05/10/2016 BBC Newsline

David Ford is stepping down as leader of the Alliance party.

The South Antrim MLA is the party's longest serving leader,

Here's our political editor, Mark Devenport.

I hope you'll be voting for Alliance.

A social worker before he entered politics,

David Ford has represented South Antrim for 18 years.

For the past 15 years he's been the Alliance leader, and in 2010

he made history by becoming the first local Justice

12 years and two days ago the politicians of Northern Ireland,

the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach stood on the steps to record

a significant step forward in the peace process.

-- or not these steps. -- on these steps.

To date we have seen another significant step forward

in the police and political process as we see further entrenching

of the in situations agreed on Good Friday.

As minister he tackled the high cost of legal aid, and tried to reform

At times, the pressure seemed all too clear, such

as when he was asked if the Prison Service director

should resign after a highly critical report on Maghaberry jail.

I said two questions, that was three.

You were told I had time for two questions and I had to see

the Secretary of State, and I will not be resigning.

A high point came when Naomi Long became the first Alliance politician

to be elected as an MP in East Belfast.

But Mrs Long and other Alliance representatives suffered

intimidation, after the party voted to limit the number of days

the Union flag should fly over Belfast City Hall.

It was a high point to see the way my colleagues stood absolutely firm

by our principles. I think that shows the strength we have. We may

not have vast numbers compared to other parties, but we have a

cohesion and we work together. The 250 members of Alliance's ruling

council will meet in three weeks' Any of Mr Ford's seven MLA

colleagues is entitled to stand. That said, party insiders predict

that Naomi Long could be Mrs Long becomes acting leader

tomorrow when Mr Ford formally stands down,

and she is without doubt the clear A Londonderry man who blinded

himself after self-harming in Maghaberry prison says he misses

seeing the joy and happiness A prison ombudsman report found that

two prison officers stood and watched for over an hour

as Sean Lynch injured himself Two years on, he's still

extremely distressed Here's our North West

reporter, Keiron Tourish. Even a simple trip to the park can

present problems for Sean Lynch. Each day when I waken is a lot

tougher than it used to be. I used to be able to get up

in the morning and get dressed and get out on my bicycle and go

on a run, and since this happened at Maghaberry,

I can't get none of it done. From an early age Sean Lynch showed

enthusiasm for sport, and had a number of cross-channel sports

after his signature. But his life took a different turn

and he developed a history It was while in Maghaberry

prison that he blinded The prison ombudsman said

he inflicted extreme self-harm. They said CCTV cameras showed

Sean Lynch shouting in pain and banging his cell door,

but two officers watched His family say the way in which

authorities have reacted to the ombudsman's report caused great

anguish as well. There has been no apology. He lives from day to day

now. He lives in darkness everyday. What do you miss the most when you

hear your family's voices? I miss being able to sit

and have a one-to-one The head of the prison service,

Sue McAllister, defended her staff and said they had looked

after Sean Lynch in a caring and professional way,

and it should not be about a portion -- it should not be about

apportioning blame. In the face of the report compiled

by the ombudsman that is nonsense because several of her staff watched

for 67 minutes as Mr Lynch inflicts Sean Lynch knows his life will never

be the same again, but says he is determined to move on,

and he says he knows he can depend on the help,

love and support of his family. The Finance Minister has told

a Stormont committee he has no questions to answer regarding secret

communications between a former Sinn Fein MLA

and a loyalist blogger. Mairtin O Muilleoir was questioned

about the exchanges between Daithi McKay

and Jamie Bryson, ahead of Mr Bryson's appearance before

an inquiry into Nama. Mr O Muilleoir said those

questioning his conduct hadn't Mairtin O Muilleoir used to ask the

questions on this committee; today he was called to answer some. Let me

say first, right from the off I have no questions to answer for this. If

two men in the coffee room are talking about me, someone might say

I have questions to answer, but I have no questions to answer to them.

