“a very predictable and boring discussion..”

Those end of term tensions surfaced at the last sitting of the Assembly on Tuesday when they were supposed to be discussing funding to primary schools. The following clip from Tuesday’s Stormont Today has some of the exchanges in that debate, notably Sinn Féin’s Barry McElduff’s somewhat unfair criticism of former Sports Minister Edwin Poots. The clip starts with Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson complaining about the “limited block grant” and the lack of “control of fiscal matters” by the Assembly. Although there’s no suggestion as to how Ms Anderson would use that control to produce a budget greater than that provided by the block grant.. And listen out for the “plastic parliament” comment [Does Martin know? – Ed].

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.