05/01/2017 BBC Newsline

Good evening, the headlines on BBC Newsline:

Clearly talks to not ease the RHI crisis as the Finance Minister warns

about the Executive's future. If Arlene Foster does not stand aside,

there will not be an Executive, there will not be institutions.

A former DUP MLA says current members

We have had enough of this. We have had enough of not being heard from

the grassroots and we now need a party hierarchy to listen to us and

come out and speak out, because those that do not are culpable in

all of this. surgery from closure,

but could others still be at risk? I've been inside the emergency

department here at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast to talk

to the medical staff about how they cope with patients who have had an

excess of drink or drugs. One mother describes the vandals who

did this to some life-saving equipment as vandals. --

It'll tell you later in the programme.

the Finance Minister has said there will be no Executive unless Arlene

Foster sets aside temporarily as First Minister.

He was speaking after what were meant to be cleared the talks with

his Executive colleague, the DUP minister. He also described a DUP

plan to deal with the crisis as a sticking plaster. Our business

correspondent is at the Department of Finance. So, this plan to reduce

the overall spend 20, what did the Finance Minister makeover?

-- who zero. Last night, the DUP revealed it had a plan involving

emergency legislation and the possible recall of the Assembly, the

attention to totally wipe out a ?490 million projected RHI overspend.

Last night, the Finance Minister said he was sceptical. Today, he saw

the colour of the DUP 's money, he did not like it and totally

dismissed as planned, he said it was not a plan at all, it was an interim

measure, one, he said, which was full of hype and would be laughed

out of a called Assembly. He said it was nothing more than a sticking

plaster designed to see if the political skin -- save the political

skin of the First Minister. We met at the front meeting, but also

bitterly disappointing because they were left without a plan in my hand

and additionally on hold when the plan arrives, despite the Hague in

the media, it is not actually going to be a conference of plan to close

down RHI. It is going to be an interim solution, a sticking

plaster. In my view, this is not the time for a sticking plasters. What

assessment did he give of the crisis facing Stormont?

A pretty bleak one. This crisis shows no signs of easing whatsoever.

It is turning into a very long poker game of who will blink first. The

Finance Minister could not have been any clearer when I asked him what

about the future of the Executive, will there be a negotiator the way

out of this? He said, quite bluntly, the future of the Executive rests

with Arlene Foster. Be clear on this, if Arlene Foster does not step

aside, there will not be an Executive, they will not be

institutions for us to work to build, and all of the work, and some

of us have been working very hard to build the peace and institutions,

but they cannot exist if Arlene Foster continues to play fast and

loose with the rules and the DUP continued disrespect the

institutions and if corruption remains at the heart of what the

public deserve more, I think the DUP, for Alder Hey, understand that.

Can there be a fudge? Can there be a negotiated way out of this would

seize Arlene Foster remain as First Minister? No. He also has a budget

to deal with. Is this crisis overshadowing everything?

It has blown the budget completely out of the water. As you say, the

Finance Minister was meant to be preparing next financial year's

budget to present to the Assembly. The RHI crisis is completely

overshadowed it. I understand also that no ministerial dates are being

fixed in his diary beyond next week. That gives you a sense of what he

thinks might happen. He says the collapse of the Executive is not

inevitable, however his assessment is pretty bleak.

