. | :01:04. | :01:16. | |
But on the upside, it decent day tomorrow. I will have the details | :01:17. | :01:18. | |
later in the programme. On a day when Arlene Foster | :01:19. | :01:31. | |
described calls for her to step down as misogynistic, both the DUP and | :01:32. | :01:32. | |
Sinn Fein discussing what they | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
want to happen next. The DUP are calling for the Assembly | :01:38. | :01:39. | |
to be recalled next week, to discuss emergency legislation | :01:40. | :01:41. | |
to try to claw back Sinn Fein say they still want | :01:42. | :01:43. | |
Arlene Foster to step aside while any inquiry into the failings | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
around the scheme gets underway. from our agriculture and environment | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
correspondent Conor Macauley, and from our political correspondent | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
Gareth Gordon at Stormont. , has been speaking to some from a | :01:56. | :02:05. | |
new group who represent the Keating -- who use the heating systems. | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
First, our business correspondent Julian O'Neill is here. | :02:09. | :02:11. | |
We have been waiting to hear about this plan is to save millions. Flesh | :02:12. | :02:18. | |
out details. Well, as the pressure on Arlene | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
Foster has intensified, we appear to have gone from a situation we were | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
talking about having the RHI overspend, to eliminate it | :02:26. | :02:27. | |
altogether. Let's remind ourselves of how the figures that up. This is | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
a 20 year scheme, which at the moment is projected to cost ?1.2 | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
billion. Now, more than half of that, about 600 will be coming | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
directly from the Treasury. So not out of the Northern Ireland budget, | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
funded directly from London. Here is where the problem lies, a projected | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
overspend of ?490 million, and it is that which the DUP now intends to | :02:55. | :03:01. | |
eliminate altogether. There plan is this, to introduce emergency | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
legislation which would redraw the highly lucrative tariff rates | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
currently being received by about 1800 RHI beneficiaries. Now, this is | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
in the early stages. It still needs Sinn Fein's endorsement, is my | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
understanding, but the economy minister, Simon Hamilton, believes | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
the plan offers the real prospect of correcting a huge financial mess. | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
We have come up with an idea. It is an option that is being seriously | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
considered. I wanted to develop that further, take some more advice on | :03:36. | :03:40. | |
it, put that to the Executive for approval and the coming days and | :03:41. | :03:42. | |
perhaps in the next week bring it back to the Assembly for approval | :03:43. | :03:45. | |
and get this measure moving forward which will just the cost potentially | :03:46. | :03:55. | |
down to zero. Have they done this past Sinn Fein question mark was | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
Maggie May have, or maybe about to, what is not clear is whether Sinn | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
Fein will sign up up to this puzzle. Simon Hamilton will take it to the | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
Finance Minister and if he gets his approval, it will be endorsed under | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
emergency procedures by the Executive, raising the possibility | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
of the recall of the Assembly as early as next week in order to vote | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
on this proposed legislation. Now, legal opinion has been sought within | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
the Department for the economy. They feel that they can do this, but the | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
equally acknowledge sources I am talking to, that is could very well, | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
if it passes, be subject to legal challenge. | :04:36. | :04:43. | |
OK, we will leave it there. Conor, you have been speaking to | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
people who may have taken those challenges, what have they been | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
saying? I am told a discussion today lasted | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
about two and hours and between the feature of organisations in the room | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
represented a very significant number of installations. They are | :04:58. | :04:59. | |
only interested in presenting those who have been using the scheme | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
legitimately and there are two essential outcomes. They are opposed | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
to the publication of the names of the participants, from being | :05:08. | :05:09. | |
proposed by the Department of the economy, because they do not like | :05:10. | :05:12. | |
some of the publicity that those companies have already been shown to | :05:13. | :05:19. | |
have, these boilers, have received. But more significantly is this line | :05:20. | :05:21. | |
that they are prepared to take legal advice in relation to any proposed | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
changes to their contracts. As Julian has just been sent, these 20 | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
year contract, lucrative schemes, Arlene Foster wrote a letter to the | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
banks, you will remember, think that the tariffs were grandfathered and | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
could not be changed by any future review, so that area is going to | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
form the central bases of any legal challenge if indeed they do come. | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
