NI Executive – Page 16 – Slugger O'Toole

Corporation tax powers huge test for Stormont

Brian Walker on November 20, 2014, 9:01 pm

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The word is out that the government will grant Stormont control over corporation tax when the Chancellor makes his Autumn Statement on 3 December. Peter Robinson is talking with the confidence of a done deal. David Cameron gave a broad hint this morning as he was grilled by all the select committees chairs in the Commons Liaison Committee this morning on his current thinking on more devolution powers. Laurence Robertson, the Conservative chair of the Northern Ireland committee. Q: What …

Barnett formula bonus won’t last

Brian Walker on November 18, 2014, 12:13 pm

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The present and future cuts may seem tough – and they are – but here I belatedly post the good news from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), s that they could be much worse, were it not for a” flaw “ in the Barnett formula for allocating the block grant. The calculations presented in this paper suggest that these flaws have resulted in Scotland receiving around £400 million more and Northern Ireland around £130 million more in funding this …

Breakthrough idea of a judge-led inquiry system to break the logjam of The Past

Brian Walker on November 17, 2014, 2:18 pm

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At last the judiciary has come forward with a creative approach to dealing with the past. A debate should begin urgently on how to adopt it in the Hart talks and beyond. The Lord Chef Justice sir Declan Morgan has suggested that legacy cases should be taken out of the inquest system” to be dealt with in “a time-bound inquiry“. It would be similar to the powers and procedures of the Historical Abuses Inquiry . He made his suggestions when …

Assembly reform needed but to enable rather than to block

Brian Walker on November 17, 2014, 12:04 pm

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Rick Wilford the recently retired professor of Politics at Queens, provides an analysis in the Belfast Telegraph of the deadlock in power sharing that is as bleak as it is authoritative. “That there is a case for reforming the Assembly and the Executive is irrefutable”… This was recognised by all parties at St Andrews, where they agreed to create an “institutional review committee” charged to examine the operational aspects of the Strand One institutions. This became the Assembly and Executive …

The phoney crisis over the Budget is an indictment of our politics

Brian Walker on November 5, 2014, 10:22 am

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The brinkmanship over the budget is over. The emptiness of a threat to return to Direct Rule has been exposed. Martin McGuinness’s attempts to create a late Hallowe’en scare over the prospects of what Direct Rule might mean in reality amounted to the agenda for future Executive action that still awaits – including water charges and perhaps some hike in university tuition charges for the many who can afford them. The parties belatedly bowed to the inevitable at a cost of an unnecessary …

Saving the Ulster Orchestra is by any standards, a priority

Brian Walker on October 16, 2014, 12:21 pm

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The modern trend in Orwellian-sounding government cultural policy is to head for the grass roots to look for new mainsprings of creativity. It has a variety of motives and aims. In GB, the policies of the DCMS and in Northern Ireland DCal and the priorities of various cash-strapped Arts Councils are also about investing in arts jobs and education to try to grow an economic sector and on the side, to boost “community cohesion.” All very good no doubt. There will always be arguments over …

Shirlow on the gap between slowly shifting attitudes and political positions

Brian Walker on October 13, 2014, 12:30 pm

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Peter Shirlow has to deal with politicians and so cannot afford to sound completely exasperated or polemical. Informed by his detailed work in the communities he discusses the perceived gap between public attitudes and the starker political positions in the Belfast Telegraph, in the light of the recent LucidTalk poll commissioned by the paper. I would only add that the gap between slowly shifting attitudes and the political choices available is not necessarily a contradiction. People vote for a bottom line because they …

Kicking the [financial] can down the road, again.

Pete Baker on October 9, 2014, 2:40 pm

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According to the BBC’s Mark Devenport, The Treasury has been asked to supply Stormont with a one-off loan of between £100m and £150m to ease its budgetary crisis, the BBC understands. According to the reports, the proposal was discussed with the UK Treasury by the NI First Minister, the DUP leader Peter Robinson, and the NI Finance Minister, the DUP’s Simon Hamilton. Whether that occurred before, or after, yesterday’s ‘special’ meeting of the NI Executive isn’t entirely clear. From the …

Is Stormont fit to take the gamble on a lower corporation tax?

Brian Walker on October 8, 2014, 11:25 am

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The economist James Stewart of Trinity College Dublin has revealed details of the extent of legal tax dodging (£) involved in the Republic’s tax much vaunted 12.5% business tax rate in the Financial Times He argues that the Republic’s government seems not be aware that a vast quantity of profits are not subject to corporation tax anywhere in the world because of “double Irish” tax strategies. This dodge means that two Irish companies, one of which makes sales to customers and pays …

Theresa Villiers: “It is in the interests of everyone affected… that a way forward is found towards a local resolution.”