Thank you. Senior DUP figures have criticised

one of their former MLAs who says Arlene Foster's

handling of the RHI scheme David McIlveen, who was once a DUP

MLA in North Antrim, also says Mrs Foster is unlikely to lead

the party into the next election. His comments came

in today's Newsletter and were

repeated on Radio Ulster. Senior DUP figures say

Mr McIlveen does not represent

the views of the party. Here is our Political

Correspondent Stephen Walker. Once, they were political

team-mates, but now David McIlveen has split ranks and he told the

Newsletter Arlene Foster has misjudged the public mood over the

RHI scheme. He said the scandal has become a Omnishambles and claims she

will not lead the party into the next election. There is a deep

misunderstanding at the minute, within the party, around the

definition of humiliation and humility. And I think those two

words are being mixed up, in that there seems to be some feeling that

to show any form of contract this -- contrition around this issue is a

sense of humiliation. That is not what it is. That is not what people

want. People want humility, not evolution. But David McIlveen's

analysis is not shared by senior party figures. The groundswell of

support within the DUP is for Arlene Foster and indeed that she is not an

electoral liability, that she has been an electoral advantage to us on

the DUP strongly support Arlene Foster in a role as First Minister

and leader, and will get the absolute support in continuing to do

so. David McIlveen is not the first DUP member to criticise the party's

leadership. Last month, Johnathan Bell gave a dramatic interview to

Stephen Nolan, and today, a former DUP councillor appealed to

disgruntled party members to go public. They need now to come out

and if they feel that this is not going the way it should for

unionism, and it is not good for unionism, please come out and speak

out against it. Even internally, in their own party, say something.

Because to say nothing is going to get us nowhere. So, is the rating on

the wall for the DUP leader? There is much political pressure on Arlene

Foster, and today the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, wrote in the

Andersonstown news... Arlene Foster says she will not step

aside, but her political party has no consensus on what a fresh inquiry

into RHI would look like. So, the New Year has begun the way the old

one ended, with a story that every day brings fresh developments and

the political stalemate that shows little sign of ending.

Last night, we brought you the story of a Portadown GP surgery

that could close after its last remaining doctor resigned.

This evening, the Health Minister announced that a new contractor

has been found to take over the practice.

However, the doctors union, the BMA,

says surgeries across Northern Ireland

are struggling to recruit and retain GPs.

With three children and elderly relatives to help care for, Claire

McConville- Walker is a fairly regular visitor to her doctor 's

surgery in Portadown. This morning, she told me her fears that the

medical practice could close after it lost its last doctor. Pretty much

my whole family use the surgery and some are dependent on medication,

and they need a regular GP in order to be given that medication to make

sure that it is right. But I think a lot of it for peace of mind, to know

that there is a GP there who is knowledgeable of their conditions,

who knows them, who understands them. But this evening, some good

news for Claire and her family, and 5000 other patients. A new GP

contract provider has been found to take over Banview from early March.

But recruiting GPs, particularly in rural areas, is a growing problem

and in Northern Ireland- wide one. In County Antrim, the lone GP access

medical practice outside Glenarm is retiring. The health and Social Care

Act board says negotiations is still going to find a replacement. GP

practices are busier than ever and as the work load increases, it

becomes harder to attract younger doctors to train as GP. We have a

situation were particularly in the West End in the south, we do not

have enough doctors. We do not have enough GPs. So we are going to see

an awful lot of practices calls in the West, particularly in the manner

and Armagh. This will probably move forward to affect other counties

such as Tyrone in the future. -- particularly in County Fermanagh and

County Armagh. It will be rural areas and small towns will lose

their GP practice and who will be consolidating down on far fewer

sites. Last autumn, their health minister promised more funding for

GP services, including watering places for GPs. But it will be years

before those voters are ready to go and work in the communities. --

including more training places. That still leaves some practices in the

short-term facing an uncertain time ahead.

Also coming up: It is not everyday a World Cup

winning coach gets on the maiden city Flyer. We will be out what big

Phil Scolari got up to in County Kerry. -- in Londonderry.

From Christmas Eve to the 3rd of January,

more people attended emergency departments at our local hospitals

compared to the same period last year,

according to the Health and Social Care Board.

The pressure was most acute at Antrim Area Hospital,

In Belfast's Royal Victoria, 53 people waited for 12 hours.

Staff there believe the new assessment unit

in the emergency department has helped reduce waiting times.

People being admitted to wards has gone down by 1,500 in the past year.

