NI Executive – Page 15 – Slugger O'Toole

Calling All Politicos: Pick your fantasy NI Executive

David McCann on March 3, 2015, 12:06 am

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For most reading this blog this will be the type of transfers you’ll be interested in. For just a few minutes imagine you’re the First Minister and you get to choose an Executive. Choices must be from within the current Assembly and sure we will use the new departments, Department for Communities Department for the Economy Department of Education Department of Health Department for Infrastructure Department of Justice Department of Finance Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. My picks …

Northern Ireland Executive spending dribbles out without a clear narrative. Does anybody care?

Brian Walker on February 18, 2015, 12:51 pm

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Taking a break from the minutiae of party battle, let’s just see how we’re faring on policy – you know the stuff that politics is supposed to serve. The current results are mixed. Three points for more progress on school sharing between Protestant and Catholics. Why not go the whole hog and integrate them for heaven’s sake? One point for raising the idea of prescription charges – not because they’re necessarily a winner or would raise much revenue. But at least the …

“By standing firm against the London-Dublin Tory axis, Sinn Féin achieved a welfare system better than the one in Britain…”

Pete Baker on February 15, 2015, 6:46 pm

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According to Sinn Féin national chairperson Declan Kearney, [Don’t mention the Dark Side! – Ed] …Sinn Féin from 2011 onwards opposed the proposed welfare cuts and insisted welfare protection was absolutely fundamental for all citizens. “That is why Sinn Féin politically campaigned against welfare cuts alongside trade unions and grassroots communities. “This principle guided our strategy during the Stormont House negotiations and why, in December last, when the other four Executive parties agreed to a deal on welfare, Sinn Féin …

Signs of real politics emerging from Stormont House Agreement

Brian Walker on February 11, 2015, 12:13 pm

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Be grateful for small mercies. With less than a hundred days to go before the election, implementing the Stormont Hose Agreement has had the effect of postponing the worst kind of dog-eat -dog sectarian campaigning – so far. Sinn Fein like the rest of them have had to swallow the basics of the Welfare Bill in the interests of political reality. Syriza type resistance has collapsed. To ask a different question: are there any signs at all of left-right politics …

Well done SDLP for coming out of Sinn Fein’s shadow over the National Crime Agency

Brian Walker on February 4, 2015, 8:36 pm

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With less than a hundred days to go before the general election, the SDLP are to be congratulated for breaking free of Sinn Fein me-too-ism to vote in favour of terms which permit the National Crime Agency to operate fully in Northern Ireland. A clap on the back too for David Ford for bringing long negotiations to a successful outcome . To the outsider admittedly not in full command of the details, the final local accountability arrangements seem little different from what was …

Making haste slowly in dealing with the past

Brian Walker on February 3, 2015, 1:57 pm

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In the words of the old witticism, in dealing with the past there’s no Northern Ireland equivalent to the Spanish mañana that has quite the same sense of urgency, despite the £30 million earmarked for legacy issues by the Stormont House agreement. Or is that too bleak a view? Patricia Bell (67), is seeking to challenge the estimated 2025 target date for a Police Ombudsman report into the circumstances surrounding her father’s death. Patrick Murphy was shot dead on his 63rd …

At last our leaders are starting to take a realistic line to cope with cuts

Brian Walker on January 26, 2015, 6:14 pm

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Credit where credit’s due, while commending Bystander’s vigilance. Simon Hamilton cuts a competent figure as minister of finance, blowing the trumpet for the financial aspects of the Stormont House Agreement. This is what a finance minister is for, rather than sniping at colleagues. Meanwhile the Agreement has attracted the rare attention of the Economist which has a global reach and a strong private sector, fiscally conservative leaning … THE good news about Northern Ireland is that it now has normal problems… …

Proposals for reshaping NI Executive departments (12->9), but no word yet of any OFMdFM reform

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 21, 2015, 9:46 pm

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The Stormont House Agreement included the commitment: A reduction in the number of departments from twelve to nine should be made in time for the 2016 Assembly election, with the new allocation of departmental functions to be agreed by the parties. The BBC’s Gareth Gordon reports tonight on some early suggestions drawn up by the head of the NI Civil Service Malcolm McKibbin. Mr Robinson revealed to the assembly on Monday that a paper was presented to executive ministers last …

It’s the economy, stupid. Not a federal Ireland

Brian Walker on January 3, 2015, 8:53 pm

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In the Irish Times Paul Gillespie floats the idea that the North might benefit by a federal deal with the south. He invokes the useful hand played by the Republic in the recent Stormont House agreement. Certainly Charlie Flanagan waxed more eloquently than Theresa Villiers but that isn’t saying much. I discern a much bigger hand played by HM Treasury in setting the financial deal and in monitoring future Executive performance. This is surely appropriate as they put up such …

“The brinkmanship that seems inescapable on such occasions has become self-indulgent and self-important too”

Pete Baker on December 31, 2014, 3:57 pm

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The Guardian’s editorial on the Stormont House Agreement has some pertinent things to note about Northern Ireland’s latest deal. Although, if, as they claim, “the glass is half-full” it is also, by definition, half-empty. From the Guardian editorial The talks came very close, after 11 weeks of discussion, to falling apart, as earlier efforts under the chairmanship of Richard Haass had in fact done. It is good that the same did not happen this time. Yet there is precious little else …