Pete Baker on October 7, 2014, 2:54 pm

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As the BBC’s Mark Devenport reports, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, has proposed that a panel of “experts” be appointed with the objective of mediating “an agreed accommodation between local people in respect of Loyal Order parades in the Twaddell and Ardoyne areas of north Belfast”. The official NIO statement includes the terms of reference, key principles, and the proposed structure of the panel and its timescale. Terms of reference In order to mediate an agreed accommodation between local …

Drop the mawkish “peace process ” label and get down to grown up politics

Brian Walker on October 4, 2014, 12:36 pm

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In The Detail, Stephen McCaffery uses fine, straightforward reporting to bring home who are the real losers in failing to deal with the past exclusively on the basis of need. The Abercorn restaurant bomb was one of the early atrocities which stands as a permanent reproach to those who play party politics with dealing with the past today. That means all parties, those who argue over a hierarchy of victims, and all who demand full disclosure from others without offering …

If budget cannot be set, Executive will have to get on with Sinn Fein’s cuts…

Mick Fealty on October 2, 2014, 10:18 am

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Simon Hamilton on Radio Ulster this morning… “If we do overspend, which now looks likely, and not to the tune of a couple of million pounds but around £200 million possibly of a breach of our budget, the least worst consequence of that is the Treasury will take whatever much we overspend off our budget next year and, as everybody knows, our budget next year is already under incredible pressure, not least because we face a further £114 million worth …

Dealing with the past is – past

Brian Walker on October 1, 2014, 11:52 pm

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People may not have woken up to the fact that inquiries into Troubles cases have ground to a halt. This is said to be as a result of the financial pressures on the PSNI as disclosed by the Belfast Telegraph. The Historical Enquiries team has been wound up, the historical role of the Police Ombudsman which was once progressed with determination by Michael Maguire has ground to a halt and the chief coroner continues to fulminate impotently about delays. So much for the Haas …

Adams and McGuinness: hard cop, soft cop routine

Brian Walker on September 30, 2014, 2:44 pm

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What are we to make of this? Who calls the shots? Gerry Adams 24 September ( party leader but unelected in the jurisdiction he’s pronouncing on) Sinn Féin would be willing to allow the Northern Ireland Executive fall and new elections called if the parties cave in to the British government imposing budget cuts of up to 6 per cent, Gerry Adams has said.. The Executive must find £200 million (€256 million) of cuts, amounting to 4 per cent of departmental budgets …

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

Pete Baker on September 29, 2014, 11:13 pm

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A fairly desperate argument from lawyers for the Northern Ireland Planning Service in Belfast High Court today, during the judicial review of the planned £70million redevelopment of Casement Park in west Belfast. As the BBC reports The judge heard that DCAL have contributed £62.5m of the £77m cost of rebuilding the stadium as part of a project involving the development of Windsor Park football stadium and Ravenhill rugby ground. A Planning Service lawyer said that if the funds are not spent in time, …

Time to call Sinn Fein’s bluff over welfare

Brian Walker on September 29, 2014, 9:41 pm

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John Simpson, an economist who deserves to be trusted, dismissed the Great Welfare Crisis as essentially bogus months ago – yet his analysis seems to have failed to pass into political debate and comment from the Business pages. It might help if critics of Sinn Fein’s grandstanding spoke on the basis of an agreed analysis. OFFICIAL Treasury figures show that spending on welfare-related topics in Northern Ireland is still increasing and, significantly, will continue to increase in the immediate years ahead. That …

Labour Party: “Making no progress on welfare has financial implications. It is not a cost-free choice…”

Pete Baker on September 25, 2014, 2:31 pm

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As Mick mentioned, the repeated attempts to blame the fallout from the Northern Ireland Executive’s deadlock on Welfare Reform on “the right wing Tory/DUP austerity agenda“, or “the British Tory Government“, or, more frequently, “a cabinet of Tory millionaires“, have been dealt a blow by clarification of the Labour Party’s position by the Shadow NI Secretary of State at the party’s conference. From the Irish Times report (23 Sept) The disagreement, said [Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary Ivan Lewis], is “a denial” …

Has anything been happening while I’ve been away?

Brian Walker on September 20, 2014, 5:54 pm

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For the past few of months I’ve been buried in other projects, not least the Scottish referendum. So Northern Irish affairs are as inward looking and deadlocked as ever. Well I never! Paisley’s death passed off with little fuss amid the customary respect the Irish reserve with fingers crossed for the recently dead in contrast to the living. How amazing that at the funeral this most clerical and religious of politicians had no church service and no political salute. The elephant …

“to protect the Policing Board’s integrity…”

Pete Baker on September 17, 2014, 5:20 pm

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In the absence of any further explanation from Sinn Féin for Caitríona Ruane’s dramatic flouncing off the NI Policing Board selection panel to recruit a new PSNI Deputy Chief Constable on Monday, her party colleague on the Board, Gerry Kelly, MLA, has attempted to defend her actions. “If the process is wrong and particularly if the belief [is] that it is compromised, then there is a duty on that person to raise that and that’s what Caitríona Ruane did and I stand by …

Lord Chief Justice Morgan: “Our system of government depends on mutual respect between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary…”

Pete Baker on September 5, 2014, 4:02 pm

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The BBC reports that, after waiting 8 months for a reply, Northern Ireland’s most senior judge, Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan, has made public a letter of complaint he sent to the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers about comments made by a NI Executive Minister in the Assembly. From the published text of the letter in the BBC report Dear Peter and Martin RULE OF LAW Regretfully, I am writing to you about comments made by a Minister …