However, like other hospitals, the Royal's emergency department

saw an increase in alcohol and drug related cases over Christmas.

Donna Traynor has been speaking to some of the medics.

Emergency departments in all of our hospitals across Northern Ireland

had more patients this Christmas than last Christmas. There was an

increase of 9%. Medical staff on the front line have had to deal with all

sorts of cases. Let's talk to some of that stuff. Brendan is a

consultant in emergency medicine. Brendan, drink and be merry, that is

normally the case at Christmas. What sort of difficulty did that bring to

your doorstep at a hospital? First of all, it has increased the number

of people coming into the Department with alcohol related drinks injury,

and that increases our workload. Some of these people are quite

aggressive, some people are just happy drunk. The aggressive drunk

demands of security and put from other staff and ties up a lot of

resources. How prevalent, this year, where patients coming in with opiate

overdoses? People have taken drugs? Well, the normal run of the mill we

would see about somewhere between 10-30% of our workload is to do with

alcohol-related injuries and drug overdoses and opiate overdoses. What

we have seen recently is an increase in opiate overdoses. Those patients

coming in with opiate overdoses tend to come through and emergency

ambulance. We meet them at the front door, some of them are in extremist

situations, where we have to take them into the resuscitation room and

provide life-support treasures. Taking a walk through your emergency

department here, I have seen quite a bit of categorisation, triage,

prioritising, is that a new system, and if so how does that help? What

it does is tell us whether or not we have to deal with eBay should

immediately or in ten minutes or within an hour, and we can let them

wait. -- whether we should deal with. Because of the radio what we

need to do immediately and over a period of time with the patient. --

it gives us an idea what we need to do. Nursing staff are certainly on

the front line. They have had to deal with a lot of patience, some

not very pleasant. Lindsay, your team works every single day. How

busy has Christmas been in particular for you? Christmas has

been a challenging time for our staff and emergency department, but

they are working tirelessly and really had to provide the best care

they can for their patients. Unfortunately, at 9010, we have a

consistent presence of security staff within the emergency

department. The reality is that some of our staff have been punched, they

have spat at and that is the reality of how challenging times can be for

staff in the emergency department. Is there a zero tolerance for that

sort of a fault or abuse of staff? We have a zero tolerance policy

however some situations can become very challenging, and unfortunately

patients and their relatives sometimes actually can become

violent towards staff. Again, we reliably on security presence within

the emergency department, as well as our colleagues in the police

service. Lindsay, thank you. Well, this is a busy emergency department

at the Royal Victoria Hospital, like other departments across Northern

Ireland. They are accepting patients every hour of every day throughout

the year, Christmas or no Christmas. Donna reporting.

who lost her teenage son and five-year-old brother

says those who're destroying life-saving

Local search and rescue organisations are also concerned

at the ongoing vandalism and have called for it to stop.

Here's our North-West reporter, Keiron Tourish.

Over recent months, there has been concern here about the level of

vandalism to life-saving equipment along the banks of the river. Local

search and rescue organisations say there were around a dozen life belt

installed, as well as several fuel lines, but now some of them have

either been burned or removed. Lorraine Loft two members of her

family in drowning tragedies. Her five-year-old brother Adie in 1972,

and on maybe 28th 2012, her 17-year-old son died in an accident

in a quarry in the town. She cannot understand why anybody would tamper

with such valuable equipment. These people that are doing this our

members and are not thinking. Now it is the start of the new year and in

the next five months, it will be even warmer weather. And... God

forbid somebody, you know, in the warm weather, what happened to my

son, the water is very appealing and God forbid somebody get into trouble

and, you know, they might need these and they will not be there.

Marketers' brother drowned in the river in nine months ago. He now his

title to help one of the local and rescue charities. -- he now gives up

his time. It was very upsetting for everybody, the family, every family

to go through something like this. You do not know how it hurts unless

you go through what we have went through and to see things like this

happening, it is just unacceptable. Those who have lost loved ones to

the river and the emergency services have stressed that this equipment is

vital, especially when people are in a vulnerable position. They have

urged those behind the vandalism to stop and stop immediately.