And the total Ulster farmers union has some advice for some of its | :05:45. | :05:46. | |
members involved? That is right, lots of farmers are | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
involved, particularly poultry farmers. The union says those using | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
the scheme legitimately should not be scapegoated or penalised for | :05:55. | :06:01. | |
failures of the schemes. The names should not be allowed to be | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
published on to the authorities have done and audits so that the farmers | :06:05. | :06:06. | |
can then save they were entirely within the parameters of the scheme. | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
With the chief Executive of the union, he says his view is that this | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
is not about transparency but an effort to shift the focus from those | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
who failed to safeguard the taxpayer money. He says what cannot happen | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
here is that changing the scheme, as Julian has described, it cannot just | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
be about shovelling stuff under the carpet to avoid embarrassment for | :06:32. | :06:31. | |
people. The First Minister Arlene Foster has | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
again rejected calls for her to step aside over | :06:36. | :06:37. | |
the renewable heating scandal. In an interview with Sky News, | :06:38. | :06:39. | |
she claimed her political rivals were trying to remove | :06:40. | :06:48. | |
a strong unionist leader. And that they were trying to remove | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
a woman. But the claim has been heavily | :06:53. | :06:54. | |
criticised by political opponents. This afternoon she and her | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
deputy leader met senior Sinn Fein figures including | :06:58. | :06:59. | |
the Deputy First Minister Here's our political | :07:00. | :07:01. | |
correspondent Gareth Gordon. It is more than a fortnight since we | :07:02. | :07:08. | |
saw Arlene Foster in public. Since then, calls for her to step aside | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
have become louder and louder. Today, she said much of that was | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
down to the fact she is a woman. Oh, I think there is a lot but personal, | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
sadly misogynistic as well, because I am a female, the first female | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
leader of Northern Ireland, so I firmly believe that is the case as | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
well. But, you know, so be it. I have come through a lot worse than | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
venomous attacks from my political opponents and I intend to continue | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
to lead. All of the other parties in the Assembly have called for her to | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
go, but she singled out the Executive partners, Sinn Fein. It is | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
no secret that during my childhood the IRA tried to murder my father, | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
it is no secret that in the past the IRA put a bomb on my school bus. So, | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
do I really think that I am going to set the state -- step aside at the | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
behest of Sinn Fein? No, I am not. I am here because the electorate that | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
me into this position. I take the responsibility very, very seriously | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
and I intend to see it through. Why would I stand aside? I have done | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
nothing wrong. There has not even been an investigation into this | :08:17. | :08:18. | |
matter. The Public Accounts Committee have not finished their | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
investigation, I want an inquiry take place so that we can deal with | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
all of the transparency issues. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein on a party | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
political mission to get me to step aside, to weaken Unionism, which I | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
will never allow to happen. So, what did her critics make of that? The | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
SDLP's response to this financial fiasco would be exactly the same | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
regardless of whether it was a woman or a man involved. It is about | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
getting to the truth, establishing the facts, establishing who is | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
responsible and holding them accountable. Gender or Unionist | :08:53. | :08:55. | |
persuasion comes nowhere near into it. There is misogyny in politics, | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
there is sexism in politics. They are very serious issues that many of | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
us base but when you actually use that had to try to escape and evade | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
your F1 responsibilities, I think that he demeaned the struggle that | :09:10. | :09:12. | |
other women have a nontraditional sectors who are facing these | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
challenges the in, day out. The buck stops with Arlene Foster. It is | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
because she has nowhere to hide that she is now trying to drop off the | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
stuff about gender and nonsense. It would suit suit a better if she came | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
forward with a bit of humility and contrition. Late this afternoon, a | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
development. Both myself and Martin McGuinness met with Arlene Foster | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
and Nigel Dodds today. We restated the Sinn Fein position in relation | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
to what needs to happen. We made very clear that Arlene Foster needs | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
to step aside to allow for that school, independent investigation to | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
