The local row over the UK’s new National Crime Agency (NCA) isn’t going away. But let’s try to address the issue in a less hysterical manner… Firstly, the body that the NCA needs to be compared with, in terms of the powers to be available to it here, is the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). From the BBC report 28 January. Many of the policing powers being given to the NCA have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, therefore it has …
As an Irish News report noted today, the Northern Ireland Audit Office has released a report examining “the delivery of £1,600 million in reported efficiency savings by Northern Ireland government departments between 2008 and 2011.” I don’t have time to delve into the detail in the report [pdf file 1.2mb], but here are the main findings noted in the associated press release. The measurement of departmental efficiencies It is important that all planned efficiency savings are capable of being measured. …
Strange – or maybe not so strange – that the overwhelmingly male Slugger blogosphere tends to prefer the sectarian dingdong to difficult social issues like abortion which the Assembly and the legal establishment between them actually affect. But if constitutional issues are your bag, there’s now something in the subject for you too. After the opening of the Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast under an actually progressive unionist Dawn Purvis, the Attorney General John Larkin weighed in with an offer to …
The Financial Times (£) carries a blunt warning from Bombardier, Northern Ireland’s largest employer, that it will lose its ability to invest in the province unless the end of regional aid at the behest of the EU is offset by a cut in corporation tax. This gets down to the bottom line after years of teasing on the subject. (Incidentally has any other news organisation bothered to report this? I can find nothing on line). The FT also reports: Long …
“The costs of division remain far too high”. Not a bad reason for wanting a shared society but not the best either. The new Secretary of State Theresa Villiers’ speech to the Conservative party conference was squeezed into a slot along with the other territorial cabinet ministers. Corporation tax had not actually been removed from the agenda and oh yes, there was Assembly reform. Good cause but is anybody actually interested? As politics in Northern Ireland move forward, it’s only …
So my first reaction when I saw today’s top story on Nuzhound was straightforward enough… When the Secretary of State says something like “plans to slash the number of our MLAs and create an opposition — could be included in a Bill set to go before Parliament” I think, well you have as much chance of doing that as the FM and DFM have of getting into 10 Downing Street these days… Except it’s a wee bit cleverer than that… …
As UTV reports, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, has launched a public consultation on measures which “could improve the operation of the Northern Ireland Assembly.” Including how the institutions could “evolve over time into a more normal system that incorporates a government and opposition”. From the introduction to the consultation document [pdf file] This consultation therefore highlights four key areas about which there has been debate in recent years in Northern Ireland. The current Parliamentary Boundary Review is …
The Northern Ireland Environment Minister, the SDLP’s Alex Attwood, may have a shortlist of potential National Parks – the Mournes, the Causeway Coast and Antrim Glens, and the Fermanagh Lakelands – but he doesn’t have the required legislation in place. As the BBC report notes The minister said he hopes to designate two of the three as National Parks. “Northern Ireland is the only part of these islands that does not have National Parks,” he said. “It is time to grasp …
With the announcement on Girdwood [and any other business? – Ed] as a stark example of the semi-detached polit-bureau back in action, Ed Curran looks ahead The mark of the Stormont Executive has been its ability to take longer than could be imagined to arrive at decisions on many important issues. No agreed legislation means little, or nothing, to debate in the Assembly chamber. MLAs have been hard-pressed to stretch out debates in plenary sessions in recent months. For much of the …
Conveniently, neither the Northern Ireland First or deputy First Ministers, nor either of their juniors, were available to the NI Assembly on Monday to answer Jim Allister’s pointed question on their continued confidence, or otherwise, in the “statutorily independent” NI Attorney General, John Larkin. [As open and transparent as possible! – Ed] There’s been no such reticence from others. The NI Finance Minister, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, has criticised the cost of the Attorney General’s contempt of court proceedings against the former Secretary of …
The Northern Ireland Assembly may have picked up the curio Mick noted, and agreed to set up a working group “to explore and pursue actively the potential for a cross-departmental approach to bring Lough Neagh back into public ownership.” But, as the Belfast Telegraph reports, they failed to inform the current owner, Lord Shaftesbury, of their intentions In a statement yesterday, the 12th earl, Nicholas Ashley-Cooper (left), revealed that the decision of the Assembly on Tuesday was “unexpected”. The Shaftesbury estate said it …
A couple of weeks ago the assembly had a debate on organ donation in Northern Ireland and discussed the option of presumed consent as a mechanism to increase organ donation rates. Edwin Poots called for a public debate on the issue. The issues in this are complex. Presumed consent may substantially increase the number of organs available for transplantation since although a majority of people state a willingness to donate their organs following death only a minority are registered donors. …
With potential European Commission fines still pending for the Northern Ireland Executive’s failure to protect a special habitat in Strangford Lough, another area of contention, environmentally, has opened up – with further potential EC fines. This time, it’s commercial salmon fishing. And the Department responsible for licensing the nets used is the NI Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL). On the 12 January the NI DCAL minister, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, publicly called for a voluntary moratorium on the taking of salmon. …
…and not at all another fudge to keep the Department of Justice upright while they re-apply the same sticking plaster as last time. And as TUV leader Jim Allister said, “The Committee, of course, will lend itself to that farce.” According to the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness Mr McGuinness said the office of the first and deputy first minister was committed to tackling “the size of the assembly and the number of departments”. “The whole issue of d’Hondt will …
The work of committees up at Stormont is a crucial part of the democratic jigsaw, many of them scrutinising the plans and work of Executive departments. On Tuesday I asked Alex Maskey about the role of committees in general, and then more specifically about the Social Development committee which he chairs. Alex Maskey explaining the role and work of @niassembly committees (mp3) After a couple of minutes of prelude looking at the context of the Assembly and Executive and the …
If the Vodafone network penetrating the stone-clad Parliament Buildings had made the leap from 2G to 3G, some of this might have been uploaded during the day! First off, should you want to go and watch your MLAs at work, getting into Parliament Buildings – where the Northern Ireland Assembly and its committees meet – is pretty straightforward. If you explain that you’re a visitor, you’ll be waved up the drive and directed to the visitors’ car park (which fills …
About eleven years old, visiting London for the first time, I queued up with my family and sat in the public gallery of the House of Commons and listened for a short time while a few MPs debated something unmemorable about foreign policy. Much closer to home, I’ve been to many events in the Long Gallery up at Parliament Buildings, sat inside the Assembly chamber while the McCrea/McElduff double act explained the finer details of life as an MLA, and …
Having been tasked by the Northern Ireland Assembly to review the initial ministerial provision for the Department of Justice and to “make recommendations relating to the provision that should exist from 1 May 2012”, the Assembly and Executive Review Committee failed to complete their task. From the AER Committee’s report 8. Following Committee discussion, a proposal was made, on the basis that there was no broad consensus on any of the options, that the Committee draft a Report that outlines …
As the BBC reports, yesterday in the Northern Ireland Assembly, by 44 votes to 41, MLAs called on the NI Justice Minister, Alliance Party leader David Ford, to “introduce legislation to impose mandatory minimum prison sentences for people who are found guilty of violent crimes against older or vulnerable people”. The motion was agreed despite opposition from the NI Justice Minister and a number of MLAs with legal backgrounds. The NI Justice Minister also pointed out that, “officials from my Department are in …
Yesterday’s Irish News carried an interesting report of the most recent proceedings of the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister. It seems that the NI First Minister, the DUP’s Peter Robinson, and the then-acting deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, are/were not happy. And they’ve written to the Assembly Speaker, William Hay, to tell him so. First, some background. Back in July 2010, OFMDFM published their “motherhood and apple pie” proposals for the long-awaited Programme for …