30 dogs were stopped from boarding ferries

as part of an operation to prevent puppy trafficking

The animals were turned back from ferries at Larne and Belfast.

Several investigations are now underway.

Some of the animals were voluntarily surrendered

Others were returned to the premises they had come from.

The local economy passed an important milestone in 2016 -

the number of people in work finally returned to pre-recession levels.

But why did it take so long and what does the future hold?

Our Economics and Business Editor John Campbell reports.

26 team got off to a grim start, as bombard here, our biggest

manufacturer employer, and instead was going to cut more than 1000

jobs. But away from headlines like this, the employment picture

continued to improve. One of the most important statistics in our

economy is the employment rate. It tells of the percentage of the adult

population in work. Back in the spring of 2007, the economy was

booming and the rate stood at a record 69.3%. Then, as the 2008

recession kicked in, the rate fell sharply, hitting a low of just over

64% in the summer of 2009. Our weak economic recovery means it has taken

a long, long time to claim back from that, but in the spring of 2016,

almost a decade on, we have finally passed the 2007 record as the rate

almost hit 70%. This person is one of those who entered the workforce

in 2016. He landed a job at the SSC arena, with the help of a project

run by business in the community and Include Youth. It is brilliant. Get

out and meet the public, serving customers, I enjoy that side of the

job. And also it is just grown my confidence and made me be more

outgoing. The recovery in the jobs market has had lots of real positive

human consequences. But the rate of job creation is now slowing right

down and there is even some evidence that male unemployment is starting

to rise again. So, 2016 may prove to be the high water mark when it comes

to jobs. He's a man more at home

in a packed football stadium than on an Ulsterbus, but,

this week, the former World-Cup-winning

Brazil manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was spotted

onboard the 212 service Big Phil, as he's affectionately

known, has been seen strolling around the two cities

in recent days. Posing for a picture with the man

who drove him from Londonderry to Belfast, Scolari was a bit of a stir

when those on board Monday's 212 servers realised a World Cup winning

coach was amongst them. One of the passengers as the former Brazil

manager for a bottle when they got off the bus together. It is

understand he was in Northern Ireland to visit his son, who is

studying at a local university. The former Portugal and Chelsea boss led

his nomination to glory in the 2002 World Cup. He is currently in charge

at most valuable football team in China, as well as the bus station he

was also spotted in Londonderry and at the Richmond shopping centre.