He sat on this committee with his party colleague Daithi McKay during

the last Assembly. Mr Mackay stood down as an MLA during the summer

when it was revealed he had been in contact with Loyalist blogger Jamie

Bryson. Daithi McKay has always insisted he knew nothing about this

communication. -- these communications. You weren't aware he

was in contact with Jamie Bryson? I think I've answered that one. Let's

go to question number three. Were you aware of the contact from

anybody else apart from Daithi McKay? Did you exchange any

electronic communication with Daithi McKay about Jamie Bryson in general?

I think I have answered that one as well. Very authoritatively. At times

during exchanges with the committee chair, patients seemed in short

supply. Are you having a conversation with the or are you

refusing to answer questions? I am trying to differentiate between

conversations we had... I have no involvement whatsoever with this

particular affair. Nothing. Whatever MLAs learned today, what is clear is

that we have not heard the end of the allegations which brought down

an MLA. The PSNI are currently considering whether or not a crime

has been committed, and an inquiry by the Assembly standards

commissioner is still to take place. It's been claimed that "no full

stop, no comma, no phrase" of the Good Friday Agreement

could prevent Northern Ireland The Attorney General John Larkin

made his comments during the second day of hearings for legal

challenges to the government's Two separate challenges

to Brexit have been brought - one by Raymond McCord,

whose son was murdered by the UVF; the other

by a cross-party group of MLAs. More than 37,000 people from the UK

have applied for an Irish passport Almost half of them have come

from Northern Ireland. BBC Newsline's Mark Simpson has been

looking at the numbers. The rush for Irish

passports began the day So many people wanted to pick

up an application form from a Post Office, that some

in Belfast had to put up notices So we knew there'd been an immediate

increase in applications. Today we got the figures

for the past three months. Across the UK, a total

of 37,306 people applied And that included more than 15,000

from Northern Ireland. That's a lot more than during

the same period last year; However, there is some evidence

that the real rush is now over, and applications

are now slowing down. Right, what about across the water,

in England, Scotland and Wales? Well, the total number

of UK applicants included That's a 97% rise on the same

period last year. And there seems to be no end

to the rush over there - month by month, the

numbers keep going up. According to the Times

newspaper last week, at least ten MPs or peers

at Westminster have applied for Irish passports

since the Brexit vote. That's the downside

of the new figures - We don't know exactly

who the 37,000 new applicants are. A ?35 million road scheme,

which will take 7,000 cars a day out of a busy regional

town, opens tomorrow. The A31 Magherafelt Bypass has

been completed several The new bypass runs through

four miles of countryside Work began last April,

and the finishing touches are still being applied

to what was a big project. We have during construction moved

500 -- 500,000 cubic metres of Earth. A lot of it was sourced

locally. And we have laid about 46,000 tonnes of road surfacing.

On BBC Newsline tomorrow we look at the cost of going to university.

This family in Garvagh is one of the many thousands who take

On the programme we hear more about that long term debt.

And Donna Traynor will be looking at the daily costs putting

The weather forecast now, with Angie Philips.

High pressure over Scandinavia continues to dominate, keeping those

weather fronts to the west of us and as a result mainly dry. So the

weather fronts have moved away, it was a much drier day today. The

white lines have been packing in, so the breeze picked up again and it is

going to be staying with us through the rest of the night. Quite cool,

temperatures dropping into single figures, seven or 8 degrees, and

later in the night we will get more cloud edging in. I think there is

going to be more cloud around generally tomorrow, but still fairly

dry. It could be quite dull and places tomorrow morning; elsewhere

across the Republic of Ireland and Britain, the emphasis on dry

weather. The best of any breaks of cloud -- the cloud thick enough in

parts of the East, particularly south east of England, to produce a

few showers, but otherwise the emphasis here also on a lot of dry

weather. Temperatures only in the mid teens. For the afternoon, we are

looking at a fair amount of cloud. Still drive though, and hopefully

the breeze will churn up the cloud to get the odd bright interval or

sunny interval. But feeling cool here as well. Risk of one or two

showers on Friday morning. Other than that, mainly dry, and the

breeze eases down for the weekend as well.

Our next BBC Newsline is at 6:25 in the morning during Breakfast

You can also keep updated with News Online.