happen. That investigation needs to be robust, it needs to be | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
transparent and we need to get all of the answers into the public area. | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
Anything could still happen, but a day which began with the parties | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
shouting across the airwaves and ended with them meeting across a | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
table. No signs to note of any breakthrough, but if the sun is | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
sitting on Stormont, it may yet do so slowly. | :10:11. | :10:12. | |
And Gareth Gordon joins us now from Stormont. | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
Any developments? I suppose the fact that the | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
participants begin face-to-face on Saturday will be taken as a sign by | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
some at one of Stormont was 's famous last-minute deals is being | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
hatched. But tonight, where are we are being heavily steered away from | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
that notion. We are being told that nothing has changed. Sinn Fein say | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
her private possession is that theme of the public position, but the | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
bottom line remains Arlene Foster must set aside to allow any | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
investigation to take place. And of course, Arlene Foster, you heard it | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
there, then in the strongest possible terms that she has no | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
intention whatsoever of stepping aside, at Sinn Fein or anybody else | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
for that matter's behest. The danger is that the longer this runs the | :10:59. | :11:00. | |
sides could talk themselves into positions from which there is now | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
recruiting. One Stormont insider told me that if there is a way out | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
of this, he cannot see it. Gareth, no sign of any terms of | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
reference being agreed for any investigation? | :11:14. | :11:15. | |
Arlene Foster said today that the head of the civil service had worked | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
up terms of reference for an investigation in conjunction with | :11:22. | :11:23. | |
the Attorney General and that those terms had been passed to Sinn Fein, | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
but as yet there had been no reply from that party. Conor Murphy at | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
Sinn Fein then said that the terms were insufficient in Sinn Fein's | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
opinion, and this evening we are told that they have worked up their | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
own terms of reference and have sent them back to the DUP on the head of | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
the self-service and in time they were publish those terms of | :11:44. | :11:45. | |
reference. Whether or not agreement can be reached on this issue, again, | :11:46. | :11:50. | |
we just do not know. Martin McGuinness also met the | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
Secretary of State today? Yes, it is interesting, Martin | :11:55. | :11:57. | |
McGuinness has been at Stormont all day. He has a well-publicised health | :11:58. | :12:00. | |
problems which is get away. He did not appear in front of the cameras | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
today. He was on the way home when Michele O'Neil spoke to the earlier | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
but he did meet James Brokenshire, among others, at Stormont House down | :12:08. | :12:14. | |
the hill. He says that among other issues, he talked to James | :12:15. | :12:17. | |
Brokenshire about legacy but also briefed on the current situation | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
over the cheating scandal and he said that once again public | :12:24. | :12:26. | |
confidence in the institutions was badly damaged. -- over the cheating | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
scandal. He repeated once again that Arlene Foster must set aside before | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
any investigation can take place. -- must step aside. | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
only to attend their hospital Emergency Department | :12:38. | :12:39. | |
As we reported last night, some people are experiencing | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
The Health and Social Care board say people should | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
consider attending their out of hours GP instead. | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
Meanwhile the Health Minister has told the BBC that she intends | :12:55. | :12:56. | |
to visit a hospital to see the situation for herself. | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
Our Health Correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly reports. | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
Understaffed and overstretched, it has been a tough time for many of | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
those working on the front line of the health service. This Christmas | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
saw a spike in the number of Norovirus cases right across | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
Northern Ireland. This place additional pressure on hospitals, | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
with many wards having to close, creating a shortage of hospital beds | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
right across the system. Whilst all emergency departments are feeling | :13:28. | :13:29. | |
the strain, some are feeling at more than others. Too many patients and | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
ward closures caused a major incident to be declared at one | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
hospital on Monday. A member of staff told the BBC that it was | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
horrendous. She said experienced nurses are leaving while many others | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