Whilst it is not clear if Excel has plans to return to Northern Ireland,

the users of the 212 service will be keeping a keen eye out for the World

Cup winning start. -- big Phil. Now sport, and Ulster

have rung the changes Les Kiss has named

a strong-looking Ulster side to face Scarlets away tomorrow

night in the Pro 12, to keep in touch with the play-off

spots in the table. The Ireland international quartet

of Rory Best, Paddy Jackson, Luke Marshall and Iain Henderson

all return, while Chris Henry

starts in the back row. Louis Ludik, seen here scoring

against Scarlets at the Kingspan earlier this season,

comes into the back three alongside Jacob Stockdale

and captain Andrew Trimble, with Charles Pietau

rested for this one. The game is live on BBC Two

tomorrow night from 7:30. the strength of Northern Ireland's

male golfers in recent years, with our three major winners,

McIlroy, McDowell and Clarke. But it could well be that

our next big star in the sport Olivia Mehaffey from Banbridge,

County Down, is currently ranked number three

in the World amateur rankings, Since September, she's been

a student at university in Arizona, but is already set on making it

as a professional. Aiming for the very top. But since

she began studying in the United States, Olivia has found it is a

tough route through academia to the professional ranks. It is pretty

intense. I mean, most of my days will start at 6am and I will not be

finished until 11pm. I will get up early, work-out, practice, go to

class, we might have team practice in the afternoon or qualifying for a

tournament, and then I will go to the library and do some studying. It

is a pretty long day. How difficult is it combining the studies and

golf? It sounds like a jam-packed schedule. It is really intense. We

are on the road and you have to do everything on the road, I mean, it

just makes you really prioritise your time. It is a good skill to

have, especially when you will be so busy on tour and it sets you up

really nicely to learn how to develop yourself as a person and

everything, before making that step. Currently the world number three in

the women's' amateur ranks, her next ambition is clear. I want to be

world number one ideally before going pro, it will guarantee a lot

of starts and it is something to care for and hopefully if I play

some good golf this year and will have a chance. And after she

finishes her degree in Arizona, a promising career on the LPGA tour

beckons. Certainly a talented young woman.

The 2017 Gaelic Football Season gets underway this weekend

It is a competition that has been dominated by Tyrone in recent

seasons, with Mickey Harte's side aiming to win the silverware

Traditionally, the McKenna cup provides an opportunity for young,

up-and-coming talent trying to break into established county panels ahead

of the league and championship. But there is also a new rule to contend

with the side rent. The Aussie rules still introduced for the coming

year. I would not be a fan of the mark, I think that is well known,

but it is what it is. It is in there now, we are going to have to live

with that. I do not think it will serve the published it has been

introduced for, increasing the incidence of high feeling. Ideal to

see how that can happen if you can catch the ball with your knees and

make a mark, but we have to play with it, it is part of the rules

now. McLean is in charge, having taken over of Terry Howland. Terry

has left me a positive situation. The work he has done in building

this team over the last few years has been class. We were not 1

million miles away from Tyrone in the championship last year. I am

going to work hard to try to develop what he has done and if I can add

one or two, we are going to have a good year's fun. And his remote

start with the home clash against the holders. -- his run will start.

Finally, the County Antrim Shield final

will be held at a neutral venue

after Linfield successfully appealed against a decision

the home ground of their opponents in the final, Crusaders.

A new venue and date will now be arranged by organisers.

Thank you. Let's have a look at the weather.

That is some picture by Jude night. Absolutely. A lot of cloud recently

but please keep sending your photograph in. As we make our way

through this evening and overnight, a lot of cloud rolls on. Patchy

rain, especially for Western areas, at first. It will turn drier for a

while but earlier on Friday, the next bulk of rain comes our way. No

frost tonight. Five or 6 degrees below is, well above last night.

Tomorrow, it will be a rather cloudy, overcast day. But it will be

milder than it should be for a time of year. Some windy conditions to

begin, outbreaks of rain. That will eventually clear away for the East

Coast. Behind it, grey, misty, murky conditions and the odd spot of light

rain or drizzle. A good deal of dry weather as well for the afternoon.

11, maybe 12 degrees, well above average for a time of year. If you

are travelling tomorrow, a lot of cloud, is similar picture almost

anywhere. Maybe the best of any glimpses towards the West.

Everywhere, temperatures above normal. Those winds coming in from

the South West will ease as we make our way through the day as well.

Into tomorrow evening, very little is going to change, with the

exception of the wet weather. That will give way to drier conditions

and it will be another amalgamate as we make our way overnight into

Saturday. Temperatures should settle at about six or maybe 7 degrees.

Temperatures we normally see bad at this time of year. As a result, that

really will be milder day. Temperatures likely to reach of

year. As a result, that really will be milder day. Temperatures likely

to reach nine the odd spot of light rain or drizzle but not a complete

wash-out. Good dry gaps to get out and enjoy under those winds will be

like coming from the south. A look ahead towards Fundy and next week,

very little will change. A lot of cloud, wet weather from to time but

dry gaps as well. It is not going to be a wash-out.

Good news, Barry. History is our adventure

through time. It's a ferocious,

heartbreaking story.