The star of wonder shines through the Christmas Agreement

Brian Walker on December 23, 2014, 6:46 pm

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In Northern Ireland God seems to work in mysterious ways his wonders to perform at peak moments in the Christian calendar. Sixteen years after the Good Friday ( or Belfast ) Agreement, we have the Christmas ( or Stormont House) Agreement. Behind the details the main features are: Apparently genuine efforts by the parties to end deadlock by tackling it through a highly ambitious, comprehensive agenda . Against expectations, the dam seems to have broken. Regular monitoring of the conduct of the …

On Welfare and the Budget, reality for Stormont is acceptable

Brian Walker on December 20, 2014, 1:42 pm

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Only the rashest observer would claim that s/he has a complete understanding of the complexities of welfare payments and reform and the other details of the negotiations that are said to be reaching a climax. My feeling is that they are less about negotiations and more about accepting realities they can live with. On welfare and other public expenditure issues it hardly came as a surprise that most local politicians – and not only Sinn Fein – at first adopted …

Outsourcing solutions may be the secret of dealing with more than the past

Brian Walker on December 19, 2014, 4:42 pm

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Well, perhaps amid the encircling gloom the political parties have seen some light at last. The details of the agreement on welfare reform are awaited but it looks as if any new money will come from Westminster mainly to deal with the past which is surely fair. Adds: United Executive request for a total of £2.1 billion over 10 years. Quite a gap with David Cameron’s £1 billion extra borrowing.. but perhaps smoke and mirrors will narrow it once the welfare deal surfaces. Nothing from that …

Time for other parties to break Executive ranks as Sinn Fein sacrifices northern interests for southern ambitions

Brian Walker on December 18, 2014, 5:56 pm

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Following on from Mick, let’s begin by making the best possible case for Sinn Fein, the party which seems the most intransigent in the inter- party talks. The Conservatives’ strategy for the next five years to a produce budget surplus of £23 billion by 2019-20 is probably unsustainable, unless the rate of growth picks up dramatically. Why tamely accept it? By contrast Labour’s plan to balance only current expenditure would result in a continuing deficit of £25 billion over …

What Stormont must do to convince Cameron to up his offer

Brian Walker on December 17, 2014, 3:32 pm

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Are the political parties still hoping that David Cameron will turn into a White Knight and Save Ulster from Austerity? What does Stormont have to do to persuade him to answer their pleas to up his offer? Among the elements are: devising a proper three year plan for the first time so as the world can see how they’re spending mainly GB public money; and even more difficult, to hold out at least the prospect of following the Republic in …

Assembly reform without real change in political outlook means little

Brian Walker on December 16, 2014, 6:53 pm

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The reform ideas for the beleaguered Stormont Assembly disclosed by the BBC are well intentioned. but they’re the wrong treatment on the wrong diagnosis, as the disease is the failure of our politicians to work together effectively. Note that they’re being put forward by the British government five months ahead of the deadline of May set for the Assembly and Executive Review Committee to produce reform agreements. Westminster is at last showing a little initiative. On subject after subject – …

There Is No Alternative! (to Casement Park development plan) – Redux

Pete Baker on December 15, 2014, 4:30 pm

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Belfast High Court has ruled that the decision to grant planning permission for the controversial £70million redevelopment of Casement Park in west Belfast was “fundamentally flawed”. However, Mr Justice Horner did not quash the decision, and will take further submissions from lawyers for the Department of the Environment, the GAA and the residents group who mounted the legal challenge before ruling on what the alternative actually is. From the Irish Times report The overall bill for the redevelopment in west Belfast has now risen …

“that’s the trojan horse of the entire republican strategy…”

Pete Baker on November 25, 2014, 8:07 pm

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From his reported comments, it would appear that Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, the Northern Ireland Education Minister, has, at best, a flawed “understanding” of his party president’s comments last night – and, hence, a flawed “understanding” of his party’s entire strategy. From the UTV report Mr O’Dowd added that his understanding of Mr Adam’s ‘Trojan horse’ comment was that it was about overcoming bigotry, sectarianism and homophobia. He added: “There are very well fortified positions which people are protecting against …

Gerry Adams: “There is a clear need for more innovative and forward-looking politics…”

Pete Baker on November 23, 2014, 5:41 pm

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By which, the passive-aggressive Sinn Féin president actually means, the SDLP must join Sinn Féin in a sectarian electoral pact in “the next Westminster and Assembly elections”, and the year after that, and the year after that… because… themmuns! To paraphrase, if Sinn Féin can get away with treating all future Northern Ireland elections as a glorified pissing contest pseudo-referendum on ‘Irish Unity’, then we won’t be caught out distracted by actual politics in the north and we can focus all of our efforts and resources …

Devo Max with corporate tax cut ” disastrous” for NI

Brian Walker on November 21, 2014, 1:54 pm

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This powerful case against the SNP’s Devo Max plans including a 3% cut in corporation tax is made in the academic website The Conversation by Arthur Midwinter Associate Professor, Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research at University of Edinburgh and a former adviser to the former Labour leader in the Scottish Parliament Johann Lamont. It is difficult to see how “devo max” could be workable in the UK system. The aim should be to achieve maximum devolution and accountability while …