are talking about going. She told me that stars are at breaking point, | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
and that management do not care about patient safety or staff | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
well-being. A spokesperson for the Western Health Trust said the | :13:56. | :13:58. | |
emergency plan was enacted following a particularly busy and challenging | :13:59. | :14:02. | |
day, but was quickly stood down. Those in charge of managing the | :14:03. | :14:05. | |
health service accept it is not good enough. I am very mindful of how | :14:06. | :14:13. | |
distressing it is, how uncomfortable it is. It is not the servers I want | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
for my family or the servers I think anybody should expect. But I would | :14:18. | :14:19. | |
reassure people that are Health and Social Care Act professionals right | :14:20. | :14:22. | |
across the system are working exceptionally hard. Their focus is | :14:23. | :14:25. | |
on maintaining Safeco, providing dignity and good care to patients. | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
The Health Minister intends to visit a hospital in the next 24 hours to | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
see the situation for herself. I think that there has been major | :14:35. | :14:37. | |
improvement in terms of some of the initiatives they have been able to | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
take the Mike Burton plays but as the current picture good enough? No. | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
Is it acceptable to wait over 12 hours? Absolutely not. Paul Beales | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
trusts prepared for the winter pressures, at no point did they | :14:50. | :14:52. | |
expect the 9% rise in the number of people seeking emergency help. At | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
one hospital, that figure was 14% more than this time last year. But | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
that arise in the default is not being matched by more nursing. | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
Certainly, we know the figures would sure there are still around 1000 | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
vacancies within the hospital trust. Additional to that, we have nursing | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
home vacancies in the independent sector of 500 or 600. There are | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
significant vacancies within the nursing workforce. Such a surge | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
meant more than 400 people had to wait at least 12 hours at emergency | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
departments over the Christmas week. While health unions accept that | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
winter pressures are unavoidable, they say building up the local | :15:34. | :15:40. | |
workforce both in hospital and in the community must become a | :15:41. | :15:41. | |
priority. Meanwhile, more than 5000 people | :15:42. | :15:48. | |
could be a without a servers in Portadown. A medical practice is at | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
risk of closure in just two weeks because its last remaining doctor | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
has resigned. Other surgeries in the town have said they cannot take on | :15:57. | :15:58. | |
any new patients. The footfall never stops at | :15:59. | :16:05. | |
Portadown health centre, but for more than 5000 patients, any journey | :16:06. | :16:09. | |
here may soon proved to be a step in the wrong direction. There are seven | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
GP surgeries here, one, bad view, had seen three of its four doctors | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
already leave. They have not been replaced. The last doctor tried to | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
struggle on on alone but the ratio of 5000 patients to one doctor, more | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
than twice what is agreed as a safe figure, not surprisingly proved too | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
much to there. She resigned. Faced with the prospect of having more GP, | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
some of the surgery's patients have planned a demonstration for Friday. | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
The thing is, the doctors here in this practice warned of this two | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
years ago. They had a notice on the screen in the waiting room saying | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
the GP services in crisis. That was two years ago. Now, if they were | :16:51. | :16:53. | |
telling the patients, you can sure they were telling the board, and the | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
board seem to have sat on their hands and waited until something | :16:58. | :17:00. | |
happened before they acted. It was too little too late now. | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
This afternoon, the Health and Social Care Act board issued a | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
statement assuring people but the surgery will not close, at least not | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
in the next two weeks. However the DMA, which are present doctors, | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
believes this is a sticking plaster and that what is actually needed if | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
GP care is to survive is major surgery. They have not trained | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
enough GPs in Northern Ireland over the last ten years, and now we have | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
come to the point that unfortunately some morning were going to wake up | :17:31. | :17:33. | |
and the surgery will be closed and there is no GP to manage. That is | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
not about to happen in Portadown, but it is only the tip of the | :17:39. | :17:41. | |
iceberg and this is where we are going across Northern Ireland. We | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
feel very strongly that the Minister and old Stormont need to waken up to | :17:46. | :17:48. | |
what is happening and we need to get something done right now. The fear | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
remains among the patients and the demonstration will go ahead. | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
Extra funding for marching bands while money for an Irish language | :17:58. | :18:00. | |
scheme is cut has been described as a 'disgrace' by the SDLP | :18:01. | :18:03. | |
The comments follow confirmation that a government scheme to fund | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
musical instruments for bands cost ?98,000 - more than was | :18:10. | :18:11. | |
Our arts correspondent Robbie Meredith reports. | :18:12. | :18:23. | |
Marching bands are familiar sight, and sound. But they are not cheap to | :18:24. | :18:31. | |
run. Silver band, for example, an instrument might cost up to ?3000 | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
per instrument. Last year, the communities minister resurrected a | :18:38. | :18:39. | |
scheme to help them out. Getting bands grants of up to ?5,000 to get | :18:40. | :18:47. | |
new instruments or replace old ones. But the scheme cost more than | :18:48. | :18:50. | |
planned. The initial budget set aside was ?200,000, but the final | :18:51. | :18:58. | |
cost to give grants to 68 bands was 200. In a statement, -- 200. In a | :18:59. | :19:07. | |
statement, they said... The minister was not available for interview, but | :19:08. | :19:11. | |
this story says the money will not helped bands from all backgrounds. | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
The cost of instruments and the amount of money that requires to | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
keep a band on the road, I think, has to be balanced. There is a | :19:22. | :19:24. | |
social capital issue here as well. These bands are providing few Ms -- | :19:25. | :19:29. | |
free musical tuition for young people particularly, and it is not | :19:30. | :19:32. | |
just bands from one community. They are probably largely from one | :19:33. | :19:36. | |
community but there are bands across the board. But the chair of | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
Stormont's communities come wants to know why an Irish language bursary | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
scheme was cut but more money was found for bands. They have taken | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
?50,000 of children who want to go and learn their native language and | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
all of a sudden he finds ?100,000 for Orange bands. I think it is a | :19:54. | :19:56. | |
disgrace, I think it is wrong and I think he has a lot of work to do to | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
show the community that he is a minister for all others, not just | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
just one community. All given merely restored a scheme which has been | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
suspended by his predecessor, but at a time when Stormont's finances are | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
under intense scrutiny, even decisions about relatively small | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
amounts of money can be highly contentious. -- the Minister merely | :20:19. | :20:19. | |
restored. The cost of petrol at the pumps has | :20:20. | :20:22. | |
hit a two year high - according to figures compiled | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
by the Office of Our reporter Will Leitch | :20:26. | :20:27. | |
is at a service station Not a happy for for motorists? | :20:28. | :20:41. | |
Indeed now. The last time unleaded petrol cost as much at forecourts | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
just like this one was December 20 14. The Office of National | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
Statistics crunches the numbers on a weekly basis and calculates the UK- | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
wide average price. Based on data it gets from the supermarket and oil | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
companies, and this is a UK has acquired average price. But during | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
December, petrol rose by about ?3. In the first week of January, one | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
litre of unleaded was an average of ?1. Diesel stands at ?1. The last | :21:09. | :21:15. | |
time it cost that much was in the summer of 2015. -- ?1.20. It is not | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
just petrol prices. Almost three quarters of household use hall | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
meeting hour and a 900 leader Phil was around 300 in December. That is | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
about 100 more expensive than this time last year. | :21:32. | :21:38. | |
And all to do with the rising cost of oil? | :21:39. | :21:40. | |
Yes, it is about global conditions. Oil trades in dollars, so we had the | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
rising price of wholesale crude oil, combined with the weaker pound | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
against the dollar. You have to factor in something else, a decision | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
by Opec, the big oil producing countries, who decided to cut supply | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
for the first time in eight years, resulting in an increase in the cost | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
of a barrel of crude. Worth remembering, however, fuel prices at | :22:01. | :22:12. | |
the pumps these ones behind me are still below what it was in 2013 and | :22:13. | :22:15. | |
2014, but frankly I doubt that will be much comfort. The analysts are | :22:16. | :22:17. | |
forecasting more rises, further increases, the question is how much. | :22:18. | :22:20. | |
A lot of it will be down to a sterling performance and how much | :22:21. | :22:22. | |
they influence the likes of you and I have over that. | :22:23. | :22:23. | |
We will leave it there, thank you. After problems on the pitch | :22:24. | :22:25. | |
at the weekend - problems for Ulster Ulster's injury list | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
continues to grow. Director of rugby Les Kiss will have | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
to plan the next coupLe of games at least without star player Ruan | :22:32. | :22:34. | |
Pienaar. He's set to miss this Friday's Pro | :22:35. | :22:36. | |
12 game against the Scarlets and possibly the next two games | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
in Europe with a knee injury. Ulster have been stung by some heavy | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
criticism after last Today Luke Marshall responded | :22:44. | :22:45. | |
to those who question The comments about lack of effort | :22:46. | :23:04. | |
and hard and what not, obviously for any man to get all that is quite | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
demoralising. Those comments probably had quite a lot, but they | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
are motivating as well, so they are. You are going to get criticised | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
throughout your life, it is how you take the criticism. We are going to | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
take it on the chin and hopefully get better for it. | :23:22. | :23:23. | |
Irish internationals Paddy Jackson, Rory Best and Ian Henderson | :23:24. | :23:25. | |
are expected to be available for this Friday's game | :23:26. | :23:32. | |
while Ulster head coach Neil Doak is being linked with | :23:33. | :23:34. | |
The defending Pro 12 champions will lose coach pat Lam to Bristol | :23:35. | :23:38. | |
Today, Doak didn't rule himself out. | :23:39. | :23:41. | |
It is always nice to get your name in certain rolls, but I am here to | :23:42. | :23:49. | |
do a job with Ulster and we are focusing on Scarlets this weekend | :23:50. | :23:52. | |
and making sure that we can get four bonds this weekend. Is that a job | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
that would interest you if offered? You have got to keep options open. | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
But as I said, I am with Ulster here and we are trying to concentrate on | :24:05. | :24:05. | |
beating Scarlets this weekend. In local football league champions | :24:06. | :24:08. | |
and leaders Crusaders started They beat Ards 4-2 bouncing back | :24:09. | :24:10. | |
after a New Years Eve defeat Crusaders now haven't | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
lost two league matches Ards looks like because another shop | :24:15. | :24:31. | |
at the top of the table when they took a 2- goal lead over Crusaders. | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
Paul pulled one back before the break, and in the second half, it | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
was one-way traffic. Keitel grabbed the equaliser, and an own goal edged | :24:44. | :24:50. | |
the trees in front. McMillan was sent off for Ards late on for this | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
tangle with Andrew Mitchell. Before he duly sealed the three points for | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
the 17th goal of the season. -- before one player sealed the points. | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
At Windsor Park, George Allen is scored the only goal for Coleraine | :25:07. | :25:09. | |
as Linfield slipped to seven points behind the league champions and | :25:10. | :25:15. | |
Portadown were hammered 5-0 at Shamrock Park, a result of will war | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
manager described as embarrassing. It was scoreless at Solitude, | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
despite Cliftonville's best efforts against Carrick Rangers. | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
Dungannon swifts lost a late lead home to bowl the a large United. Did | :25:31. | :25:37. | |
Wilson had made it 2-1 before a -year-olds all wins in style in | :25:38. | :25:45. | |
stoppage time. And Glenn Aven scored three unanswered goals in the second | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
half to beat Ballymena United at the Showgrounds. My house scored a | :25:50. | :25:51. | |
hat-trick on a 4-3 win. -- my house. Finally, Blaenavon were docked one | :25:52. | :26:03. | |
weak pound and fined ?350 for fielding an ineligible pair against | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
Portadown, who were awarded a win. -- one point. | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
Plenty of clear blue skies today. On the downside, if chilly night as a | :26:14. | :26:19. | |
result. Those temperatures fall Whately to freezing and below. In | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
the countryside. We can expect some frosty conditions and possibly the | :26:25. | :26:27. | |
odd stretch of ice by tomorrow morning as well. And although it | :26:28. | :26:30. | |
will stay cold tomorrow, it is going to be done a fine day for the | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
outdoors. It will be mainly dry and there will be some sunshine. A | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
frosty start, but it should not take too long before that clears away | :26:38. | :26:48. | |
and we sunny gaps coming and going. By lunchtime, the sunshine will come | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
and go. It is not going to be clear blue sky all of the time but it will | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
be dry and the whims of daylight. Seven or 8 degrees for County Down, | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
further west maybe 7 degrees. Apart from parts of Connaught and maybe | :27:00. | :27:01. | |
edges South West Munster will be good if spots of wet weather, it is | :27:02. | :27:04. | |
a dry weather for us all. The winds coming from the side, temperatures | :27:05. | :27:06. | |
may be be named degrees. Into tomorrow evening, it stays dry at | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
least for another few hours but then the cloud begins to push on from the | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
West. With that, there will be some wet weather for the likes of Sir | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
Tyrone, Donegal and Derry. Patchy at first, but overnight we will have a | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
bigger bulk of rain coming in, some of which will be heavy. It stops it | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
from becoming too chilly. Temperatures tomorrow night, 45 | :27:27. | :27:29. | |
degrees, will upon on tonight. Misty, murky conditions behind the | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
rain the rain. -- four or 5 degrees. A cloudy day, with wet weather to | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
provide it, prepare yourself for on Friday. Little change over the | :27:41. | :27:43. | |
weekend. Miles, cloudy, dry up gaps but some rain. | :27:44. | :27:44. | |
I will be back at 10:30pm. of our local hospitals and | :27:45. | :27:51. | |
clinics... There's a very large team of people | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
needed to make this all work. ..following the people who dedicate | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
their lives to saving ours. | :28:00. | :28:04. |